Peter's a 'knight'

Peter got back from Sweden on Saturday ... he had a great time, especially the day that he got to fly in the Gripen. The Gripen is a 4th generation fighter plane made by Saab in Sweden (yes, the same as Saab who make cars). This is apparently quite an incredible accomplishment since the population of Sweden is only 8 million. During the flight, they pulled 7g, which is nothing for this aircraft as it can pull up to 9.3g! The reason they weren't allowed to surpass 7g was because recently a guy had carried out an inadvertent ejection by pulling more than that!! Needless to say, I am glad that 7g was the maximum :)


Because he was priveleged to be one of the few people who get to fly in a Gripen (under 1000 have flown it) he automatically became a knight in the 'Order of the Gripen' ... this is some weird airforce/military tradition ... anyway, as part of the process Peter was required to write a poem about his flight in the Gripen and the pilot he flew with. Then, on Friday night there had a formal dinner (Peter wore his new suit) where each person had to read their poem, and get hit over the head with a small replica of the Gripen. He now has a certificate declaring his 'knighthood' and a picture of the ETPS group who went to Sweden to fly the plane; in the background is the plane itself and its vertical tail is even painted especially with the ETPS colors and logo! Anyway, it was a pretty good time for Peter, he even got to land the plane, which was very exciting (so I hear).


On Friday, the first of my friends arrives from Canada, and then on Saturday we are training in to London to meet the other 3. We are going to have a lot of fun, we'll be staying in the Savoy hotel in London which is a really posh, swanky place! Should be a good weekend - then the 5 of us will come back to Amesbury and the girls are staying for another week and a half - two weeks.

Keep you posted!

Team PM