Vip Protocol Stopped by One Army Jawan

The brand new Boeing 727 Advanced was powered by a variant of the three Pratt & Whitney JT8D engines for better performance at high altitude airfields. It was equipped with dual Litton INS (inertial navigation systems) and the latest Collins flight director approach guidance system. It also had a reserve fuel tank to increase its range. In first class there were eight facing arm chairs upholstered in elephant skin which were separated by two coffee tables. Down the back were 75 economy seats to accommodate the armed guards.

The president of the country made it clear that he wanted an all British flight crew. At the time there were only two British pilots in the country. I had an Australian passport and an FAA flight engineer's licence in addition to my airline transport pilot's licence, so my name was put forward as a compromise solution. It was accepted so a British Australian flight crew was contracted to fly the V.I.P. 727. Our principal duties consisted of flying the president and his entourage to meetings with Arab leaders throughout the Middle East and North Africa. The contract did involve some limited line flying but we were excluded from the annual Haj flights.

It was a pretty easy job with not much flying involved. Accomodation was 5 star with the authority to charge just about anything to the room bill including international phone calls. The job came with the usual gold watches and cash handouts. We were the envy of the line pilots who were doing there 75+ hours of scheduled airline flying around the Middle East with very few layovers outside the country.

I shared an apartment with the captain, Ray Rendall, who had a great sense of humour. I remember telling him that while I was a corporate pilot in Europe, I had flown a light twin engine aircraft called a PA23 Apache. In the event of an engine failure, the single engine performance of this aircraft was abysmal to say the least. Effectively, the second engine was to get you to the crash site! Ray thought this was uproariously funny and couldn't stop laughing for 10 minutes. Tears were rolling down his face and dropping into his scotch.

On one occasion we were sitting around not doing too much. Ray suggested we take the V.I.P. aircraft up to check the navigation equipment. He pointed out that we were charged with the responsibility of running a smooth and efficient operation. We flew a triangular pattern around the country for about an hour checking INS co-ordinates with ground stations we over flew, as well as checking the aircraft systems. New aircraft often contain bugs which need to be ironed out during the first 100 hours of operation.

One late October day we were told that we would be flying to Tunis the in the morning with a technical fuel stop in Athens. We were given special instructions to fly 10 nautical miles north of the airway from Sana'a to Gizan because of the possibility that rival tribes would fire on the aircraft. In fact, this had happened to us the previous week on approach to Taiz. We took a bullet through the leading edge of the wing. A piece of speed tape was placed over the hole and we continued the detail with no detrimental aerodynamic effects. Apart from having to fly off airways in Yemen, the flight to Athens was routine using Iraklion, Crete as an enroute alternate as we didn't have enough fuel to divert to Thessalonica in northern Greece, had this been necessary.



Vip Protocol Stopped by One Army Jawan by zemtv