CHAPTER 1

Dave Owen

..........With a roar the Sach’s 340cc engine bust into life. Dave released the pull cord, and it wound back onto the starting drum. The three bladed propeller was spinning at 2000 rpm, very close to his arm. Carefully he pushed in the choke and then adjusted the hand throttle so the engine was just ticking over. Finally satisfied that the engine was okay, he climbed into the bucket seat and strapped himself in. He then put on his crash helmet. Applying a little pressure to the foot throttle the engine picked up, a smile came on his face, and then Dave raised his thumb to Terry who was assisting with the take off, who nodded in return, letting go of the front wheel he walked away. Dave then taxied across the field to a flat grass area about one hundred yards long. The wind was Very light and blowing down the strip. Dave steered to the strip and then turned into wind, putting his foot fully down on the throttle, the engine barked into life. He shot forward, and in a very short distance his speed was up to twenty miles per hour. Slowly he pushed the A frame bar forward, the nose wheel came up off the ground, he then pushed the bar out a little more, finally he was in the air. His speed was now around twenty-five miles per hour. As the ground dropped away Dave felt great, the feeling inside him was unexplainable. He had finally taken his first flight in a powered hang glider.
Dave Owen was thirty-seven years old, six foot tall with a dark complexion. His hair was dark and cut short, a style he’d had since being in the Marines, and a small scar on his upper lip was the result of a childhood accident. He was well built and still very fit for his age. He always dressed very casual and with his young ideas, he looked a lot younger than he really was.
He was born during the second war, while his father was away serving in North Africa, fighting Rommel.
..........Because of the war both Dave and his mother lived with her parents in the country near Stowmarket, Suffolk. His grandfather was the local poacher and Dave grew up being taught how to look after himself and live off the land. At the end of the war his father returned home but unfortunately they still had to live with their in-laws, not being able to obtain a house. Dave would go out in the early evening rabbiting with his Grandad, whose name was John “Peddler” Palmer. Peddler who had served in the Army had spent eight years in India during the 1920’s; he was also an Army boxing champion. His Army mates gave him the name Peddler. He became a household name because of his boxing exploits. On these rabbiting trips Peddler would string out nets across the end of a ditch, scaring the rabbits into nets. Peddler was so good he could shake the rabbits out of the nets and break their necks with the same violent jolt. Some nights he would let Dave run down the ditch scaring the rabbits, to make them run ahead of him into the net. On one occasion young Dave had his hand down a rabbits burrow, thinking he had hold of a rabbit he started to bring it to the surface, suddenly he realised something was wrong.
..........“Grandad,” he whispered. “It doesn’t feel like a rabbit,”
..........“What does it feel like Dave?” said Peddler.
..........“The fur is very course, and it’s got a long tail.”
..........“Lower it down very slowly and let go of it, then slowly draw your arm out,” said Peddler.
..........This Dave did, and looked towards his Grandad, he could see his head in the moonlight. “What was it Grandad?” asked ..........Dave.
..........“Most likely a rat,” said Peddler. “Good job you never brought it out in the moonlight it would have bitten you, rats ..........never bite in the dark”.
..........Some weekends Peddler would take Dave out to raid the local farmer’s orchard. Peddler would put Dave through a small hole in the hedge and then pass him a sack to fill up. Even at this early age his luck held out and he was never caught.
..........In the early fifty’s they moved to a new house at the other end of town. Dave’s life style immediately changed and he found himself on his own. His education was about average he went to the Secondary Modern school. He always enjoyed sport, especially swimming, and swam for his school and the local swimming club. He left school in 1958 and just like other boys of his age became a “Teddy boy,” dressing in the Edwardian style of clothing.
..........Work was easy to find and he started as an Electricians mate. One of the first things he bought with his first wage packet was a Teddy boy suit, which he worshipped. He then went through quite an array of jobs that included, Electrical linesman, labourer, driver’s mate, and strawberry picker finally ending up joining the Royal Marines Commando’s in 1961.
The Royal Marines had been the making of him and put the finishing touches in the making of a man. The training was 12 months long, with 8 of these months, being spent in battle training on Dartmoor, which included a parachute course, On completion he volunteered and went to Singapore to join 40 Commando Unit.
..........The day he arrived, trouble broke out in the state of Brunei. Part of the Malaysian Federation, Terrorists were after the country’s oil. So he was whisked off before he’d even unpacked.
..........During the next two years he saw active service, in Sarawak and North Borneo. Returning to England he found that Britain was handing over her Empire and trips abroad by the Armed Forces were few and far between. So Dave bought himself out in 1965, and returned to the country town of Stowmarket.
..........Then with the help of a South African agency he joined the Mercenary Army in the Congo, and served under the famous South African, “John Peters”. In the 5th Commando, Mercenary Army, Peters was Deputy Commander, being fearless and totally ruthless. Several officers serving under Mike Hoare refused to serve under Peters, and they transferred or left 5th Commando.
