'He would spend the entire flight flogging duty free booze, cigarettes, perfume, watches and anything else he could acquire cheaply to the passengers '

'He would spend the entire flight flogging duty free booze, cigarettes, perfume, watches and anything else he could acquire cheaply to the passengers '

Mike Mahon remembers his time flying for a Dutch airline and his Captain.

Mike Mahon

Trinity College Dublin

1965

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Mike Mahon

Work and Employment

Life Story

Amsterdam

1960s

Just after getting my Commercial Pilots Licence I managed to get a job in Amsterdam. The company employed contract workers around Europe who needed to travel to different locations and to do this as cheaply as possible they procured a few clapped out World War Two DC3's. the guy in charge of the flight operations was from Shannon and well known in Irish Aviation circles; a very likeable wheeler dealer and con artist. When I arrived first to take up the job as the aircraft were Dutch registered I would need an endorsement from their Aviation Authority. 'No problem,' Captain B informed me, took my Irish Licence, stuffed a few bottles of scotch in his briefcase and disappeared. Later that afternoon he arrived back with my licence duly endorsed. This was to be the modus opperandi for all our operations. I was very new to the DC3 however once airborne B disappeared down the cabin and left me to my own devices in the Cockpit. He would spend the entire flight flogging duty free booze, cigarettes, perfume, watches and anything else he could acquire cheaply to the passengers. On many occasions on final approach into a busy airport I had to insist he come back to the cockpit for landing. We night stopped regularly in London and stayed in one of the top hotels. We never paid a red cent, B had deals going with the concierge. We would arrive by taxi with a few crates of booze guaranteeing a luxurious weekend. I never found out how he managed to get through Her Majesty's customs, suffice to say we always parked the aircraft in the cargo area.  The DC3 was a tail dragger converted from the US Air force C47's and difficult to control on take off and landings especially in strong cross wind conditions; it needed lot of rudder control with both feet. I t was therefore to my great surprise when I was rostered to fly to Glasgow with a Dutch Captain who had one leg shorter than the other. I don't know how he managed to get checked out on type. These aircraft were unpressurised, so we could not fly above10,000 feet with passengers. This meant flying at lower altitudes and getting bumped all over the place in turbulent conditions . The rules of the air were not just bent but well a truly broken in the interests of Mammon Fortunately I did not have to stay in this job too long and lost touch with Captain B. Some years later his photograph appeared on the front page of one of the redtops. He was pictured standing in front of an English stately mansion, with a Rolls Royce in the background. He was proclaimed to be an entrepreneur selling villas in Spain to retired couples. I was no surprise to learn later on the he was serving a jail sentence for fraud.

Irish Research Council for Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences (IRCHSS)

Dr Kathleen McTiernan (Trinity College Dublin)

Dr Deirdre O'Donnell (Trinity College Dublin)