nick mason revised:1 Articles 18/11/09 13:41 Page 20 ThThee gregreaatt giggig iinn tthehe skysky Well-known musician, private pilot and AOPA member Nick Mason tells Pat Malone how learning to fly conquered his fear of flying t’s intriguing to note how many aviation Above: Nick in the Robin DR400 with his motifs crept into Pink Floyd’s performances beautifully-painted Squirrel B3 in the Iover the years; amid all the psychedelic background sturm und drang there was always room for a Right: the Squirrel is Nick’s favourite aircraft, crashing aeroplane, launched on a wire across which he flies more than any other a heaving stadium, a half-scale model Stuka or an exploding pig on the wing. Remember the Spitfire pair that opened their Knebworth and currently has four aircraft, a Robin DR400 concert in 1975? We batter our air guitars to he’s owned since 1983, two Piper Cubs – a tracks like Learning to Fly and High Hopes, Super Cub and an L4 – which are currently while Point Me At The Sky, complete with undergoing restoration, and a Eurocopter Tiger Moth promotional material shot at Biggin AS350 B3 Squirrel helicopter tricked out in the Hill, goes all the way back to 1968. most beautiful, Floyd-like cloudscape colour It may seem perverse, but in fact the scheme. members of the band cordially loathed flying, Unusually for a rock drummer, especially believing that their tour jets were kept aloft one who enjoyed success at the height of a solely by the death-grip they had on their uniquely hedonistic and indulgent era, Nick armrests, and preferred an 800-mile car trip to Mason remains well-grounded and devoid of a couple of hours in the air. This unfortunate airs. Unlike many of his contemporaries he is situation endured for almost two decades while not drug-addled, mad, or dead, and he surveys Pink Floyd climbed to the dizziest heights of the human comedy with a wry and self- rock stardom. But in a remarkable transition, deprecating wit. It is tempting to think this is drummer Nick Mason and guitarist David due to his involvement with flying, which may Gilmour have become perhaps the best-known have provided a leavening counterpoint to the aviators in the music industry, the owners and surreal switchback of fame, but I suspect it’s pilots of exotic and beautiful machinery just the way he’s made. Well-educated, widely befitting their multi-millionaire status. Of the read and personally disciplined, he was a two, Nick Mason remains most active in GA relatively emollient influence while the original 20 General Aviation December 2009 nick mason revised:1 Articles 18/11/09 13:41 Page 21 Pink Floyd was going the way of all previous experiments with overcrowded laboratory rats, and long before he ever learned to fly he was known for keeping his head when all about him were whacked out of their gourds. A passionate fan of cars, he made the acquaintance of Vic Norman on the motor racing circuit, and Vic prescribed learning to fly as a cure for fear of flying. Nick took his advice and found the cure to be “efficacious, but bloody expensive”. Since then, he and Vic have jointly made a number of aviation purchases, not least Rendcomb, the very private airfield in Gloucestershire they share with Torquil Norman. Sitting at Rendcomb on a lovely summer’s morning, Nick Mason was clearly at peace and in his element. “When the band really kicked off in 1967 we were doing most of our travel courtesy of a six-wheel Ford Transit, but American success in the early seventies brought with it a lot of flying, and I ended up being quite nervous about it,” he says. “There were several incidents – one when a baggage truck rammed a DC-3 we’d chartered while we were standing next to it. They said it was okay, but we bravely left the road crew to fly in it while we booked tickets on a scheduled flight. We were Top left: Super Cub under restoration, and miniature Bugatti Type 52s made by Tula Engineering, who share the hangar with Nick Above: Nick’s first aircraft and best aviation investment, the Robin DR400 Left: the world's best toy cupboard – two of Nick’s planes and some of his 30 cars landing at Bordeaux one day when we had to make a fairly violent manoeuvre to avoid a jet taking off the other way, and on another occasion we ran into horrific turbulence in a 707 somewhere over the Himalayas – even the cabin crew were scared. So I was definitely