GUMMI PA31-310C
I had flown from Humberside to Marl with ‘ME ’(the owner) to pick up the father (Bodo) and company accountant to fly them to Erfurt to sign a purchase contract for a factory. Apart from some discomfort due to turbulence in unsettled weather the outbound flight was uneventful and we arrived at Erfurt on schedule.
I usually accompanied owner on factory visits as it was interesting and meant I was on hand to take account any changes in the flight schedule. This factory was a Latex manufacturing plant making condoms and was intended to compliment the owners existing Latex Balloon manufacturing plants in Marl and Paris. The factory was busy and we were taken around the site before lunch and the signing of contracts.
In the quality testing department there were several Ladies sitting around large ‘tables’ manually electrostatically testing condoms by placing them over a cylindrical shaped device and then stepping back as a high voltage charge was passed through the item. The electrical charge highlighting any perforations or defects in the items prior to them being removed for packaging. ME asked me to feel the texture of the Latex. As I reached to touch one a blue flash emitted and I received an electric shock to my finger, it was then that I noticed the ladies were all sitting on rubber floor mats to insulate them. ME was highly amused!
The signing was completed (using a ‘Modern Air’ pen!) and I think a complete factory was purchased for a token payment but with all liabilities accepted!
We departed Erfurt with the intention of landing at Dortmund to drop off Bodo and the accountant as it was going to be dark upon arrival. The forecast was not good with thunderstorms forecast across Germany from Frankfurt to Hanover across our intended track. We were cruising IFR at FL080 seeing and avoiding larger ‘cells’. This became easier at night as the lightning discharges were quite easy to see.
It was becoming obvious that our route to Dortmund was going to be uncomfortable and I suggested we rerouted further North. In fact the Dortmund and Dusseldorf METARs both deteriorated to the extent I was not prepared to consider exposing our passengers (or ourselves) to those destinations and we elected to divert to Osnabruck which was at that time giving much better weather albeit ‘Heavy Showers’.
The last 40miles to the ILS at Osnabruck became quite uncomfortable in heavy rain and moderate turbulence. At one point Bodo tapped me on my shoulder and asked if everything was ok. I reassured him and said we would be landing in 20mins. ME had lit a cigarette (he disliked thunderstorms) and was puffing away when a very bright flash of horizontal lightning streaked across ahead of us. I reduced power to get our speed back as I had been pushing the PA31 quite hard to get on the ground asap and I needed to get the speed back for gear extension.
We locked onto the ILS localiser and in the ensuing turbulence the auto pilot ‘locked out’ and ME commenced to hand fly the approach. It was then I noticed a slight smell of burning! ME had dropped his smouldering cigarette onto the floor! ME told me to take control whilst he dealt with the cigarette. As usual I was in the co-pilot’s seat and I slid it forward and continued the approach extending the gear with the glideslope, 120KIAS, Flaps 10degrees, it was now raining very heavily and the turbulence was quite unpleasant. Passing 800ft I saw the Military style strobes like ‘hares’ running towards the runway. Not easy to see from my side as only the Captain’s side of the windshield has a wiper blade and it was at max speed to clear the rain. As I flared the PA31 to touchdown I reached across to ME asking him to take it as he could see the runway better than me. Unfortunately, he had slid his seat back due to the cigarette incident and adjusted his seatbelt accordingly! So I slowed the aircraft to a slow taxy until he could adjust his seat and taxy us in. I really could not see much at all out of my side of the windshield!
We elected to stay the night and Bodo and the accountant took a taxi back to Marl. That evening ME and I discussed the flight and specifically ‘smoking’ during flight. It was the case that aircraft of that era had ashtrays in them but that smoking was not allowed during take-off or landing. I introduced a ‘new’ rule that smoking was ‘verboten’ at all phases of flight!
We flew back to Humberside the next day and I flew home back to Fowlmere to await our next ‘mission’. ME and I remain in contact and I saw him a few years ago in France and we still both remember this trip and remind ourselves of lessons learnt!