Ahsa Newsletter
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A.H.S.A. NEWSLETTER Published by the Aviation Historical Society of Australia Inc. A0033653P, ARBN 092-671-773 Volume 28 Number 4, December 2012 Print Post approved 318780/00033 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.ahsa.org.au Editor: NEIL FOLLETT Editorial Comment. This will probably be the last news¬ Additionally, by the time that this is being read by Australia letter delivered by mail. It is expected future one will be -wide and overseas members, the AHSA Website should emailed, but a hard copy will be mailed to those who do be in service to provide the many benefits expected there not have email facilities. from. As I expected we have not been inundated with candidates While membership has increased slightly, I urge all mem¬ to take over as newsletter editor. Our short list of appli¬ bers to be active in promotion and the recruiting of further cants is so short it doesn t exist. numbers in their own circles. Bear in mind the benefits of larger numbers in keeping down prices of journal and The position is still open and if not filled will probably result newsletter production and membership fees. With Christ¬ in the newsletter becoming extinct. mas only four months away, plus many birthdays ahead there must be many nephews, sons, or aviation-ambitious 2012 Annual General Meeting. At the 2012 AGM held on teenagers to whom a subscription may well be very pleas¬ 22 August the following members were elected unop¬ ing. To repeat, I urge all members to be a promoter. posed. Our Queensland Branch is showing signs of increased President: Keith Meggs. OAM, DFM, AM (US) activity and membership under the appointment of a new Vice President: Alan Patching. AM chairman, George Palmer, ex Ansett and Singapore 747 Secretary: Allan Trower Captain, and with a very-active and knowledgeable back¬ Treasurer: Antony Grage ground in aviation. My encouragement goes to all Committee: Neil Follett, Roland Jahne. Queensland members to assist George in making the Branch a viable organisation, in a state which has a rich 2011-2012 President s Report. source of research from the earliest days of aviation, even I m pleased to pre¬ before QANTAS. Go to it! sent the Annual Re¬ port , which indi¬ It would be very pleasing if we could add to the East cates a pleasing Coast branches with similar ones in South and West Aus¬ increase in interest, tralia and the Northern Territory. While there are members activity, member¬ in al of them, there is no organisation therein. ship, and publication standards. While Within our many members, there is a lot of experience and there is still more to interest in the various aspects of, and activities in aviation, be done, it is obvi¬ providing a large collective amount of unrecorded material. ous that the intro¬ duction of a number Please commit your own memories and records to paper of specialized com¬ and submit them for the benefit of all. You don’t have to mittees has been of be a Shakespeare or a Tom Clancy. great benefit, with the input to them of Keith R. Meggs. OAM. DFM, AM(US). members with ex¬ pertise and interests which were not pre¬ The annual, not to be missed, AHSA Bar-B-Que. viously benefitting the Society. To be held on Sunday December 16th at Moorabbin Air¬ port, in the usual spot, under the trees adjacent to the One major benefit already evident is the presentation and fence on entry to the aerodrome. content of the journal, under the previous editor, but ho has since resigned and been superseded by the long-time Bring your own liquid refreshments, and seating. Cooking member and secretary/cum Newsletter Editor, Neil Follett facilities, condiments and good company supplied. who I m sure will maintain the high standard reached and also improve on it. The introduction of colour is gaining In the case of usual location being clagged in, the recom¬ ground. mended alternative is the Aircraft Museum. Please plan for extra fuel reserves to allow diversion to the alternative.. 1 Melbourne eetings. May 2012. Peter Carr spoke about the early days of the Ultra July 2012. Our guest speaker was Neville Ruttledge who Light Aircraft Association. His powerpoint presentation spoke of his WW2 experiences as a navigator with 30 showed examples of some of the first ultralights built in Aus- Squadron RAAF. tralia. August 2012. After the AGM our guest speaker was member John McCullough who gave an interesting illustrated lecture on the formation and operations of the Commercial Aviation Company by Home Miller and Arthur Kennedy. The company was started on 8 October 1920 and ran until December 1921 operating from Rochester, Victoria, and in that period made a profit with no accidents!! Their aeroplane an FK-8 was re¬ tained by Miller but was later sold to QANTAS. Only remain¬ ing evidence of the operation is a Beardmore engine and a model of the FK-8 in the QANTAS Sydney lounge, and a photo in the Peter Carr. TAA Muse¬ um in the June 2012. Russell Darbyshire s subject was The Dar- QANTAS byshire s in Aviation Member Leigh Ryan remarked that the simulator Darbyshire family tree resembled an aircraft parts catalogue building, considering the number of Darbyshires that were involved in Essendon. aviation. Russell with some of the aircraft he spoke about. 