Wings of Duty — Page 28

Syed Muhammad Ahmad 28 next morning, again by coach, I returned to Walton Airport. Upon taking delivery of the plane, I found that its tyres were almost flat, its batteries were dead and it was covered in dirt. In those days, due to civil unrest, it was difficult to find any workmen. I spent half a day patching up the plane myself and managed to get it airworthy. I also succeeded in getting it reasonably clean, though in the process I became filthy myself. By afternoon the plane was ready to fly and I had been able to locate a map. Despite never having flown a plane of that type before, I was able to manage a test flight. After that, taking Allah’s name, I flew to Qadian and reached there in 45 minutes. I knew where I was supposed to land in Qadian, but on my approach, I saw that what looked to be a clear landing strip on the eastern side of Darul Anwar was at closer inspection 9 inches of mud due to recent rains. There were deep ruts in the surface and the plane slipped from side to side as I applied the brakes during the landing. Once I had made my descent, I taxied slowly to an open plot in Darul Anwar to park the airplane. After getting out, I stuck spikes into the ground at the tips of both wings and tied the wings to the spikes with rope so that the aircraft would not move if there was a