Angus, brave but rather muddled.

Angus was unsure of his actions; runway behind you is wasted, limited runway ahead is ……..well, it’s short. His flaps were down, undercarriage was non-existent due to the flak over Bremen; which in itself was odd as they were aiming for the Ruhr. His crew had bailed out when “Sparks” the radio operator started blubbing about the burns to the new silk liners in his flying suit. Pity really, they were still over Belgium. That’s when he realised the Navigator, “Piggy Wilton” had made a huge error - they should have been over the Mersey, after all this was 2021 and their first solo training flight as a crew. Odd that…….why were the Germans throwing flak at them? This might be cause for concern. 

When I trained at Middle Wallop the runway lights for night training were gooseneck paraffin burners. They were akin to Taliban IEDs but put there by your own side. Nice to know your aircraft fire would be neat and clean. They did help keep you away from the edges; there was a weird sense of sinking as you came close to the grass. The world suddenly became dark and rose around the aircraft. That’s usually when I opened my eyes. 

I loved night flying. Really, it’s relaxing yet demanding.