I had the immense pleasure of flying with some of the best pilots and captains in times gone by.

I flew for a company called Safair, and amongst others we had a Capt by name of Barry Barnard.

Capt Barry I would imagine may have retired by now. He was an ex-airforce pilot, and knew the C-130 better than about any man alive that I know of. To such a degree that when in flight we noticed an abnormality in the ITT's (Inlet turbine temps), he would pick up the rarest of fluctuations and on landing be able to tell the technicians which Temp datum to go and check - he was so well respected that the engineers never double-guessed him - they would go straight to the unit that he suggested was out of order and time after time, he would be right on the numbers.

I recall the first time I was to fly with him. A number of the other FO's told me I was "in for it" , "gonna get roasted" etc.....well I gotta admit I was a bit worried for sure. But on arriving at the airport, I met Cpt Barry, greeted him respectfully as Capt and we were off to a good start. At this time I was still a greenhorn on the Herc......lo-and-behold, after the 2nd leg we lost one of the four donkeys - if memory serves me correctly it was the nr 3 engine. I was pilot flying, and after initially crapping myself, I composed myself and went through all the emergency procedures and drills far better than I expected.

Now I should add that we were empty, and loosing 1 out of 4 engines was pretty much a non-event - but when you're a new FO, it's huge!

After getting the situation sorted and finishing the emergency items Capt Barry must have saw that I was a bit on edge - he on the other hand was as cool as a breeze. So he calmly asked me "Did you get my whisky?" (he'd asked me to pick it up at duty free earlier on) - I kinda looked at him with unbelief. So he asked again "did you get my whisky that I asked you to pick up this morning". So I told Yes, that I had remembered to pick it up and he replied "Damn good thing you did - because this is not an emergency son, if you'd forgotten my whisky that would have been a bloody emergency!"

Now don't get me wrong, Capt Barry was / is no sort of cowboy or alcoholic - he just read the situation so well that he new just what to say at the right time to lighten a tense atmosphere in a cockpit that was feeling a "bit stretched" .

On another occasion (I believe it was in a place called El O'beid in the Sudan), he was teamed up with another new FO. By then I'd had a bit more experience on the Herc, but the other FO was still fresh as. The new FO had a bit of a swagger about him and I don't think he fully appreciated he was a newby amongst some capt's that had thousands of hours just on that one machine (C-130) alone, and that they came from a military background in which a bit of respect (and punctuality) goes a long long way.

I'd gone down to the mess to have breakfast, and noticed capt Barry and the Flight Engineer waiting at the crew bus - they were supposed to have left a few minutes before already, but the FO wasn't there yet. Initially I thought little of it. But a couple of minutes went by and they were still there....then the new FO came walking into the mess - fully dressed in uniform and went to get some breakfast. I mentioned that capt Barry was already at the bus, so he began to speed up his eating.

Capt Barry came over to the mess (I think maybe to ask if anyone knew where his missing crew member was). When he got to the mess he saw his FO trying to goble down as much breakfast as possible. He calmly said to him "slow down lad, slow down...don't you rush your breakfast......Just leave it!" Lol, the new guy just moved his plate over and did as suggested and went to fly - he actually turned out to become a excellent pilot too.

Capt Barry turned out to be the greatest mentor, for me personally, that I ever had in flying. By that time I had enough flying hours (I think about 2500), but knew little other about flying than how to manipulate the controls - from capt Barry I learnt respect for the industry, the environment and how a good capt. should conduct himself.

Cheers,

Andy