Page 198 - Demo

194That August I flew more in Bulldogs and light aircraft than in JPs but I did have a good trip in a Hawk with one of the Advanced Squadron pilots. However, while I was testing pilots on the Bulldog, I was much happier in the JP. One day when visiting the Bulldog Squadron I saw a notice asking for 4 pilots to go out to Zimbabwe to train pilots to be QFIs on the Siai Marchetti SF 260. This had the same engine as the Bulldog and I thought that flying it would give me more single piston experience. It turned out that none of the Bulldog Squadron people wanted to go. When I got back to our office I mentioned it to Steve Orwell and we both thought it might be fun. Some examiners kept their flying to the various tests and their own SCT, and if nothing was scheduled in the afternoon, they would have beer at lunch time. Steve and Ikept ourselves available all day and so could offer our services to the Squadrons in the afternoon, either to pick up a test or even fly an instructional sortie to keep our hands in. We enjoyed our flying. We went to Pete Dummer, our Squadron Commander and he agreed to put our names forward. In the end it turned out that the Zimbabwe Air force could not afford the air fares to swop the 2 instructors over and so we went out for 3 months. Actually, that was good as they had wanted us to teach in ground school for the first month. I talked it over with Gabby and she was happy for me to go and so early is September, Steve and I flew out to Harari to be loaned to the Zimbabwe Air Force.Chapter 20At that stage we did not know what the SF 260 (they called it a Genet) looked like and had no idea what to expect. We came under the authority of the British Military Advisory and Training Team, BMATT. This was all army except for us. They were trying to form an army from the old Rhodesian Army, Zanu and Zapu guerrilla fighters. Apart from letting us have a car from time to time and the odd visit from some staff officer, they had nothing to do with us. In fact, I do not think that they L