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216Anyway, back to 1982, for the rest of that year, most of the flying was listening to instructors teaching me various exercises and then some general handling. The only thing of note was practising and then carrying out a flypast for Her Majesty the Queen when she opened the Leeds Art Gallery. I was the whip so just had to get the chaps into position and then break away before they got too close to the flypast stand. ChurchFenton had a number of Polish Honorary mess members. A Polish squadron had been based at Church Fenton during the war and many of them had settled in the area afterwards. Each RAF station had a Battle of Britain cocktail party in September and this group of Poles were invited with their wives. The Station Commander Gp Capt Briggs, told me that I would be hosting them and that I would enjoy it. When they came, they all knew more of the guests than I did and introduced Gabby and me to them. It was all very enjoyable and informative. At the end of the function, there was probably a fly past and then the guests would be escorted away. After a bit the bar would open for the Station Officers and we would have a party. However, the Poles declined to leave and continued to host us! They had bottles of Polish Vodka which they shared with us and we stayed for some time. How we got home I have no idea.I was enjoying my time at Church Fenton but was still undecided as to what to do with my life. I had an option to leave in 1985. It would have been a bit earlier but I had to do 3 years as a Squadron Leader. I could stay in on the General List but as I had been promoted late I had no hope of reaching a much higher rank and was not sure I wanted to anyway. I had got quite negative about remaining in the RAF and certainly considered becoming an airline pilot. However, there were not so many jobs about and it would mean chasing the ones that were. Gabby and I wanted the children at home and so that would be a real problem with their schooling. I thought about leaving flying altogether and going into teaching. To that end I started an Open University course which would