Having worked out which Ian you are - I am disappointed to say
the least.

I attended Ralph’s funeral and it was a very sad occasion, but
being able to share our stories about a person who I respected
both as a pilot and a businessman makes me proud to have
known him. As Peter has pointed out the number of people also
there is testament to the respect we all had for him.

I was particularly impressed by his ability to find work as you so
well illustrated in your post. I had the opportunity to witness this
on several occasions, one time as a slightly stunned and
thankfully un-injured customer and also from the back of his
Robin as he surveyed a glider that had just modified itself with
some decorative fence posts.

You make your own luck in life, Ralph certainly did - do you?

GG

At 12:12 20 March 2009, The Real Doctor wrote:
On 9 Mar, 12:30, Walter Kahn wrote:
Very sadly Ralph Jones, one of the 'greats' of British Gliding
died in
hospital early on Sunday morning.

A truly remarkable man. The first I heard of him was from a
Lasham
pilot who owned a K6e and had the misfortune to break the
canopy in a
field landing. As soon as she got home she rang Bob Reece
(Rematic) to
buy a new one, only to find that he had none in stock and
couldn't
make one for a considerable while. He /had/ had one in stock,
but
Ralph Jones had bought it just an hour or so before.

So she rang Ralph - who had, of course, heard of the damage
through
the Lasham grapevine. Delightfully and helpfully he offered to
sell
her the one he had just bought, the only one available in
Britain. At
a one hundred percent markup. Plus fitting charge, although
she was
perfectly capable of fitting it herself.

The result - she was hundreds of pounds out of pocket and
had to
curtail her gliding activity for a year as a result.

Ian