I waited until the other machine was very close, then I stood up, waving my arms.

“It’s me. Help!” I shouted. Not very informative, but the best I could do in the circumstances.

The other aeroplane signaled to me, a thumbs-up, which I took to be a good thing. I could see two flyers in helmets and goggles staring at me before their machine rose and began to fly over me. It was hovering over me like a giant dragonfly, its shape blotting out the sun, then something snaked down beside me, almost whacked me on the head then swung out again. I realized that it was a rope ladder. Surely they weren’t expecting me to grab it and climb up? On second thought this was a better choice than crashing into the ocean.

As I was leaning out, trying to catch it as it bobbed and danced in the wind, I realized that someone was climbing down it. Soon this person had hold of the upper wing and was standing on the wooden fuselage right in front of me.

“Can you climb up the ladder, do you think?” he shouted.

“I don’t know.” I looked up at the other plane. “My hands are freezing.”

At that moment the decision was taken from me. A large cloud loomed in front of us.

“Too late,” the man snapped and released the ladder. “Quick. Move up front. I need to fly this thing.” I didn’t really have time to think as we were swallowed up in cloud. “Careful now,” he said, as I stood up and he stepped down into the cockpit beside me. He held on to me firmly as I reversed my previous maneuver, inching around the windshield and into the front seat.

“Good girl,” he shouted. “Strap yourself in.”

We came out of cloud into bright sunshine. There was no sign of the other plane.

“I don’t want to do that again in a hurry,” my visitor shouted. Finally I recognized the voice. I turned to look at him. It was Darcy.

“What are you doing up here?” I yelled back to him.

“How about ‘Thank you for coming to rescue me’?”

“Do you know how to fly one of these things?”

“No, but I’ve got the instruction book here. You can read it to me.” He reached into his jacket and then looked at my face and laughed. “Actually I have flown a plane before. I’ll get us down safely.”

Suddenly I felt my stomach drop as the plane swung to the right. We were circling, dropping lower and lower. There was a large sea loch ahead of us. We were skimming over bright water. Then we were bumping crazily until we came to a stop a few yards short of a rocky outcropping.

Darcy unbuttoned his helmet and took off his goggles. “Phew, that was close,” he said, standing up. “I’ve never landed on water before.”