Page 301 - Demo

297while still violently shivering. The Americans now knew that we were mad.We finished the trip with a visit to the Smithsonian Museum in Washington which was very interesting and then we were flown home. Miraculously Serge%u2019s passport was waiting for him at the airport. Serge left us shortly after this trip and asked if he could do a low-level flight around the Western side of Scotland as his final trip. I went with him,and I think we went high level to our drop in point and flew low level all around that area before pulling out and landing at Edinburgh to refuel. That trip lasted 2 hours 20 minutes and we then flew another 1-hoursortie to get home. I liked Serge although his English was not very good and nor was his wife%u2019s. His daughter was 8 when they arrived and could speak no English. His son was a bit older but by the time they went home 3 years later, you would have thought that they were born and bred in Yorkshire. The children used to translate for their parents when required. I am still in touch with them.Chapter 27Once we were home, the flying rate increased somewhat and we even got a few days in West Freugh, presumably because of bad weather at Linton. One of the nice things about the Tucano was that it was fitted with a TACAN navigation aid. A TACAN beacon was positioned at Linton and so we always knew our range and bearing from Linton which was a big help. It was also easier to fly in formation and so we started flying 9 ship formations. This was fun and we would do an opposition break when we returned home. One aircraft from each side of the diamond nine broke to their side of the circuit and this continuedthrough the formation at a couple of seconds interval, until we were all downwind with half the formation on either side of the airfield. You then turned finals to land. It was important to see the aircraft ahead that