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■ ■ . / i ■ 1 ■ ■ WA DH 60’s * ff i Amelia Earhart at Darwin _ 'j ■ ■f I ■ The Journal of the AVIATION HISTORICAL SOCIETY of AUSTRALIA Inc. A00336533P, ARBN 092-671-773 Volume 33 - Number 1 - March 2002

EDITORS, DESIGN & PRODUCTION EDITORIAL Bill and Judith Baker Welcome to the 33’^“ Volume of The Journal/Aviation Address all correspondence to; Heritage'. The year 2002 is well under way and I have some The Editor, AHSA, good articles lined up for this year. Of course there is not be P.O. Box 2007, enough to last the year, so keep sending your contributions South Melbourne 3205 Victoria, Australia. in. Please note my wish list to give you a few ideas. It is 03 9583 4072 Phone & Fax interesting to see, however, that only about 5% of our E.mall: [email protected] members provide items. Now I know that a lot of members www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/ahsa.html are pursuing various projects that will interest us all, so write Subscription Rates; it up. Times running out for some of the interesting events Australia A$45. and people in the aviation past. Record it now. Rest of World A$68. If you have some queries that you cannot solve, make Overseas payment to be in Australian use of the Newsletter. currency by International Money Order or The biggest problem facing the Society, and I have Bank Draft. Overseas personal cheques mentioned this before, is MEMBERSHIP. No group, be it a cannot be accepted. Historical Society, Bowls Club or a Rotary Cub, can survive if it doesn't expand its membership base. We have over the Articles for Publication; last couple of years grown about 15%, but this is not enough Are to be on an Australian theme. to give the members the services which they desire and to The Editor reserves the right to edit any lower our fees, we must expand. Over to YOU!! article accepted for publication. Payment is not made for articles. Editors wish list; Please include sufficient postage for the Priority 1: First to Fly in Australia^ Still waiting, waiting.) return of originals if that is required. Any facet of Australia’s aviation history, Malaya, GAF A - H and the Computer; Contributions for Nomad, Korea, Vietnam, anything that interests you and can the Journal are most welcome in any form, be printed. How about the history of Airbus in Australia? Or but if you have a computer, exported on a some photos out of your collection for the Members Photo 3V2" disc in ASSCII format (plain text), or Page? Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands come WIN 6, would be just great! (Include hard under our banner also. Anything!! copy also). However Macintosh discs can be Cover: A beautiful, evocative picture of the early morning translated. All photographs submitted will be pre flight preparation of RAAF DH60 A7-9. This aircraft copied and the originals returned within 5 became VH-UAO. days of receipt. Disclaimer; Next Issue; Volume 33 Number 2 will be in your letter-box in the first week of June 2002. 1. Whilst every effort is made to check the authenticity of the material and advertising Contents; printed, the Publishers, Editors, and the 3 WA's DH60 Moths Edward Fletcher Aviation Historical Society of Australia and its 15 No. 2 Air Trials Unit Milton Cottee Office Bearers cannot accept responsibility 18 Seventy Years Young - DH 82 Mac Job for any non-performance. 19 R,A, (Bob) Gray Greg Banfield 2. The views expressed in 'Aviation 29 Move Over Red Baron John Laming Heritage' are not necessarily those of the 38 Amelia Earhart at Darwin M.J. Flannagan AHSA or its Editors. 41 Australian Waco Biplanes Bob Fripp Meetings of the AHSA; AVIATION HERITAGE Melbourne Branch: The fourth Wednesday in every ISSN 0815 -4392 month, 7:30 at the Airforce Association, 4 Cromwell Street, Print Post Approved PP 320418/00017 South Yarra. Further information - Keith Meggs 9580 0140. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED NSW Branch: The first Wednesday in every month 7:45 © 2001 by the Publishers; Studio 1 at the Powerhouse Museum, enter from the THE AVIATION HISTORICAL Macarthur Street end. Further information Warwick SOCIETY OF Bigsworth 02 9872 2323 AUSTRALIA INC., Queensland Branch: The last Friday in every month 7:30 at the RQAC Archerfield. Meals available. Contact Richard Hitchins, 07 3208 9810 SOUTH MELBOURNE, VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA AHSA Aviation Heritage

PRE-WAR CIVIL AIRCRAFT OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA By EDWARD FLETCHER DH 60 MOTH

