At the end of October he launched an appeal against his earlier conviction for assault.
In December he proposed to Kirstie Morgan (also a vet) while airborne, and she accepted. But he also had headsets, emergency distress beacons and radio batteries stolen from his plane while parked in a farmer's field delivering presents to his [Kirk's] 86 year old mother.
The dangerous flying case resumed in January, and Kirk admitted to having lied about claiming mechanical trouble was the cause of his stunts.
"That part of my evidence was deliberately false in order to see how the prosecution behaved," he said. "I had a legal right to land, and land I did. I do not have to give any reason to land if the law allows me to land. The case is held on one flight manoeuvre only."
He was found guilty, fined £1,500 and ordered to pay £7,707. The Western Daily Press, 16 January 1999, reported that at one point Kirk had " approached the magistrates waving his spectacles in a heated outburst. The vet, who was defending himself, told the magistrates: "You are out of your depth. I advise you to get legal advice on aviation matters." He was then threatened with contempt of court proceedings and four police officers were called to keep order in the court."
He tried to get a judicial review of his conviction for low flying, the suspension of his flying license, and his conviction for assault in June 1999, asking the High Court judge if he was a mason (apparently not) in the process. The attempt was dismissed. However, in July his appeal against the CAA's 17 year flying ban was upheld by Taunton Crown Court, who decided Kirk had no case to answer.
The Western Daily Press summarises (23 July 1999), and provides some detail of earlier antics:
In October, Kirk tried to get £100K costs against the CAA.Mr Kirk, aged 54, from Barry, South Wales, was grounded in January after being accused of terrifying spectators at a cider fair in Taunton.
It was claimed that the flamboyant aviator played a game of "touch and go" bringing his vintage Piper Club into land, then taking off again immediately.
It was alleged he brought the 56-year-old aircraft within 500 feet of buildings and crowds at the annual Sheppy's Cider Fair.
It was claimed that Mr Kirk's alleged aerobatics endangered himself and the fair-goers.
The Civil Aviation Authority received a number of complaints, and when Mr Kirk's log book was examined, it showed that he had made eight landings and take-offs in two and a half hours of flying.
The flying vet, known as "Captain Kirk" or "Biggles", maintained that the single-wing aircraft, which he had bought in 1978, developed an oil leak.
He was attempting to make an emergency landing at the fair, which he was entitled to do under aviation rules.
The manoeuvre was aborted when he saw the crowds, and he eventually landed at Taunton racecourse, four miles away.
After a three-day hearing in Taunton Crown court, it was decided yesterday that Mr Kirk had no case to answer. His appeal was allowed, and 13,000 fines and costs were quashed.
A delighted Mr Kirk vowed to take to the air immediately, and said: "I have not been able to pilot my plane for several months since the CAA imposed the ban.
"I will be flying tonight to celebrate. They had banned me for 17 years, and if it had remained in force I would be too old to fly ever again."
The ex-Taunton public schoolboy is no stranger to brushes with the authorities and his revelry with the late actor, Oliver Reed, became legendary.
He once had to stitch up a severe cut which Reed sustained in an incident in Guernsey.
Mr Kirk first hit the headlines when he flew a light aircraft under London's Tower Bridge.
Later, wearing top hat and tails, he parachuted to his wedding, after he had proposed to his first wife Janet, 100ft under water during a Mediterranean holiday.
He trained as a pilot in the RAF Reserve while he was studying as a vet at Bristol University.
Two years ago he escaped uninjured when his plane crashed on Brent Knoll hilltop near the M5.
Last night the CAA said it was studying details of Mr Kirk's appeal, and confirmed that the ban had been lifted.
In January 2000, he was in trouble again, this time accused of "assault, criminal damage and failing to provide a breath test" the previous October. He declined to say who he would plead, and "not guilty" pleas were entered for him. He also faced a new public order offence for threatening to tip a Bristol prosecutor upside down and "use her as a money box".