2 September 2012. Guest speaker was Mike Rosel, who has October 2012 Our guest speaker was Mrs Jean Rickards, just published his book on R.A. Little. the daughter of Australian-born aviator John Stanley Stocks, who spoke on her experiences in aviation, both with her fa¬ ther and on her own account. John Stocks flew with the RFC and the RAF, and in the 1930s flew flying boats for Imperial Airways and helped es¬ tablish the Egyptian Army Air Force. At the outbreak of WW2 he was on liaison with Boeing, and they returned to England where Jean joined the WAAF as an intelligence officer. She brought her father’s albums from 1918 with photos of Allied and German WW1 aircraft. Jean spoke of her experiences as a radar operator during WW2, based on the south coast of England. An amusing aspect (definitely not at the time) was her account of being ’chased’ around a haystack by a Messerschmitt 109 making several strafing runs from different directions. Mike and book after his talk. Mike Rosel (born Melbourne) was a journalist on Australia s largest-circulation daily, The Sun, in the early 1960s before joining the Federal Government s Australian Information Ser¬ vice. He served as a public affairs officer at the Australian Embassy in Washington DC (1972-75) and at the Australian Jean in a thoughtful pose while enjoying a cup of tea after High Commission in London (1979-81) and wrote widely, her talk. especially on science, technology and historical subjects, for government publications. Jean is a delightful lady and despite her age was extremely articulate and her non-aviation anecdotes were as interesting He served twice as national public relations officer for Aus¬ as her aeronautical ones. tralia’s Bureau of Meteorology and still contributes to Bureau publications. Since leaving fulltime work he has written and taken photographs for travel and technology magazines, and for university publications. His interests include military histo¬ From Gary Sunderland. Re the last (very excellent) talk by ry, photography and tennis. Mrs. Jean Rickards, I checked the Royal Aero Club Certifi¬ cate list in the Cross and Cockade International Journal and This first biography of Little would hardly have been possible found that John Lawrence Stocks was awarded number without the Little collections ( logbooks, medals and memo¬ 4471 on6 April 1917, rabilia) lodged by descendants in 1978 with the Australian War Memorial and Australian Defence Force Academy in At that time there were no Camel squadrons at the front, Canberra. While almost no personal family documents are only Pups. If someone can suggest in which squadrons known, research in museums and national archives and in¬ Stocks may have served I can check the Squadron histories terviews in France, London and Australia fleshed out the for information on his service and eventual combats. Little saga.) 3 Obituary. Air Commodore James Coward RAF.(ret) ill’s staff, where he was in charge of ensuring the Prime Min¬ ister’s safety from air attack at Chequers and Chartwell. After As a flight of Nazi bombers were returning to France, they promotion to squadron leader in late 1941, he was appointed encountered No. 19 Squadron s Spitfires. Flying Officer flight commander at an operational training unit at Aston James Coward saw a Dornier and lined up for a beautiful Down. Further command appointments followed and in 1944 shot but, he later recalled, when I pressed the firing button he moved to the Air Ministry in charge of operational fighter absolutely nothing happened’. His guns had jammed. Then, ‘I training. suddenly felt a hard kick on the shin. I looked round and I saw my bare foot sitting on the rudder pedal’. His shoe and sock had disappeared; his foot was hanging by the ligaments. He James Coward’s service in the RAF did not end in didn’t have time to think about the pain because his Spitfire 1945. After staff appointments and an attache posting to Nor¬ was diving out of control. ‘I was sucked out of the cockpit and way, he was Wing Commander Flying at the Meteor Ad¬ my parachute got caught and I was trapped. I was dragged vanced Flying Training School. On 1 January 1954 he was back along the fuselage, my trousers had blown off and my awarded the Air Force Cross for demonstrating the dangers foot was banging around my knee’.