Pretoria Central

Today in the studio we are sitting down with an absolute titan of South African aviation.

He started his career walking the beat as a young constable at Pretoria Central in 1980 and retired just a few weeks ago as the longest serving pilot in the history of the South African Police Service Air Wing.

Serving under 11 national commissioners, he has logged an astonishing 16,900 flight hours, split almost perfectly between fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters.

He has flown almost everything from the Pilatus Porter to the Cessna Sovereign jet, the MD-500 and the BO-105.

As a, well, I, the first two years, national service as a constable.

Okay.

And then I joined permanently still as a constable, and that was in Pretoria Central Police Station in town in Pretoria.

Okay.

hmm

And because this is Pretoria Central, so everybody would get on the bus.

We just got on the bus.

Okay, the first time around, it wasn't the bus.

A well-educated man who has worked every country in the world.

A fellow I knew in Pretoria told me all about him, and he'd seen him in Pretoria Central.

That's the name of the jail.

How perfectly horrible, said Beryl with a grimace.