Jack McDonald had decided that the hangar needed a bit of tidying-up, so an accumulation of junk (soiled cotton-waste, empty drums and cans, discarded bits and pieces of aeroplane) were piled up on the back of the old blitz wagon and driven off to the rubbish dump by Bill Chambers (?). Either by mischance or design, their return trip with Cec Mohr (?) riding on the back armed with a broom, was not via the perimeter road but more or less directly across the drome (remember what security was like back in the 50s - what security?). Anyway, their track meandered across the hardstanding at the international terminal where a military guard of honour was either awaiting the arrival of the PanAm flight or was actually engaged in honouring the visiting dignitary emerging from the Stratocruiser, and as they passed through Cec executed a precision "present arms" with the broom! Must have been pretty comical, but the local bigwigs would have had to at least appear to be outraged, and presumably Jack would have eventually copped a bit of a rocket. Hope that some other Adastrian has a clearer memory of the incident, or at least can confirm that it really happened!

Joe Tidey
23rd May 2004