108 THE AVIATION HISTORIAN Issue No 22
medals are awarded annually for outstanding
achievement in aviation. Unfortunately, Janet’s
nomination came to naught.
Sadly, Janet’s flying career did not end as she
would have wished. In February 1996 she set
off from Stansted for the USA to deliver her
130th Islander/Defender, a 15-year-old machine
registered N904WA. After a trip fraught with
weather delays, Janet finally departed the en
route stop of Reykjavik on Sunday, March 17. In
a letter dated June 8 that year, Janet wrote:
“I’ve now decided to call it a day after a
disastrous attempt at a ferry flight from the UK
to the USA [in] a second-hand Islander from
Stansted (ex-Nigeria) for Wisconsin. A not-very-
well-ordered company at Stansted gave me
wrong info re the weight of the aircraft, and it
turned out to be critical to say the least. No de-
icing as usual, so flew VFR so as not to get any
ice. Weather delays all the way to Iceland, then
two weeks awaiting safe weather for Greenland.
“Eventually set forth, but collapsed in a heap
half an hour later when one engine had lost a
fair chunk of power and [the Islander] wasn’t
about to stay up on one. Very luckily I was over
open ground and not the sea or the city. But the
field I ended up in was very rough and ridged,
and the aircraft was a write-off.
“I was knocked out and came to in the
ambulance going to Keflavik. I was taken to
Reykjavik Hospital and was there for five days
with four fractured ribs, a bruised and swollen
upper leg and a bruise on my forehead where I
was knocked out. Five more days were spent in
the airport hotel before a final X-ray at hospital
and I was given the OK to go home. I was
extremely lucky to get away with it. I’d probably
have had to stop in a year or two anyway”.
Post-crash inspection revealed a problem with
the engine-driven fuel pump, which could also
have caused a restriction in fuel supplied by
the electric booster pump. The fault must have
been slow to develop as it was traced back to an
incorrect pump assembly in Nigeria earlier in
the aircraft’s history. It is also on record that the
aircraft left Reykjavik 297kg (655lb) in excess of
the maximum permitted take-off weight.Hanging up the headset
That 23min flight was to be her last as a pilot.
At the age of 68, Janet decided to hang up her
headset, in case her guardian angel had already
retired! Soon after this incident she began to
show signs of Alzheimer’s, the disease which
ultimately led to her going into care. Janet died
on Easter Saturday, April 7, 2007.
I attended Janet’s funeral at the church of St
Mary Magdalene in the Dorset village of Loders,
a stone’s throw from the cottage she shared with
her sister. It was a perfect flying day and during
the period of silence for reflection my thoughts
drifted back to the flights we shared in the early
1960s, often sitting together cramped in an
Auster’s cockpit, putting up with engine noise,
draughts and general discomfort. Most of all, I
remembered being as happy as a sandboy.
What a woman indeed!LEFT Janet ferried numerous Islanders and examples
of its military variant, the Defender, during her flying
career. Here she finds time for a quick photograph
while preparing to deliver Defender G-BIUC from
Fairoaks to Gaberone in Botswana. On arrival, the
aircraft would be given the serial OA-6 and be handed
over to the Botswana Defence Force Air Wing.ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors gratefully
acknowledge the help of Janet’s sister, the late Pauline
Ferguson, Sarah Nock, Peter’s widow, Muriel Tucker
and Ray Hankin, with the preparation of this articleTAH“I eventually set forth,
but collapsed in a heap
half an hour later when
one engine had lost a fair
chunk of power and the
Islander wasn’t about to
stay up on one. Luckily I
was over open ground and
not the sea or the city.. .”