Intra trips always seemed to start with a last-minute phone call, this one   however, was a little unusual in that the call arrived about 10.00 am. Try and get some sleep today Mike, we want you and Chris to fly tonight, taking MPO down to Naples stopping on route at Le Mans to pick up a load of day old chickens.      It was the 19th of December 1977 and Derek’s first words of “don’t worry Mike we’ll get you back by Christmas Eve”, led into the next part of the trip. “Have at least 12 hours rest in Naples whilst Alan and Peter, who are positioning by BEA to Naples, take over PO on your arrival and continue on to Izmir, unload the Chickens (most still alive we hope) and then position back to Naples for you and Chris to then bring it back to Jersey, you should be back in two days!!”   The thought occurred to me that a DC-3 and 29500 live day-old chicks were not going to be a “Silent Night”.         ...