The Aero Clubs Moths, VH-UGO and VH-UFK with Harry Bakers VH-UJH ready for a mass take-of at May lands in 1930. Previous articles in this series have commenced with a made a flight between the UK and Australia and one in the short history of the development of the aircraft under reverse direction. Several still exist in museums and as review. However, the genesis and development of the de restoration projects but one, VH-UAO, is still airworthy at Havilland DH 60 Moth has been so well described by the age of 73 and has had an unbroken residence of sixty several authors that repetition here would be tedious. The nine years in WA. But let us go back to the begifining in reader is directed to local author Bruce Winley's excellent 1925. publication "Aussie Moths" for a detailed account of the Two prototypes and eighteen pre-production Moths creation of the DH60 and its several variants. Suffice to were produced before regular manufacture commenced. say that the advent of the Moth in 1925 heralded a new Eleven of these went to the newly-subsidised British aero era in light aircraft. It was sturdy, easily repaired clubs and three came to Australia for evaluation-one to the economical to operate and not unduly expensive. It was Civil Aviation Board where it was registered as G-AUAE In an aircraft for its time as nations became more an more November 1925 and two to the RAAF in 1926 as A7-1 and air-minded and young people with a sense of adventure A7-2. wanted to fly. The DH60 was the ideal trainer, and continued to be used throughout the world until the advent In February 1926, Major Norman Brearley, managing of the second World War when its role was taken over by director of West Australian Airways (WAA) travelled to its subsequent development aircraft, the Tiger Moth. Melbourne from Perth to discuss aviation matters with the Hundreds of men and women learned to fly on the aircraft Controller of Civil Aviation and, while there, was given the In the twenties and thirties and many went on to civil or opportunity to test fly their newly-acquired Moth. On his military careers in aviation. return to Perth he was loud in the praise of the aircraft and told the press that WAA would shortly be calling for pupils The first Moths were fitted with Cirrus I engines which to learn the art of flying, making use of these new de were superseded by those with Cirrus 11 and Cirrus ill Havilland low-powered two-seaters. He added that the power plants and were known as Cirrus Moths. When Defence Department Intended to order six more of these supplies of this engine became scarce, de Havilland aircraft and lend them to Australian Aero Clubs for flying engaged the man who had designed the Cirrus, Major training. Halford, to produce an entirely new engine, the Gipsy I. Like its predecessor, the Gipsy was modified to a Gipsy II Brearley was the President of the WA section of the and III, inverted and then enlarged to the Gipsy Major, an Australian Aero Club but it was a section in name only. engine which carried on to the Tiger Moth. With the This is not surprising as in June 1926 there were only advent of the Gipsy engine, the fuselage frame was twelve registered aircraft in the West and he owned nine produced either in wood or metal, the latter being of them. The other three were all privately owned and considered more suitable for the tropical climates. The were not airworthy so there was little incentive for the club wood variant was known as the DH 60G while the metal to become active as there was nothing to fly and no one to model was dubbed the DH 60M. instruct them. Brearley was aware of the subsidies for training being paid by the Department and decided that he Sixteen DH 60 Moths came to Western Australia, all would form a flying school and commence pilot training but one in the pre-war period. They were owned by a while the Aero Club sorted itself out. WAA (who were complete cross section of the aviation industry being used agents for de Havilland in WA) ordered two Cirrus Moths as ab initio trainers, charter aircraft, commercial from the Stag Lane factory and announced the terms passenger and mail carriers and one even as an air under which instruction would be given. The school was to ambulance. In addition to the resident aircraft, there was a be named The Perth Flying School. considerable number of transient visitors ranging from Australia to UK record breakers, round Australia flights In January 1927 the local press announced that Major and on one momentous occasion, no less than eleven Hereward de Havilland had sailed for Fremantle on the SS arriving virtually simultaneously as entrants in the 1929 Otranto accompanied by two de Havilland staff members, East-West Air Race. They were involved in four fatal Messrs Taylor and Bedford, along with considerable accidents between 1927 and 1939 in which five people aircraft manufacturing equipment. After a short stay in died, and one fatal accident in that period which involved Perth, they would proceed to Melbourne to organise the an experimental aircraft that had a DH 60 fuselage. One construction of a factory to build the Moth aeroplane.

