the first assignment was a delivery to Bern/Switzerland.
so i took my fellow BAe 146QT and went from Frankfurt/Main to Bern. the weather there wasn't very good (okay,it was f*****' bad - first a cloud layer,then a fog layer...argh!) and i needed two tries to get that baby down onto the quite short runway...
after i parked her and shut her down, i recieved a call from my boss - no further assignments,stay in bern and wait until there are new instructions. when i just wanted to leave for a visit to the city, i saw an old man standing in fornt of a hangar an staring quite melancholically at an old airplane. i asked him ,what his problem was and her replied that his good old norseman stands around in the hangar instead of being flown. he was too old for flying her and those young people are just interested in those "stupid flying hairdryers". i asked him if i could borrow the norseman for some hours or days (depending on the time i'm off duty). he said: "yes ,but there's one condition: show me that you can fly this baby!"
so i took that old norseman up into the evening sky ,the old man sat next to me ,watched my flying and gave me some helpful hints on flying her.
we practiced some touch and go's and when we wanted to land ,i had to descend quite steeply in order to catch the right "glide slope".
but instead of shouting at me for this quite rude treatment of his fellow norseman, the old man was just enthusiastic: "like the good ol' times!"
i actually wanted to land on the real runway,but the old guy just said: "concrete?! nah..like the good ol' times!" and pointed in the direction of a grass strip next to the runway.
so i headed for the grass...
...and performed a perfect landing.
as we taxied to the parking,we watched a Dash 8 which landed shortly after us.
after i shut the norseman down,the old man said: "you know how to fly this baby,take it for a ride,whenever you want. but i won't come with you,i'm just too old for this. and the way you're flying would give me a heart-attack."
both of us began to laugh and we spent the rest of the evening in a bar, talking about "the good ol' times".
