Maurice Kirk is a loveable character!. An ex drinking partner of Oliver Read, a bloomin superb vet and public enemy number 1 of the CAA and the local police. He has looped the Second severn crossing, flown to Australia, flown under the original Severn bridge, and generally spent his entire life flying fabric aircraft out of small fields. He is into Austers, cubs, Piper Pacers and the like.
There are many storied about him, but he seemed to have caused no end of hassle for the local police. Prosecuted over 1000 times he wins over 9 in 10 court cases. A record that the best criminal lawyers would be proud of!.
This story relates not to a trial but the chase in trying to catch him. It starts off with him having lost his licence after he landed on a golf course and was being done for breaching the 500 ft rule. He has sprung a leak on his cub and with oil covering the windscreen he selected the best place to do an emergency landing- the middle fairway which was into wind!. Down he came, went into the clubhouse for a coffee, fixed his sub, topped up the oil and on he continued.
The golf club members complained!. The CAA started. They arrested him, charged him and pulled his tickets waiting for it to come to court!. In the meantime Maurice wanted to fly!. So he got a friend of his who had a PPL to sit in with him. All legal he was now. Then the fun started. The local air traffic controllers found out, and strange messages were passed to him- ” bear in the air” he was told. The police was told to launch their helicopters and get evidence of him flying.
In tactics best reserved for war time, they launched helicopter after helicopter that would sneek up on Maurice, get within a few feet and take photos of him flying ( what a waste of police time and money!). EVERY time he had his sturdy companion flying with him!.
They got even more frustrated when Maurice set up camp at the PFA rally at Cranfield and started handing out leaflets telling people about the CAA!. On the flight back they again launched getting so close to Maurices aircraft he almost crashed it!
Then the court case came and he WON. Again they were ordered to pay his costs but never did. “A precautionary landing requires you to land” said the judge, and “I have failed to understand how the CAA try and assert that you can land without the aircraft going below 500ft”.
Maurice decided to get his own back. Knowing that there was a small airstrip just to the north of Gatwick airport he set off with permission from Gatwick radar to fly into this little airstrip with a banner in tow. The banner had FUC- u CAA written on it!. Approaching from the airfield and just when he got right over the headquarters of the CAA he suddenly had a message from the Air Traffic controllers at Gatwick asking him to orbit. Maurice being the good chap he is, complied and round and round he went over the CAA headquarters in his cub with the banner trailing behind!
The CAA were not happy!!!. The radar tapes after did not seem to indicate any conflicting traffic and lots of questions were asked of the air traffic controllers as to why he was asked to orbit!
THEY then hatched a plan. He owned an old DH2 vintage biplane which had a gun attached to it. The gun was very old and tatty and was just an old replica obviously not capable of firing. It was there as a show piece.
Early one morning the police raided his premises and charged him with possession of an ilegal firearm. He was put in jail for many many months awaiting trial. When the trial came to court he was found NOT Guilty, and awarded costs. But guess what- they havent paid him!
Maurice continues to be Public enemy number 1 to them. He did howver manage to fly his J3 cub in the London to Sydney air race and get all the way to SYNDEY VFR or as Maurice would call it BCL ( Below Camel level!)
Details of his adventures and legal fights are found on http://www.kirkflyingvet.com
pprune 