Page 11 - Demo

19to carry a certain amount of camping equipment which added to the weight. At some point we abandoned this equipment and accepted the penalty time faults for doing so. At that time, the flight safety symbol was a crow. We had crows painted on the hulls of the canoe which were a reflection of the crew inside. Our Crow was a very scruffy one with feathers flying off. During the race people on the bank would tell us how much further ahead the other canoes in our team were which made it rather fun. We were a long way back of course. We did several practice weekends, and I remember staying in the mess at Hullavingdon which was where they used to pack parachutes at one time. We also did an all-night paddle in the swimming pool at Cranwell. We tied the canoes to the end of the pool with bungee cords and when we got really bored, we would put on a spurt and break the bungee. We had a Corporal PTI to watch over us and he was trying to get a maths O level so he could go for a commission. When not canoeing we would help him with that. He eventually got commissioned and ended up as a Squadron Leader, I think. Alan and I finished the race, but it took just under 43 hours. Still, we were not last. At one point we found an unlocked boat on the Thames and went and slept in it for a few hours. The whole thing was very arduous, but it got us out of a couple of Church Parades which I think was the main aim of it all.The JP was a great little aircraft. We had Mk3s and Mk4s. I started on the Mk4 but once we had gone solo you might fly either. The Mk 4 was quite a bit more powerful than the Mk3, but the cockpit was identical. Indeed, the only visual difference was that the Mk4 had a longer pitot tube. Sometimes when you walked out you were not sure which mark you were going to fly and as the engines had different operating limits that could be a problem. My instructor was Pete Jones. He was a %u201ccreamie%u201d which meant that once he qualified as a pilot, he was sent to the Central Flying School (CFS) and came straight back as an instructor. As a student at Cranwell himself he had ejected from a Jet Provost