posted 09-29-2004 06:08 PM               

The surroundings were very plush with drinks upstairs in the bar and a veranda roof overlooking Hyde Park Corner after the lecture. I have never been in a "gentleman's club" before and it's interesting to see how the "other half" lives.

Dave Scott was on good form and regalled the audience the majority of whom seemed to be very knowledgeable and experienced pilots with some stories that were both humorous and informitive.
Ever heard of Gemini 2? (a very black / secret Mission?)

His tale of the Gemini 8 emergency had the audience on the edge of their seats and his anectodes of the splashdown and recovery had everyone roaring with laughter.

Dave Scott is an excellent speaker and I am lucky to have seen him in action twice this year. The first time was in Oxford on the Book tour where he concentrated on his own career, the reason for the book ,Apollo and some anecdotes about Leonov.

This time there were no "minders" from publishers and he signed several autographs and was happy to chat for some time to all those he wanted to.

The lecture lasted over an hour and was almost entirely devoted to Gemini 8 there was a question and answer session at the end and another chance to talk to Dave Scott in the bar afterwards.

It was all very civilised and I was glad I wore a suit and tie!

If you get the chance to meet Dave Scott go listen! (but wouldn't you have thought NASA would have told him the drogue parachute was designed to open and then fall away before the main shute opened! He thought the drogue had failed and fallen off!!!!

He was good enough to sign my BIG and heavy version of FULL MOON and having dragged it to Oxford and drawn a blank I was very pleased to see him sign it.

It almost seemed indecent though to ask him for an autograph. Meeting and listening to these people is a thrill.

posted 10-01-2004 07:21 AM               

I attended the event as well and thought it was excellent. You might have heard my voice at some point, I was the 6foot5 red-head who asked Dave Scott whether he thought it was easier to train pilots as geologists or geologists as pilots...the audience seemed to get a kick out of the question ;-)

The event was well organised, friendly and it was extremely kind of the group to let a young postgraduate student like myself attend. I did feel a little under-dressed though, having just run to the gathering from lectures. Dave Scott was warm and friendly. I know exactly how Paul felt about asking for an autograph, it seemed wrong somehow, so I just listened for a long time. However I eventually couldn't resist and so after a couple of questions about the CDRs role in crew selection I asked him to sign a WSS litho for me and he never even hesitated.

It was a great night for me. Just listening to the lecture and seeing the man in the flesh was exciting. But to actually get his autograph and have a conversation was wonderful. It was also a thrill to talk and listen to some of the ex-pilots who were there, they'd flown everything from fighters to Concorde. An exceptional night.

John