not mad about aircraft, and the others felt the same way. Eventually we had this absurd thing of trying to pretend to ourselves that renting a car and driving 800 miles was as easy as getting on an aeroplane. “Vic advised me to learn to fly – find out what it’s all about, he said, that’ll help you. He introduced me to Brendan O’Brien who was the perfect instructor for me, absolutely steeped in aviation, and with a passing interest in dressing up. Brendan felt it was vital to get the right kit, so for my first lesson we rented a Jodel and flew to Paris to acquire the correct flying jacket. My lessons moved around a bit depending on which flying school or airfield Brendan had fallen out with. Lessons were under the auspices of one of the schools at Biggin Hill, but we also flew from Elstree, Old Warden, Compton Abbas, White Waltham, Redhill, Shoreham and Southend. “I started on the lovely Slingsby T67B but very soon bought the even more lovely Robin DR400, which I still have today, and which General Aviation December 2009 21 nick mason revised:1 Articles 18/11/09 13:41 Page 22 has served as faithful trainer for innumerable friends and half the family. It was an uncharacteristically sensible purchase on my part; for the same money I could have had a second-hand aircraft with disappearing wheels and lots of kit, but the DR400 was the perfect beginner’s aeroplane and I love it still. My wife Annette began to learn to fly it shortly after I did, and as soon as I got my PPL she insisted we fly to the South of France. It seems rather intrepid to me now, but even getting completely stuck for three days in Dinard because of bad weather didn’t dampen our enthusiasm.” David Gilmour also learned on the Robin with Brendan, and he went on to form the Intrepid Aviation Co which operated aircraft as diverse as the Mustang, Harvard and Gnat. “David was far more into it than I was and ended up with a whole fleet,” says Nick. “He was the prime mover behind the idea that we desperately needed a plane for touring, and we were able to convince our accountants and the Inland Revenue that a Cessna Golden Eagle fitted the bill. We had lessons on smaller twins first, with some pretty competent instructors – Above: Nick’s first helicopter, the R22 G-BROX, later owned by the writer of this article Top: Nick in a Lynx, which he flew with one of the Blue Eagles Right: ‘A sort of Mount Olympus of the Sky Gods’ – Nick and his wife Annette with Griffon at RAF Shawbury one was a Special Forces C130 pilot, and me on to do these alarming things and leading eye-opener, because suddenly I could see a another was Paul Bonhomme (the Red Bull the charge. way to use it – we could take the kids, we racer). We almost always flew with a “My instructor on the R22 was the could carry the luggage and we could go commercial pilot on board, but nonetheless it wonderful Brian Balman – I’ve always been somewhere quite quickly. It coincided with was a big jump from the Robin to the 421. fortunate in having very good instructors – and buying our house near Bath, which we still “We took it to Scandinavia, to Italy and I bought a half share in the R22, G-BROX, have, and which we fly down to. I looked at elsewhere in Europe, but the trouble was, from David. I loved the simplicity of it and of lots of second-hand JetRangers, some of when we weren’t on tour it wasn’t used very course I liked what it could do that a plane which were really rather alarming, and much. My kids weren’t mad about it – if you couldn’t.” eventually I ended up buying a new one, G- want to go down to France it was quite a lot A man of many talents, Nick was well- IOIO. Again it was the right decision – I’ve slower than a jet, and a bit bumpier, too, quite placed to appreciate both the technical and always felt confident with the 206, it’s a solid often. So we let the Golden Eagle go. By then aesthetic aspects of helicopter aviation – he and reliable machine. David had bought a Harvard, and we shared a made a career out of enticing sonic novelties “By then Annette had got her helicopter Beech Staggerwing . We had a Stampe, too, from an array of bewildering experimental kit, licence too, and we did the JetRanger and I can’t remember what else, but I quickly and as an architecture student he knew conversion together. It was ideal for getting to realised that that sort of flying was not for me.