On August 2 2000, the Carmarthen Journal reported:
And on February 8 2001, the Bristol Post was reporting:Quick thinking vet Maurice Kirk averted a threatened air tragedy by landing his stricken aircraft safely in a Carmarthenshire field. And his skilled reaction to a potential life-or-death drama has been hailed as "absolutely superb." Returning in his mock World War One De Havilland DH2 fighter plane to its base in Withybush in Haverfordwest a mid air collision with a bird shattered his plane's propeller forcing Mr. Kirk into a daredevil landing.
He was returning from a display in the Farnborough air show and managed to bring the plane safely to ground at 5.30pm on Sunday in one of the fields of Tirbach farm in Ferryside.
"I was flying back from the Farnborough air show and when I was over the estuary between Llansteffan and Ferryside I hit what I think was a big black bird and it broke the propeller," said 55-year-old Mr. Kirk, "The circumstances caused me to focus my mind and as it was a high tide I could not land on the beach. There was no option but to land on what was a steep field." Luckily for the pilot, who works in the Barry Veterinary Hospital and has been flying for 35 years, this sort of landing was nothing new.
"This was my 14th emergency landing and when the chips are down I know what to do," he said.
His exploits won immediate praise from his friend and fellow-pilot, Ferryside man Brian Brooks.
"I heard the plane coming overhead and then I heard a loud bang and saw him altering his course. It was an absolutely superb landing and there was no damage to either the field or the plane," he said.
The pilot's skillful handling of the situation in which nobody was hurt also drew plaudits from Sgt. Jeremy John of Carmarthen police's community safety department.
"I would like to congratulate the pilot on what was a good piece of flying, and it is obviously a tribute to his flying skills that he helped avert what could have been a highly dangerous situation," he said.
Inquistive villagers flocked to take a look at the stranded aircraft before Kirk dismantles it to rebuild it at its Withybush home.
In March an anonymous American donor paid his entry fee.FLYING vet Maurice Kirk, pictured, could be forced to withdraw from an air race to Australia.
He has been advised to that the plane he was hoping to fly in the London Sydney Centenary Air Race 2001 is inappropriate because it could not be modified to carry the amount of fuel needed.
Mr Kirk has also had problems raising the sponsorship money needed.
But he says he will still enter if a sponsor is found before the competitors set off for the other side of the world on March 11.
He has another plane - a Piper Club - which he is hoping to convert to use on the trip.
It currently has a 12 gallon tank but Mr Kirk is now installing tanks which will take up to 60 gallons of fuel.
The plane was used in the D-Day landings and was believed to have been US General Patton's personal aircraft.
And so it goes on.
By the way, Kirk somehow completed the trip.
Wales on Sunday, 8 April 2001:
A bit of extra biographical info from the Western Mail, 3 March 2001:Welsh pilot Maurice Kirk - nickname the Flying Vet - has successfully completed the Britain to Australia air race.
The 57-year-old Piper Cub only just scraped over the finish line.
"She's falling apart, " Cardiff-based Kirk said of his plane before setting off on the final leg to Sydney.
The aircraft, nicknamed the grasshopper, was sporting torn canvas on its fuselage, shattered perspex on its windshield and cracks in the propeller.
"She's got a serious oil leak and lots of instruments have packed up, " added Kirk.
Fellow racer Mark Graham said the other competitors were just glad Kirk had made it in one piece.
"It's a crazy aircraft to try and do this in, " he said. "It's underpowered, it's light and it's old and he's been flying it over some very inhospitable terrain.
"He's either a really brave guy or a lunatic."
And then we reach 2002, which we know about already.His father Dennis was a flying vet who used to visit farms in the west of England by plane in the 1940s and 1950s.
He followed in his flight path after a speeding offence caused him to lose his licence.
Since then his career has taken him from the West Country via the Channel Islands to South Wales.
Trained to fly while a member of the RAF voluntary reserve at university, his passion for flying and vintage aircraft has continued.
Married with four children, he has been flying for 35 years and as well as being a professional vet he is an aerial photographer.
He owns a De Havilland II replica - the same plane in which Welshman Lionel Rees became the first man to win a Victoria Cross in a plane during World War I - and his 90-horsepower Piper Cub.
He found the plane, which is believed to have once been used by General Patton, in a barn near Strasbourg, France, in 1975 and brought her back to Britain in a harrowing flight through blizzards.
