Page 33 - Demo

31MOTORING MISADVENTURESA Winning HandIn our third term at Cranwell we were due to start part of our training known as \in the College Workshops and they were totally destroyed. But we had to %u201cPlay%u201d with tools and equipment. This was solved by our being %ussed\morning, lived in the Officers%u2019 Mess at Halton. A group of four Cadets sat at the back of the bus playing cards. One was in the middle of the back seat, two others were on the seats immediately in front and Pete Slawson was squatting in the aisle smoking his pipe and holding his cards in his left hand. The bus had to do an emergency stop. The laws of motion dictate that an object will continue in its speed or position unless acted upon by a force. Pete was not acted on by a force so he continued down the bus corridor at quite a rate. He was an ex-apprentice so was better dressed than most of us with a pair of leather-soled shoes. To this day I can remember the sight of Pete sliding down the bus corridor backwards.It is worth adding that the standard RAF bus had a hoop protecting the engine casing that protruded into the interior of the bus. Pete's heels caught in the hoop tripped him up backwards and he ended up sitting astride the engine casing. His pipe was still in his mouth and his cards still in his hands.The late Colin Pilcher