CHASING GREMLINS
Gremlins was a term popular with circa WW2 allied pilots and referred to little problems that would crop up in aircraft. Gremlins were supposedly a small gnome-like creature that would damage aircraft for entertainment. Not like the furry gremlins in the Hollywood movie at all. In fact, Roald Dahl of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory fame was asked to write a screenplay for Disney during the war about gremlins and the Battle of Britain. By the time he had written it, the war had progressed past the Battle of Britain phase and so they took the script and concept illustrations and turned them in to a book – the illustration here is from that book. I remember reading it as a small boy at my grandparents house. The crying shame is that I have no idea where that original book went and the first editions are currently trading for several thousand dollars. You can see an online version if you search Roald Dahl gremlins PDF. But that’s not the point of this story. This story is about chasing gremlins and the warnings they give us. Years ago, I went out to do some circuits. The Cessna 172 I had booked was unserviceable because of a seat rail issue, so they offered me another 172. But on start-up there was a problem with the artificial horizon – it was jammed. So, they said take the 152. Which turned out to have a flat battery, then was hard to start. On start up flames wooshed out and scared the hell out of me. I was trained to keep the aircraft running when that happened to suck the fuel and whatever in. Which I did as the flames quickly subsided. I shut down the aircraft. Tied it back down and went to the office and handed the keys back. I figured the gremlins had told me to stay on the ground and I listened.
