The Grounded Fighter Pilot
“So you want to be a starfighter pilot?”
Robert Calvert, Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters
There was never any debate about the quality of Reg’s reflexes or eyesight. They were good enough to see him accepted into the RAAF’s flight school for pilot training and sent to the University of Sydney to get his undergraduate degree. That was his undoing. Life interfered with study and he eventually dropped out of uni and thus was dropped from the RAAF.
A few examples illustrate that when required he still had the skills but didn’t always use them to best effect.
Let’s go swimming
Reg, Jen and I decided that a swim at North Sydney pool would be a refreshing way to end the day. So we headed off. I’m pretty sure it was in Reg’s green Mazda, the one he rolled avoiding a cow — don’t ask. Reg was driving, Jen was in the front seat and I was behind her in the back. As usual, Reg and I were vigorously discussing some topic or other. This meant that Reg had to turn around and look at me to emphasise his points.
Getting close to the pool we were whistling along Lavender St. You may remember there’s a pedestrian crossing about halfway along, just at the Indian Restaurant overlooking Lavender Bay. As we approached it Reg was busy berating me about my poor arguments, looking directly at me.
In front of us a car braked sharply as a person headed across the pedestrian crossing. Reg was oblivious. Jen could see catastrophe coming and frantically stabbed at the brake pedal that wasn’t there. Out of the corner of his eye, there’s that fighter pilot vision, Reg sees her leg stabbing at the firewall.
In one fluid motion he slams his foot on the brake pedal, swings back facing forward and brings us to a halt mere inches from the rear of the now stopped car in front of us. With our eyes on stalks we all breathed a sigh of relief and headed off to the pool.
A quiet night in
Jen and I decided that a quiet night in just watching the box was in order. Reg, Annie and friends headed out for the evening.
Much later the front door opens, Annie stomps in, mumbles goodnight and heads to her bedroom. Jen and I look at each other. I ask, “where’s Reg?” Looking out the front window his Nissan 200SX is not there. With no obvious answer we nestle back down and continue watching TV.
About an hour later Reg bursts in, “Have you guys seen Annie?” he asks. After telling him she’s in the bedroom he heads down there and closes the door. It took us a while but eventually we found out what had happened.
Turns out Reg had got pretty carried away driving home. He’d come across the Cahill, driving quickly, and by the time he’d got to the loop up onto the bridge was going fast enough to have the tires howling and the body leaning heavily. Reg was really enjoying having the Nissan on the fine edge of control.
The friends didn’t see it as a demonstration of Reg’s driving skills. Rather an example of his boyish exuberance. One friend had been repeatedly asking him to slow down and stop being a dick. Annie could see how upset the friend was getting and was pressing Reg to slow down. She got more insistent as they got into the loop and by the exit yelled at him to stop and let her out. Remember they’re now on the southern Harbour Bridge approach so there is no where to walk to. Reg doesn’t believe her but nevertheless pulls over near the breakdown trucks and stops. Annie screams abuse at him, gets out and slams the door.
Reg drives off. As they head a cross the bridge one friend gently prompts Reg that letting her out and driving off may not have been the best action to take. Calming down, Reg agrees and pulls of the freeway, negotiates his way back southbound on the bridge, gets off at Grosvenor St and heads back north across the bridge. Pulling up at the spot Annie got out there’s no sign of her. Reg, getting pretty panicked by this stage, has a quick look around and heads home to Manns Ave.
The next morning we get Annie’s side of the story. After Reg drove off she’d realised there was no where to get off the bridge easily so decided to see if she could hitchhike. Almost immediately a cab appears. She flags it down, it stops, picks her up and then drops her home.
That incident took Reg and Annie a while to get over. But gradually things at Manns Ave returned to normal. Well, as normal as they could be.
