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Old 27th September 2018, 11:32
G-CPTN G-CPTN is offline  
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Tynedale
Age: 79
Posts: 3,698
I started off wanting to be a pilot in the Fleet Arm (our Navy), as my grandfather worked on flying boats during the First World War (the Great War 1914-1918).
As a teenager, I had a large circle of friends and a busy social life - when I discovered that navy airmen couldn't come home at weekends I decided that service life wasn't for me . . .
My next idea for a career was as a civil engineer - designing and building bridges - my ambition was to design and build a bridge from England to France.
I started work on a dam construction site - my first task was cutting the heads off thistles on the spoil heaps before I was promoted to soil shear sampling (it was an earth dam), but freezing early mornings being blown by freezing rain wasn't quite what I had in mind.
Then I found my ideal job - I joined a vehicle manufacturer, starting in the design office before being sent overseas to supervise vehicle testing. When I returned to the UK I was responsible for establishing test facilities for vehicles at the new 'proving ground' that was built from scratch on 700 acres of agricultural hillside.
Apart from investigating breakdowns and component breakages on the test vehicles, it gave me the opportunity of unlimited driving of a range of trucks, including military vehicles.
see:- https://www.truckandbusforum.com/gal...ge.php?i=52985
In addition to in-house driving, there were 'field trips' with a convoy of vehicles to overseas locations.
What was there not to like about that?
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