David Gold, aviator and businessman. Part 2
an air taxi for a flight up to a match in Newcastle," he explained. "After asking where the company was, I was directed towards a shed, where there seemed to be nobody at home. Eventually, what appeared to be a 14-year-old in epaulettes comes across, explains that he's my pilot for the trip, and takes me and my brother, who I was travelling with, over to an ancient Piper Aztec for the journey.
"By this time there's no turning back, so my brother and I get into the plane. By 300ft, we've gone straight into cloud and by the time we've got to 1,000ft, the pilot is smoking a cigarette and drinking from a can of Coke. If I hadn't have been a pilot, I might have thought it was OK, but I was sitting there absolutely terrified."
While this experience might have put lesser men off charter flights altogether, Gold recognised the need to act. The following day, in typically dynamic style, he ordered a brand-new King Air 200, complete with two in-house pilots, to deal with his business needs and those of his brother.
"...with a helicopter, it's so 'hands-on' - you're flying every second and really feeling what's happening "
Soon, however, with requests from friends and business colleagues demonstrating the demand for quality air charter travel, Gold found himself ordering a second King Air, buying a hangar at Biggin Hill and founding his own charter air service - Gold Air International. Today this highly successful business runs five LearJet 45s, plus a Hawker 800, offering businessmen and celebrities a high-quality, reliable charter air service throughout Europe.
Around the same time that the fledgling Gold Air was finding its feet, Gold met a 75-year-old Russian pilot and his wife who had flown into Biggin Hill from Russia in their own Lear Jet.
"For me it was a great motivational moment," recalled Gold. "Not only did it move Gold Air International towards operating Lear Jets, but it also motivated me into getting my licence back."
So Gold returned to flying, taking a new set of lessons, sitting ground exams, and enjoying every moment. "It was wonderful, and just like riding a bike - it all came back with no real problems, along with once again experiencing the thrills of going solo and earning the licence."
Three years later, he added a helicopter licence to his fixed-wing qualification, something that he says years earlier.
"All of my flying has been as a gentleman tourer, with autopilot, air conditioning and all of those quality facilities in a fixed-wing aircraft. But with a helicopter, it's so 'hands-on' - you're flying every second and really feeling what's happening, something that just isn't the case with my luxury Turbo 182 Cessna."
(above) David's 4 seater Cessna 182, GOLD-GOf course, as any pilot will tell you, even with all the latest instruments aboard, a beautiful aircraft such as the 182 Cessna doesn't give a pilot immunity from accidents, as Gold found out a couple of years ago.
On a regular flight from the private strip in his garden to see the Birmingham City players practise at their Midlands training facility, Gold was forced to land at a slightly different part of the facility than the one he was used to.
"Looking back on it, there were a number of different issues that influenced what was to happen next," he explained. "Birmingham air traffic control said that the wind was calm, and in fact I probably had six or seven knots on my tail. The grass had been cut that morning so the whole surface was little cuttings, and I subsequently learnt that this was like ball bearings to an aircraft. And I was probably coming in five knots faster than normal. So all of those three things added together, and the runway was suddenly 20 yards too short.
