Reminiscences…
Reminiscences and anecdotes… Francis Donaldson and Brian Hope chat about 30-plus years of involvement with the Association…
H
ello Francis, it’s nice to meet up for a chat about times past. We’ve both been involved in the Association for a long time and, coincidentally, are leaving its employ at the same time. You put your thinking cap on while I make the coffee and let’s take a look back over the last 30-plus years, and hopefully forward to what’s next… OK, here you go, white no sugar. So, how did you come to work for the LAA – or the PFA as it was then?
Salisbury to Bournemouth, under new management, so it was a natural point for a change in direction. I guess if Barry’s undercarriage legs had cracked, everything might have turned out differently! I was interviewed by another member of the Executive Committee, Tony Oliver, at his house. Presumably there were other candidates, but I never met any. From my recollection Brian, you came onto the Executive Committee shortly afterwards. Brian: Yes, that’s right. I had joined the Association in 1976 when I learned to fly, and I know from previous chats we’ve had that around that time we were both members of the North Kent Francis: In 1990 I was in touch with Barry Smith, who was one Strut, though never actually met. It was a dozen years later of the PFA’s Executive Committee, because Barry had built the before I was able to buy a Jodel and by this time was involved fuel-injected Acro VW engine fitted to an Evans VP2 that I had with the Mid-Kent Strut (now Kent Strut), and attended the rescued and got flying, together with a chum from work. Barry, National Council as Strut Rep. I was also an active member of who was the UK’s VW guru for many years, had given me a lot the Jodel Club, so got to know the new PFA Chairman, Peter of advice over the phone and talked me through the starting Underhill, who was a founder member of the Jodel Club, and procedure for our long-stored engine. In return I had helped he invited me to stand for him get the aluminium the EC. It was actually a alloy undercarriage little later than you starting legs for his ownas Chief Engineer, in 1992 designed ‘Acro I think, when I got elected Advanced’ to the EC, not through any monoplane bent to particular merit I hasten to shape – I guess I let add; then, as now, there slip that my place of was no great rush from work had a heat members to get involved. treatment oven and However, I’ve never that being close to been one to bitch from Southampton, with its the outside, if something maritime tradition, there you are passionate were engineering about is not running as shops handy with you think it should, it is folders that would laugh far more productive to at bending a bit of 5/8 get involved and see if thick aluminium plate. you can change things Barry sent me his from the inside. Above Francis in the cockpit of his Pobjoy engined Currie Wot. undercarriage leg as a flat It was when on the blank, I annealed it in the heat treat oven as a ‘homer’, quickly EC that I met Barry Smith and I like to think that we became cooled it in the works freezer then rushed it down to friends and allies, he’s a ‘straight as a die northerner’ and Southampton in the car, surrounded by bags of ice to keep it in was instrumental in ensuring the Engineering Department a soft state for bending. Fortunately, at the second attempt, the transitioned effectively from a single engineer with a outfit I took it to got the bends in the right places and through secretary to a well-staffed team able to cope with a growing the correct angles, and it didn’t crack in the process! demand for its services. Shortly after, I had a call from Barry saying that the PFA was As the cornerstone of that transition, what had you been looking to recruit a new engineer to work at the Shoreham HQ, doing prior to accepting the challenge? and was I interested? It happened that the aircraft company I Francis: My previous job had been involved in the design of was working for at the time was about to relocate from modifications, certification and flight test on the Optica
48 | LIGHT AVIATION | December 2021
