| In 1934, my father's commission in the RAF ended, and | | | | Next day they carried on to Paris where they |
| he joined the Bristol & Wessex Flying Club at | | | | nightstopped due to oil trouble. Next day they tried to |
| Whitchurch as an instructor having been a flying | | | | fly on to Lyon but halfway there were forced to land |
| instructor in the RAF. His first pupil was Lady Blanche | | | | in a field near what they later discovered to be |
| Douglas, the sister of the Duke of Beaufort and the | | | | Paray-Le-Monial. They were very close to the airfield |
| widow of the late George Scott-Douglas. She wanted | | | | there and they then took off again at tree top height |
| to learn to fly so she could fly to India in a new Miles | | | | and eventually found the airfield after the Guardian had |
| Hawk Major she was in the process of buying and | | | | lit a beacon on the ground. |
| wanted my father, Micky, to be her co-pilot. | | | | After waiting there for an hour or two, they continued |
| She thought flying would be cheaper than hunting. She | | | | on to Lyon where the weather was better and then |
| was the guardian of the son of the Maharajah of | | | | on to Marseilles having flown over the clouds and the |
| Cooch-Behar who was attending public school in UK | | | | mountains. However my father got a frost bitten face. |
| and wanted to take up an invitation to visit his father. | | | | They left Marseilles next morning, refuelled at Nice and |
| The intention was to follow the route of the 1934 | | | | then crossed to Corsica and flew along the rocky |
| Australia race as far as Calcutta as fuel had been | | | | coast and then to Sardinia to Elmos, a distance of 147 |
| provided by Shell. | | | | miles, whilst bitterly cold. |
| By now, Lady Blanche had taken delivery of a Miles | | | | There they found it warm and then crossed to Tunis, |
| M.2F Hawk Major as new, registration number | | | | then onto Cairo, following the North African coast. |
| G-ACWY, on 4th September 1934 which she owned | | | | Here they spent a couple of days sightseeing and |
| until 27th March 1942. She kept the aeroplane at her | | | | seeing the pyramids at Giza. |
| home address - Manor Farm, Sherston, Wilts although | | | | Then on through Palestine, and onto the Rutbah Wells |
| it was maintained at Whitchurch by the Club. | | | | following the Trans Arabian pipeline to Baghdad and |
| Apparently she had her own landing strip in one of her | | | | then to Basra and Bushire. |
| fields and did not use the larger grass runway to the | | | | While climbing from Bushire and about 60 miles south |
| west of Badminton Hall on the Duke of Beaufort's land. | | | | of Bushire, Lady Blanche reported via the voice tube |
| This latter landing strip now has a system of landing | | | | that oil was spurting into the front cockpit. Oil pressure |
| lights and can handle fairly sophisticated twin engine | | | | was going down and Micky advised that they climb |
| aeroplanes, either belonging to local landowners or | | | | higher to 8000 feet but eventually Micky had to switch |
| used to fly members of the Royal Family on visits to | | | | the engine off otherwise it would seize. |
| the Duke of Beaufort. | | | | They had hoped to be able to glide to the next place |
| They set off with moderate visibility from Bristol on | | | | but that was not to be. Micky started looking for a |
| November 20th at 8am and crossed the Channel via | | | | forced landing site and within a few minutes had found |
| Lympne. There they flew into mist and were forced to | | | | a perfect landing site and did a perfect landing. Here |
| land at St Englevert, north of Boulogne. After 2 hours, | | | | they were somewhere between Bushire and Bandar |
| they carried on to Abbeville where they were forced | | | | Abbas in what is now Iran marooned........ |
| to stop as the route to Paris was fogbound. | | | | |