The first time I flew

This story is taken from an interview with Victor Musson, and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions. The interviewer was Mark Jeffers, and the transcription was by Bruce Logan.
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[The first time I flew?]
That's a different story. In those days they gave you a Pilot’s Book and they said “sit down and read that, and understand it all”. They do that in the morning, and give you until lunchtime. Then they’d come back and ask you some questions. There was another chap and I, we read these notes and waited. But they never came. So this chap says “let’s go out and see if there are any ground crew out there, and we’ll see if we can get this started”. So we went out among the ground crew and found a plane. So I got in, started up, and took off. In the Spitfire 22 with the Griffin engine has terrific torque on it. The props drove the wind round the fuselage and it hit the tail. I hadn't read the book well enough, and hadn’t trimmed enough. And as soon as I took off I started turning to the left. The chap in the tower called me up and told me "You've not retracted the undercarriage". I replied "I'm aware of that" - I had other problems. But I got it sorted out. That was my first flight in a Spitfire, without any tuition whatsoever — just by reading a book. And I don't recommend it to anybody

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