There was no sense in Storm’s response of any form of apology.
We are pretty sure the there were family pressures on Storm, but like Micawber, he bumbled along, hoping something would turn up to allow him to bow out of the flight.
His claim to ownership of the new adventure came from having see the 'Seeing is Believing' campaign started by Standard Chartered Bank, and steering Miles Hilton-Barber into pitching for - and winning - sponsorship. Miles just had to have Storm as his 'sighted' pilot, even though he'd been let down once, and Storm had actually passed him on to me to do what I could. I got the chance to make a song and dance for sponsorship in front of Virgin Atlantic, and while we looked like we had won, we lost - I think because there was no role in such a tiny aircraft for Richard Branson.
I had nothing to do with Miles - beyond giving them whatever help they requested - before that 11pm phone call a month ago. Storm once asked for my deeply-researched background paper on the flight, comparing log-book times for Australia flight between Ross Smith in 1919, Alan Cobham in 1926, Amy Johnson in 1930, me in 1987, and Colin Bodill in 1997. I said he could use it, but it should be credited to me. He agreed this, but I subsequently discovered he had passed the paper off to the sponsors as his own, and stuck his name on it.
He phoned me the day before he ratted on Miles to thank me for a copy of 'Global Flyer', and gave no indication he was going to rat.
When we saw the aircraft, underneath, it was still a beautiful GT 450.
But it had only 23 hours on it. It had never been taken away for 4- or 5-day flight to settle in and get rid of the niggles that new aircraft have. I had to do that live, and bequeathed Richard a distinct turn to the left.
No dinghy was fitted, so we crossed 700 miles of ocean without one. Two had been bought, far too big, and were lying there next to the aircraft with no place to put them.
He had bought life-jackets, but they were enormous and fitted nowhere.
He had bought a second-hand spare tank, marked to 45 litres, which only held 40 litres.
When the aircraft maker, Jim Cunliffe, said he needed 120 litres to cross the Timor Sea, once known as the 'white knuckle route', Storm insisted that 87 litres was enough.
He only had 4 hour's experience of flying with Miles, yet set a time table to get to Amman in Jordan in 6 days, that is, two days ahead of the record time set by Keith Reynolds and me in 1998, this with a blind co-pilot.
He had stopped marking his maps at Foggia, less than 1,500 miles into the journey, and I was missing 100 miles of map on my flight; I did it with a GPS, but it's hardly a responsible thing to do.
Three weeks before the flight was due to start, Storm took his family on holiday. He got back a week before the scheduled departure. No sense of urgency, of tying up loose ends, just a willingness to turn up at all the press conferences - including a freebie in Singapore - before the flight and look good and cool and in charge, and all the while, we believe, he was coming to the decision that if nothing else stopped the 'dream' - as he put it, yet it was Miles's dream - then he would have to finally say no himself.
Which he did.
I still find it extraordinary that he feels no sense of shame at abandoning Miles at 11 hours notice, airily saying there were lots of people who would love to take his place.
Then there's the removal of his radio, and the request for his sponsored flying suit - as if Richard didn't have a need for a good flying suit.
There is no excuse, except the classical excuses of this rotten age, 'it's not my fault', or 'you don't understand', or, 'what about my feelings?'
I have not yet found a single flyer here who doesn't ask me, 'why did he drop out at such short notice?' and he will be hard-pressed on this question.
Whatever answer he gives will meet snorts of derision.
Richard has resorted to calling him 'you know who' in his blog. |
