First Flight

July 15th, 1970.
Wilson Airport in Nairobi, Kenya, East Africa.
My 24-year-old father is sitting in the left seat of a Piper PA-28-140 Cherokee bearing Kenyan registration 5Y-AJJ.

The aircraft is likely only a few years old and, sitting on the tarmac of an East African airport with the engine turning smoothly over at idle, a long way from its home of Vero Beach, Florida.
In the right seat is rookie instructor pilot Murray Sinton.  My father is his first student. 40 years later, my dad would remember him fondly as his best instructor.

It's a work day and dad is likely on his lunch break.  At any rate, he's the boss...and who would question him if he stole away for an hour?  Furthermore, who would find him in the skies above Nairobi?

And it's clear my dad is excited.  After all, he had received his student pilot licence Number 2918 (K.337) from the Directorate of Civil Aviation East Africa only the day before this first flight. Why wait?




The cover of my dad's East African Licence booklet. (Family Collection) 

Student Pilot Licence 2918 (Family Collection)

The weather in Nairobi is typical for the season - sunny, with a few puffs of cotton ball cumulus and a pleasant 20 or 21 degrees Celsius.  Despite the moderate climate in Nairobi, it's stuffy inside the Cherokee's cockpit so Sinton has the only door propped open with his foot and the tiny storm window on my Dad's side of the canopy is hanging open.  A soft breeze is drifting back from the slowly turning propeller.

My father's copy of a Wilken Flying School checklist for the Piper Cherokee.  This is likely one of the first pieces of kit my dad would have bought for his training. (Family Collection)

Wilson Airport has two asphalt runways: 07/25 at 4,798' and 14/32 at 5,052'.  Oddly enough, the runway orientation is exactly the same as Ottawa's International Airport.  It isn't possible now to know which runway the two men used on their first flight together but we can draw some conclusions.

After receiving clearance from the tower, Sinton yanked the door closed and snapped the lock above his head.  He likely called for my dad to close the storm window before advancing the throttle.  Alpha-Juliet-Juliet then began rolling forward, engine at full power, Sinton's left hand on the throttle and his right resting on the control yoke.  Wilson sits at just over a mile above sea level so Sinton likely held the boxy trainer on the runway a few beats longer than usual before easing the yoke back.

As Alpha-Juliet-Juliet's wheels left the ground at 12:25 p.m. that Wednesday afternoon, my father, a captive passenger, was hooked forever.

The cover of my Dad's logbook. (Family Collection)

The flight lasted only half an hour - Sinton landed Alpha-Juliet-Juliet just shy of 1 o'clock.  The notations in the dad's logbook, set down in his hand 42 years ago, betray none of the emotions he must have felt.  On cream-colored paper, in blue ink, the particulars of the flight are recorded dispassionately: date, aircraft type, registration, captain, etc, etc, etc.  In the remarks section of his then-new log book, he wrote down "No. 3" - the lesson number for "Effects of Flight Controls".  It is a rather poor estimation of the effect that flight had on my dad that day...and for decades to come.

The first page of my Dad's logbook.  The flight in question is at the very top.  Half-way down the right side is Murray Sinton's signature confirming the hours flown in July, 1970. (Family Collection)

I don't know what happened to 5Y-AJJ.  I can find no record of its fate or where it is today.  I'm equally ignorant as to Murray Sinton's whereabouts.  I only know that, when my dad was issued his private pilot's licence, he gave Sinton one of 6 silver eagles he had made by a Nairobi jeweler. Sinton was overjoyed.  Some time later, my dad had several more made in gold - of which only one survives.

I do know that my dad's first instructor and the plucky American-built, East-African transplanted trainer sparked a lifelong love that would have three generations gazing skyward in awe.