The Aviation Historian — January 2018

Issue No 22 THE AVIATION HISTORIAN 107

trip involving a refuelling stop at Luxor in Egypt
she remembered:
“Luxor delay factor — three hours from
landing to reaching a hotel at 0900hr, as the
refuellers made a nonsense of refuelling the
ferry tank, as is their wont, and there was a
new system of immigration which took far
longer than usual. Morning delay factor — the
taxi failed to turn up at the hotel at 0600hr and
when I found another and got to the airport,
the original driver appeared and demanded
payment for the non-ride. Endless arguments,
although he didn’t speak English, so we
continued in the tower where the controller
translated. Eventually he gave up with bad
grace, calling on Allah to strike my aircraft
down; I didn’t need this to be translated as his
gestures were self-evident. I replied ‘same to
you’, but without gestures, so it was probably
lost on him. I have since seen him, so my threat
was as effective as his.”
Political events would often dictate routes,
but several Scottish Aviation Bulldogs delivered
to the Lebanon in 1975 put their pilots closer to
danger than mere political re-routing. Janet was
having dinner in a hotel with friends when there
was an outbreak of gunfire just outside. With the
first shots most diners dived under the tables,
but one of Janet’s companions was as cool as a
cucumber. He simply turned to her and said:
“How do you like your steak cooked?”

Not all ports of call were so unfriendly. Janet

made nearly 50 deliveries to Australia and at one

stop in the East Indies was always greeted by a

young local official — which she dubbed “the

dreaded Ahmed”— with the words, “Why aren’t

you married?” and “Can you get me a sweater

from Marks & Spencer?” Over time Ahmed

might have acquired a wardrobe full of M&S

sweaters. And clearly he did not recognise that

Janet was married — to flying.

The last ferry flight

When Peter Nock retired in 1986 Janet continued

on her own, specialising in Islanders, light Pipers

and Cessnas and generally sticking to types with

which she was acquainted. But by the mid-1990s

her ferrying work had begun to slacken. Even

the number of Islander ferry flights began to

dwindle when Britten-Norman began making

its own deliveries.

Already a winner of the Royal Aero Club’s

Silver Medal, she found her name put forward

for the 2002 Royal Aero Club Gold Medal, which

had been awarded to Sheila Scott in 1972. Both

ABOVE Another day in the office — a typical view

from the cockpit of a Britten-Norman Islander, on this

occasion while en route from Whitehorse in Canada’s

Yukon to Anchorage, Alaska, in 1977. Continuing

the Norman connection, Janet ferried the Norman

Aeroplane Company’s first production NAC-6 Field-

master from Cardiff to Singapore in January 1988.