Wyn Drabble: Grounded planes everywhere

There are currently more planes on the ground than in the air. Photo / File

I can remember my earliest flight. The aircraft (for want of a better term) was flown by NAC and was either a Dominie or a Dragon, both of which were made by de Havilland.

Either way it wouldn't have made much difference because I believe both involved a timber framework with canvas stretched taut around it.

And this is where my memory comes into play. It may have been way back in the 1950s but I distinctly remember the fuselage shook or vibrated right beside me during the flight. It was tissue paper wrapped around balsa wood.

You don't seem to get that on more modern aircraft.

Then I progressed to the Douglas DC3 and SPANZ flew ones with widened windows and called them Viewmasters. You still needed crampons to climb up the aisle if your seats were at the front because the DC3 designers lacked a spirit level.

"This is your captain speaking. Those of you on the starboard side of the aircraft will shortly see my Uncle Reg teeing off from the first hole of Levels Golf Course. Please buckle up securely as he has one hell of a slice. Soon after that we will reach our cruising speed of 95mph and our cruising altitude of 1000 feet."

Then there was the Fokker Friendship and the very posh Vickers Viscount. Both are now part of aviation history.

My first international flight was on a Douglas DC8 and, by then, the Douglas Corporation had found a spirit level. Mine was an Air New Zealand flight soon after their name changed from TEAL, a name which bore no relationship to our motherland but matched the livery colours.

A major difference between the aircraft I have mentioned and the more modern ones is that, whereas those from my memory are gathering dust in museums, most of the modern ones are lined up and gathering dust on desert runways in central Australia or USA.

Covid-19 is not a friend of flying.

Wyn Drabble

And all Boeing's 737 Max planes have been parked up somewhere since well before the virus struck. That's a different issue, of course, but I can't help feeling that, with all the electronics and computer components, things are much harder to fix than a DC3 would have been. A spanner would possibly have been the only tool required.

It's the same in the automotive world. I believe the main problem with modern cars is all the computer wizardry. The Morris Minor was far easier to repair given that under the hood were – I'm relying on memory here – a candle, a wick and a packet of safety matches.

One positive about all those aircraft being grounded is the lessening of the carbon footprint. When we flew in DC3s we had never heard of the carbon footprint and if someone used the phrase we would have wondered what aviation had to do with shoe size.

You can, of course, offset your carbon footprint but how you do that I shudder to think. It probably won't be an issue for a while anyway because the aircraft you were booked on is currently grounded.

One media report in April said that Amsterdam Schipol Airport was "more like a parking lot for KLM's Airbus A330s, Boeing 777-200s and iconic 747s. Hong Kong International Airport looks more like a drive-in theatre for Cathay Pacific's fleet."

I can't substantiate this so just see it as more of a thought. It could be true that, for the first time in history, there are more aircraft on the ground than in the air.

Which leaves just one final question. If you are on one of the few planes flying, do you still get a boiled lolly during descent?

Wyn Drabble is a teacher of English, a writer, musician and public speaker.