PRESIDENT Elect Brian Melville opened our meeting on June 26.

He welcomed Steve Swarbrick of Pershore, who was attending for the first time. Steve had seen our reports in the Journal and said his wife urged him to come along. This was perhaps just to give her a break.

Dennis Hallett then formally thanked members for his the award of the Quaich and said he was overwhelmed by the honour. Then apropos nothing, George Bourne said that at least when you get old, you won’t die young, which prompted Brian to reply that old age comes at a bad time.

That set the tone for our guest speaker, William Lewis of Cheltenham. He began his presentation “What goes up, should grow up” by telling us, in strict confidence, that his partner had tried to kill him on three occasions. He allayed our fears by confessing that she had given him successive birthday treats of a flight in a balloon, a bi-plane and a glider!

However this encouraged him to invest his severance pay-off on a lifelong ambition. And so, at the tender age of 62 years, he learned to fly a helicopter. He talked us through the intricacies of this most un-aerodynamic aircraft and the very delicate movements and aptitude needed to control it. He claimed that whilst learning to hover, he lost the power of speech, which we found hard to believe of such an eloquent speaker!

Nevertheless, having taken eight exams, and some 28 hours of flying time, he achieved his first solo flight in December 2012 and attained his full pilot’s licence in May 2013. He accompanied his talk with a PowerPoint presentation, which included aerial views of Evesham, Pershore and Tewkesbury. He concluded with the assurance that there were old pilots, and bold pilots, but no old bold pilots.

Members subjected him to a lot of searching and thoughtful questions, which clearly demonstrated their keen interest in the technical aspects. We thanked him for sharing his ambition with us and if nothing else, he confirmed that retirement gives the opportunity for the next phase of our lives. .

Next week, July 3, Ian Shapter will present ‘The Archer and his Longbow’ and on July 10, John Mason will tell us about the last voyage of U234.

We meet every Thursday at 10am at Ecgwins Club in Evesham. Do follow Steve Swarbrick’s example and join us.

CHRIS DONOUGH