My Experience

I was an undergrad student at the University of Western Ontario (1968-71). At this time the Bradford home was outside Oakland, California. I could get home from London, Ontario in the jump seat of a DC-9 provided that I get to Indianapolis by 9:00am on a specified date. Brick Bradford was flying the DC-9 full of freight from Norfolk, Virginia to Oakland, California.

I left London the day before the rendezvous, hitch a ride west to Detroit, took a bus from downtown Detroit to Metro Airport, slept on a bench and caught the first Delta Flight to Indianapolis. There were a few minor setbacks but I got there in time.

Somewhere over the mid-west at 35,000+ feet Brick, my Dad, said that if he jerked the controls it could tear the wings off the aircraft. But gently was no problem. Of course he knew that the company DC-9 was coming eastbound 1,000 feet below us. At that very moment Brick did a quarter of a roll and I watched the eastbound flight pass under as I looked out the left side cockpit window. For the brief moment I realized I was looking straight down and then just as quickly was flying level. All done without any loss of balance.