COMBAT AND COMPETITION.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

COMBAT AND COMPETITION
Instruments Division, and myself in attendance.
By the time Hanover came round again we had reinforcements.
Two new recruits had arrived direct from test flying to look after civil
flight control systems. 'Doc 1 Stuart, an ex naval type from Boscombe
Down, had been appointed Sales Manager and his number two, from
the Blind Landing Experimental Unit at Thurleigh, was Pinkie Stark.
Pinkie and I had only seen each other occasionally since our first
meeting at Wunsdorf, just after the war, and now we were heading
back there together in my car. Lufthansa was evaluating the BAC
One-eleven and the Boeing 737 as alternative Viscount replacements.
So Doc and Pinkie were there to promote the One-eleven flight system.
It had all the ingredients of a jolly occasion. Fred Haskett was
always good value. Doc, balding and soft spoken, could be mad as a
hatter when he was in the mood. Fred Pacey, who had worked with the
British Forces Network in Germany after the war, was equally and
more consistently crazy. Grey haired and plump, with a wacko
moustache, Fred's party piece was to stand on his head and drink a
pint of beer. Many a time I watched him, going slowly purple in the
face, and wondered whether he would collapse before the glass was
empty. But he never did.
So much for the makings. It was Pinkie who, quite fortuitously,
brought them all together. He and Doc had been allocated pension
accomodation like the rest of us - hotel rooms being almost
unobtainable - but they were unlucky. The beds were dirty and the
breakfast terrible. Pinkie went prospecting and discovered a splendid
alternative on the shores of Steinhuder Meer across the water from
Wundsdorf.
Each evening in Doc's white Porsche they guided us over a
confused network of woodland tracks to a wooden shack overlooking
the lake. Inside, behind the bar stood a black bearded giant of a man,
who in times past must surely have been a somebody in the
Kriegsmarine 3 , surrounded by smoked sausages and sides of bacon and
dispensing all manner of alcoholic refreshment with great good
humour.
It was a haven of guttering candlelight and human companionship,
unspoilt and almost undiscovered, a world away from the noise and
crowds of Hanover. A wonderful place to unwind. And when you were
hungry his kitchen would produce a massive spread of eels, meat,
gerkins, rye bread and butter.
Much later, when the evening reached a certain stage, mine host
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