“Aviation in itself is not inherently dangerous. But to an even greater degree than the sea, it is terribly unforgiving of carelessness, incapacity or neglect.”

. . the steward from the front galley shot into the cockpit – shaking. “What’s happening?”

‘Should fly-by-wire products come with a Use Responsibly label?’

‘As compared with a bird, man is a very clumsy creature. . ’

The Secretary General told me that, over the last ten years, the fatal accident rate in FAI sanctioned paraglider racing contests was ten times that of all the other FAI sports put together.

When the stationary air above a stationary runway is approached by a landing Concorde it gets squashed - squeezed like Polyfilla under an expensive filling knife.

‘He described the rather sedate and indeterminate way this modified aircraft tumbled about, and started to ask the CFI what to do next – but the CFI had gone, so he ejected, similarly.’

‘He stayed true to his hobby and was shot dead as he entered his apartment in the evening of March 22nd 1990. A professional job, for sure. The world of Le Carré had caught up with him.’

‘For pilots just out of training school with little more than 150 hours on Tiger Moth and Oxford, it would not have been easy.’

A Sideways Look into the possible future . . .

Jeremy turned round and said ‘Jump in, you can fly the accel.’ . . . Wow! Is he serious? I’ve never been supersonic before, even as a passenger. Of course, his confidence belied the Concorde’s agreeable nature when doing the very thing it was designed for.

. . . . hesitation or incorrect timing could put you in big trouble, confront you with the most dangerous paragliding circumstance. I’ve never done this manoeuvre myself, but I know how it works.

‘Many of us function quite satisfactorily with no personal picture that we’re aware of, and many will have binned their write-ups instantly. I salute them. Their motto is ‘If it ain’t broke don’t fix it,’ and my 200,000 mile Golf has prospered similarly.’

Was there really an aeroplane out there? Do the past and future exist? Perhaps the present is the only reality, suggesting that cat-shots are, for most of the time, creations of the fevered imagination. What a surreal way to take off. Fantastic.

Think, damn you! Think!!” I told myself. My first decision was to climb as high as possible until the collector tank ran out, so as to give myself the full eight minutes of life that I had left.”

“They don’t need a trainer”, suggested my assistant Randy Reinhardt, “more like a corner man with a bucket and sponge”.

“If I was going to land in the lion’s enclosure I would want four afterburning Olympus engines to get me out of there.”

“I don’t know why the British judge cries” he said. “I spoke with all the judges. Sometimes, when it is necessary, I criticise them, but I do it within the rules.”

The Swiss Air Force are proud of their reliable marksmanship. Every year there’s a live air-to-ground shooting show in front of the public - close to them too. I went - it was fantastic.