Sheffield grandma, Violet Garratty, 91, reminices about her first ever flying lesson when she was 80.

The Star, Sheffield

Violet Garratty will retire shortly after her 92nd birthday this year after decades working in both the entertainment and hospitality businesses.  She spoke with The Star about her daredevil tendencies and her experience learning to fly at 80 years of age.

Transcript

00:00 What made you choose to learn to fly in the 80s?

00:02 Oh it was my son. My brother lived near the Chiltern Mountains, lived in Buckingham,

00:09 and it wasn't far from the Chiltern Mountains. And I always wanted, we used to go and watch him

00:17 paraglide. And I said, "Oh one day, Ernest, I'm going to come and I'm going to have a go

00:24 jumping off. I fancy jumping off paragliding." So my son, you see, he couldn't get me to

00:31 paragliding. He thought, "Best, next best, flying lesson." So when I was 80, he says,

00:41 "I've got a nice surprise for you, Mum." And yeah, so they took me out like, and he said,

00:50 "I've got you a flying lesson." I went, "Oh, fantastic." I was right excited, you know.

00:57 They thought, "Oh, I'd be frightened," you know, but I wanted to look forward to it.

01:01 Anyhow, you go, and I got into the plane, and once you get up in the air,

01:10 the pilot gives you the controls. And so you do what he tells you to do, you know.

01:19 And it was fantastic. And he said, "Where would you like to go?" I says, "Oh," I said, "I'd like

01:24 to go over Otter." So he said, "Right." So we went right out to the Pennines, and we came over Kenwood,

01:32 and he took it a little bit lower, you know. So that was quite exciting, you know.

01:39 [ Silence ]

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