..........Peters retired a wealthy man in late 1966, so Dave transferred over to serve under Robert Denaro, a French man. This unit did not take part in the first mutiny, but was half heartily involved in the second. Stanlyville Revolt, (Mercenary Mutiny); in witch a lot of Mercenaries were killed. Denaro was badly wounded in the head by a ricochet bullet from his own unit and was then flown out to Rhodesia for treatment.
..........Dave then moved over and served under, “Jacque Schramme,” another French man in the 6th Commando, and marched to “Bukava”, were he fought throughout the siege. He took a bullet in his left arm, which passed right through. He was then airlifted out to South Africa, lucky to be on the last flight out. The Mercenaries left behind had to fight their way out into the neighbouring state of, “Barundi” for some it was a year before they got home, and only then with the help of the Red Cross
..........It was 1968, back at his hometown of Stowmarket, Dave was settling back into the civilian way of life. Trying a few labouring jobs on building sites, then driving and even a security guard position.
..........Out of sheer boredom he went on a freefall parachute course at Ipswich, and completed over thirty jumps. After what he’d leant in the Royal Marines he found it easy? But the cost stared to bite into his pocket and he drifted away.
..........Finally towards the end of 1971, on a hot tip from a friend, he flew out to the Middle East to join the growing band of Englishmen serving as security advisers to the sheikhs in the gulf area
It was here that Dave joined up with a detachment of the Special Air Service, on lone from the UK, while under the command of Captain M.J.A. (Mike) Kealy at the siege of Mirbat. (For this Kealy received a medal.) Dave had taken another bullet, this time in his leg. Mirbat had been a bloody battle with a lot of people killed. Dave had lain out in the sand for over five hours in great pain. Finally being evacuated out by chopper.
..........1973 and Dave was back in England nursed back to good health. It was the usual labouring and driving jobs. He met and married a local girl, Sheila. Looking for work they moved to the town of Leiston in Suffolk. But the marriage was not to last very long, luckily they had no children, so they parted.
..........It was 1974 Dave was watching a children’s TV program called Magpie. It featured a guy called Ken Messenger who was showing off the new sport of Hang Gliding. Dave was so excited with the show that he wrote to the studio for Ken’s address. He was soon in touch and bought his first Hang Glider. But as the sport was so new there were no schools to teach you how to fly. Dave had learnt the basics from Ken; the rest was up to him. It was now that Dave met up with David Cook another pioneer in the sport. They spent many hours together on the Thorpeness cliffs. Slowly they both achieved success. Dave preferred the Flexwing Hang Glider this was made of Aluminium tube and Dacron cloth and was shaped like a triangle, the pilot sat underneath and shifted his weight to control the glider. David Cook preferred what was called a rigid wing; this was made of Spruce wood, Aluminium and Dacron cloth. In appearance it looked like a conventional aircraft, also using a three-axis control. The only problem that Dave didn’t like was the very long trailer needed to transport this type of glider. The flexwing rolled up into a one-foot thick twenty-foot long bundle, and could be strapped on to an ordinary car roof rack.
..........After two years Dave was getting the wander bug once again, so in 1976 a chance to go to fight in Angola was all Dave needed. He was off again. John Banks had been recruiting in London; Dave had been interviewed and accepted. He was promised 300 pounds a week, later he found out that Banks received 200 pounds for every recruit he’d hired. Dave flew out to Angola with the other recruits, but was appalled in what he found. Bad organisation and ill treatment, so much so that he returned to England. Dave looked on this as a good decision, of the 157 men who went out there 60 never returned. The full story is now common knowledge.
..........1979 and Dave met up with an old pal from his Borneo days a guy called Terry Davey, with two other friends they went on a raid in Africa, to kill 4 terrorists, and return 2 hostages to there home countries. This was a daring raid; they flew into an Army camp on Hang Gliders and managed to get home in one piece 90,000 pound the richer. Returning to England they had all parted company, but agreed to keep in touch by the occasional post card.
..........Dave went back to Leiston thinking it was time to have another stab at settling down. One night doing the rounds of the local public houses, he bumped into David Cook in the Aldeburgh White Hart Hotel, and spent a few hours exchanging storeys, mainly about Hang Gliding. Cooky finally told Dave that he was running a powered Hang Gliding school at Knodishall, and offered him a job. Dave had gulped at his pint of bitter and nodded his head in gesture of acceptance. This was the type of work that would suit him, and besides he’d never flown powered before. And David had stipulated that he must be able to fly powered before he would be allowed teach.
..........David Cook was teaching both three axis and weight shift, powered Hang Glider flying. Apon his arrival at the flying school field Dave decided to learn the weight shift control machines, being a very good free flyer of Hang Gliders, the controls were exactly the same.
..........Cooky showed him around, what to look for, what to watch out for. Then it was around the field a few dozen times to get used to the machine. Finely Cooky waved him over and offered him a cup of coffee from his flask. He then ran over all the final points, before his first solo flight. Cooky wound the cup back onto the flask and smiled. Then pointing to the machine “ she’s all yours Dave old mate, don’t break it, it cost a lot of cash. Dave walked over to the trike with a feeling of excitement, and of the unknown, this was it.

© Copyright Terrance Aspinall All rights reserved. 1982