104 THE AVIATION HISTORIAN Issue No 22
accident owing to an engine failure on take-off.
Eventually he returned to operations, flying 50
sorties with Mosquito-equipped No 139 Sqn.
After the war he obtained a “B” licence and,
between demob in 1946 and meeting Janet in
1958, had worked for a charter company in
Liverpool flying Bristol Wayfarers, taken part
in the Berlin Airlift, ferried ex-military and
other aircraft overseas, and then founded West
London Air Charter Ltd (WLACL).
Nock took Janet on; it was to be the beginning
of a 32-year working relationship during which
he would come to refer to her as “our chief
pilot”. Janet’s work with WLACL really took
off in September 1964, when she ferried de
Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver N7904C from
Charleroi, Belgium, to Tripoli, returning with
Beaver N9934F. Ferrying jobs quickly built up
and although consisting mostly of light singles,
she sometimes flew second pilot (P2) to Nock
on Hawker Siddeley 125 shuttles. Rather than
go into travelogue mode, what follows are brief
details of just some of the ferry flights that were
typical of those she undertook.
In the summer of 1965 four Piper Pawnee
agricutural aircraft needed to be ferried in pairs
from Piper International in Geneva to Iraq.
Although Janet had never previously flown a
Pawnee, in the company of another she ferried
N7270Z and N7271Z to Baghdad. Filling the
hoppers with fuel extended the Pawnee’s range,
but flights were strictly visual flight rules (VFR)
owing to a lack of vital instrumentation — not
even a turn-and-slip indicator. After their arrival
the two pilots were asked to fly their aircraft
on to Abu Ghraib, a 300yd strip about 15 miles
(25km) from Baghdad, from which the Pawnees
were to operate.
Peter Nock asked Janet to accompany him on a
delivery flight of two Bristol 170s, ZK-CPU and
ZK-CQD, from Lydd in Kent to New Zealand
in the summer of 1966. They had been sold by
Silver City to Straits Air Freight Express (SAFE).
The route was one that, with variations, would
become very familiar to her in the years to come.
In the spring of the following year Janet was
checked out on the twin-engined Beagle 206,
passing her day and night type-rating tests
with Beagle’s chief test pilot, “Pee Wee” Judge.
In June she set off for Australia in Beagle 206
G-AVAN with the Flying Doctor Services’ chief
pilot, Vic Cover, who had also been completing
a course on type with Beagle and was on his
way home. The following month Janet’s second
Beagle 206 ferry trip was in G-AVCH, her first
“solo” to Australia, followed swiftly by another,
in G-ATZR, picked up in Bahrain.
Between ferrying she took on whatever other
jobs were available, including aero-survey
work with Kemps Aerial Surveys in Ansons
G-AGWE, G-AHIC, G-AHKX and G-AHYNBELOW & INSET In 1961 Janet moved to the USA and the following year participated in the All-
Woman Transcontinental Air Race (aka “Powder Puff Derby”) in Aeronca 7EC Champion N7479B.
Janet also joined the Ninety Nines, the international organisation for women pilots, helping to
establish a UK branch which included Diana Barnato Walker, Sheila Scott, Joan Hughes, Betty
Cones, Yvonne Pope, Elizabeth Overbury, Beryl Sanders and Freydis Sharland.