The Aviation Historian — January 2018

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102 THE AVIATION HISTORIAN Issue No 22


good stead in the not-too-distant future. Janet’s
mother Leslie, inspired by her daughter, also
caught the flying bug and gained her PPL at
Denham aged 60.
In 1955 the Women’s Engineering Society
awarded Janet an Amy Johnson Memorial
Fund scholarship, worth £150, towards the
cost of an Assistant Flying Instructor’s Rating
(AFIR). Beginning the course in January 1956
flying Miles Magisters, she was awarded the
rating in April and started work instructing
at Denham. On becoming a fully-rated flying
instructor in February 1958, she then studied
for a Commercial Pilot’s Licence (CPL), which
was duly issued to her that July. Within days
she made her first ferry flight, as copilot to Capt
Peter Nock, ferrying Douglas DC-3 N9032H
from Trenton, New Jersey, to Tripoli, Libya. That
embryonic partnership with Nock would shape
the rest of her aviation career.


A taste for racing
September 1958 saw Janet leave Denham for
Elstree, to work as an instructor on Austers
and Chipmunks with the LSF, interspersed
with photographic trips with the author in the
aforementioned Austers. As an aside, during her
time instructing with the LSF Janet commuted to
Elstree in a Messerschmitt Kabinenroller bubble-


car. Designed by Fritz Fend, this tandem two-
seater with handlebar steering was a two-stroke
three- or four-wheeler resembling a hinged
cockpit on wheels.
Come 1959 and Janet had time to go air
racing. In July she took part in the Daily Mail’s
Blériot Anniversary Race, commemorating the
50th anniversary of the Frenchman’s historic
cross-Channel flight. A first prize of £5,000 was
offered for the fastest times achieved between
Marble Arch in London and the Arc de Triomphe
in Paris. Having limited finance, Janet cycled
from Marble Arch to Croydon Airport, crossed
the Channel to Beauvais, then Moisselles, in
Rollason Turbulent G-APTZ, and again resorted
to pedal power to reach the Arc, taking a
number of hours to do so. Compare that with

ABOVE Janet Ferguson and Denham Flying Club’s
chief flying instructor Derek “Wilbur” Wright in Miles
M.14A Hawk Trainer G-AFBS over the Thames in



  1. It was at Denham that Janet worked initially
    as a secretary, also helping with refuelling, as seen
    RIGHT in 1952, before becoming an assistant flying
    instructor, and ultimately fully-rated instructor.

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