at Toronto airport.

As he lugged his bags, he looked like hundreds of other business executives who pass through the terminal daily.

Only his bag contained something more lethal than paperwork and files...a gun carefully taped and hidden among electrical boxes.

One obstacle stood between him and another mid-air terrorist outrage -- the striking security lady at the final "baggage check'' area.

It was time for him to employ a different tactic, a terrorist's easy charm; And the ploy worked a treat.

"You're far too nice for me to check your bags,'' the woman said, flashing a smile and a green light to terrorism.

Two steps beyond the checkpoint, and the man dropped his mask.

Capt. Randy Pitcher was no businessman. Nor a terrorist. To the woman's shock and horror he was -- and has been for nine years -- the chief inspector for all airbuses in Canada.

Working for Transport Canada, the country's federal aviation authority, security is one of his key concerns.

And he had just exposed a glaring breach of it at Toronto airport.

The security company was fined $2,500 and the woman who failed to check the bags was fired.

That was three years ago. It was the only time Capt. Pitcher -- the first Bermudian in such a job -- sneaked a gun through airport checkpoints.

But in an age of terrorism, highlighted by last month's TWA explosion, one slip-up could prove disastrous.

"When I do such checks I have to think like a terrorist,'' the 46-year-old explains.

"Sometimes I grow a beard and wear shoddy clothing. Other times, as on this occasion, I dress smartly.'' Security, and keeping staff on their toes through subterfuge, is just one part of an amazingly varied job.

With 12 inspectors under him, Capt. Pitcher also puts would-be pilots and flight attendants through their flying paces through rigorous and regular training.

In addition, he checks conditions of ramps and taxiways, the maintenance of aircraft, and ensures air-traffic control is operating smoothly.

That might seem a stressful workload for one man, but the job does not end there.

For Capt. Pitcher has also become a "shining star'' on the lecture circuit, speaking to high schoolchildren on career days.

It is a role he treats seriously.

To Capt. Pitcher the key to success lies not with luck, but another, often forgotten, four-letter word: WORK.

"Too often these days children think why bother working hard because there won't be anything for them at the end of the day.

"That is not the right attitude. You can succeed if you are prepared to work.'' The St. David's Islander, who now lives just north of Toronto in the beautiful Caledon Hills but still has family in Bermuda, began his school life at Francis Patton and Churchill Boys School, before going to St. George's Secondary.

As a young man in Bermuda he became bitten by the flying bug under the expert instruction of Wing Cdr. Mo Ware. He honed his skills on a sea-plane.

And it proved invaluable experience when he trained as an airline pilot.

"In the old days you needed a good background in physics and maths, but that is not so much the case these days because of the use of computers in flying.

We call it fly-by-wire technology.

"Today you need a university degree and must have a commercial pilot's licence. Those are basic requirements just to apply to become an airline pilot.

"You don't have to have perfect eyesight, however. You can wear glasses.'' It takes two years to reach an acceptable airline pilot standard, he says.

Capt. Pitcher, who has Bermudian-Canadian citizenship, recalls a few hair-raising moments during his early flying career.

Once when piloting a small executive jet from Montreal to St. John's, Newfoundland, he almost ran out of fuel. Thick fog had drawn a veil across St.

John's, making it difficult and hazardous to land.

Attempts to land elsewhere also proved in vain.

Finally, with just 15 minutes of fuel left, he guided the plane down to a former military base in Stephenville, on Newfoundland's west coast.

Another close call came in 1976 in a light twin-engined plane flying car parts from near Detroit to a plant in Oshawa, east of Toronto.

To Capt. Pitcher's horror the plane's landing gear jammed as he neared his destination.

He barely managed to release it through the crudest of methods: Standing at the back of the cockpit and jumping.

The incidents were a test of his nerve -- and he passed with flying colours.

"I must admit I felt a certain amount of nervousness, but when you are in an emergency the last thing you should do is panic.'' A cool head is what he tries to teach pilots, an increasing number of whom are women, who enter his training scheme.

They receive instruction in a sophisticated simulator -- an hydraulics box resembling a cockpit.

Even fully-trained pilots, who can earn up to $200,000-a-year before tax, have to enter the box as their skills are kept under constant review.

"The hardest part of the job is to take away the career of a senior pilot because he no longer meets the required standard,'' says Capt. Pitcher.

Most pilots, and all captains, retire at 60.

Retirement is not a word which currently features in Capt. Pitcher's vocabulary.

For an airman who thrives on being busy, retirement would be an almost cruel clipping of the wings.

Even during his interview with The Royal Gazette , his mind was on the job.

After being photographed in an Air Canada airbus cockpit, he noticed a piece of plastic on the tarmac about 30 feet from one of the engines.

He picked it up critically, and handed it to a maintenance man.

"Do you know how much damage that could cause if the engines were running?'' he said. "Anything, including you or I, within 10 feet of them would get sucked up.''