Not so for me when l flew across the English Channel to Le Touquet for a French birthday lunch. The planned fun was to fly in an old war plane but who ever was flying that noisy ‘Fokker’ hadn’t a clue. Taken aback by gaping holes in the dilapidated, badly patched interior, as we took our wonky seats, all 8 of us collectively muttered we’d made a decision we were now regretting, and l normally love the feeling off take off in a commercial plane.

Uh oh – here we go.
Swooping in too low over the roof scape of the town, l felt sure we’d bounce off a chimney stack but worse still on the way back, flying blind, lost in low cloud, the flight time of 15 minutes went on and on reaching a very long 30, still with no sign of our destination.

Seeing everyone’s panic rising, fraught expressions of hopelessness, and my soulmate praying beside me, l had to point out that l could see the setting sun flittering through the cloud to the right instead of the left. This meant we were heading south over France instead of back to England. Not even MY sense of humour could muster any quotes from ‘Allo ‘Allo.’

Unbeknown to the young pilot, with his huge paper map spread out over the controls, he had flown us in a circle.

Thanks to a joint effort from all 8 passengers offering suggestions, we eventually made it home without colliding with anything else or the ground. And strangely we never spoke of it again .
Thanks for reminding me GA ?? and for being so brave.

And Tony, thanks for sharing your own happy romantic memories of those 21s. ?

GA, you are a gem.

One of the best things about flying is looking down at a living map and recognising the buildings from above. However this experience usually doesn’t last long when you are in a commercial flight going high up above the clouds. But I remember the excitement I felt when flying to St Petersburg and seeing the Gulf of Sweden below which looked exactly like the shape so familiar from my old school atlas!