decided to adopt executive flying after that successful trial with the Auster and from 1956 to the end of 1969 I had charge first of the United Steels aeroplanes and then of the fleet which the British Steel Corporation encouraged by our example had decided to operate, so that I managed to keep my licence intact and my love of flying undimmed. But it was Gerald Steel’s remark to me when at the end of the Auster trial he agreed to go ahead with our executive flying project which I must record. ‘All right, Kilpatrick’ he said, ‘You have proved your point.’ Then he continued with a broad smile,
‘And now let us get a proper aeroplane – and a proper pilot!’ But I was a proper pilot – wasn’t I?
That, I must tell them, is what I would like our numerous grandchildren – and theirs – to believe when they come to read these stories of times before they were born and before they gave us the contentment and pleasure which their arrivals over the years have brought to us both.