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On 8 February 1927, the ship arrived in Fremantle and manufacture further aircraft had been abandoned, as this unloaded Major de Havilland's Cirrus II Moth G-EBPP and machine was delivered in a fully manufactured condition the major components for the construction of a Cirrus as a DH60X Moth and was registered as G-AUGO, c/n Moth for the Perth Flying School. WAA had a team of 434. These first three Cirrus Moths, along with Gipsy Moth skilled aircraft builders who had only just finished the VH-UKM, were unique in being the only examples of the construction of two DH 50A aircraft and had elected to DH 60 which were bought new and spent their whole lives construct much of the wooden component of the Moth at in WA. Maylands. The components of this aircraft were to also The Perth Flying School then settled down to a well- act as patterns for others to follow. Major de Havilland's organised routine with UFK and UGO and it was not until machine differed slightly from the machine delivered to 1929 that the WA Section of the Australian Aero Club WAA. It was a DH60X Moth which incorporated the latest announced that it had vanquished its only rival. The Light modifications to the design, while the machine for local Aeroplane Club, and was ready to take over the role for use was a 1926 model. G-EBPP was assembled and a which it was created 10 years before. However, the few days later de Havilland gave a demonstration of the advent of the 1929 Centenary Air Race from Sydney to aircraft's aerobatic capabilities to a crowd of several Perth-which gave the locals a sight of 11 Eastern State thousand at the Maylands aerodrome. The next week he flew the Moth to Melbourne taking Squadron Leader Eric Harrison, who had also returned to Australia on the Otranto, as a passenger. The construction of the WAA Moth was completed in two months and air- tested by Stan Brearley on 9 April 1927 and, now registered as G-AUFI, was granted a certificate of airworthiness late in that month. The components of the second DH60 had arrived some time previously and the aircraft was assembled and registered as G-AUFK, coming Into service In May 1927. There is uncertainty as to the constructor's number of these two aircraft. Qantas Jimmy Woods standing alongside G-AUFK, Maylands 1928. had also constructed the DH60 G-AUFJ for their flying school and the numbers Moths- interrupted their plans and it was not until March 277, 278 and 279 were allocated to the three aircraft but in 1930 that the change over could be made. The two Perth what order is unclear. Jackson (De Havilland Aircraft since Flying School Moths were purchased by the Defence 1909) states that Qantas built all three but that is incorrect, Department and handed over to the Aero Club. To some UFI and UFK being built in Western Australia. extent it was only a change in name as WAA still provided The advent of the DH60 marked a milestone in the the instructors and also maintained and hangared the development of aviation in the West. In 1927 WAA was aircraft in their workshops, but now the Aero Club received the only commercial firm operating and virtually every pilot the subsidy. Brearley's school had done a fine job in was a WWI veteran. The only people who had received introducing aviation to the young men and women of any flying training in WA were three apprentices employed Perth, 77 people registering for instruction, 43 receiving by WAA, who had been given some basic flying instruction A licences and a few on their way to a commercial B on the Avro 504 J owned by WAA, and A G Simpson who licence. The activities of the School also succeeded in had made sporadic attempts to enter the aviation scene making aviation well known in the State as Maylands and still owned an ANEC I which he rarely flew. Now, for airfield became quite a gathering place for spectators at the first time since the war, a proper flying school had weekends to see as the "intrepid birdmen and women" do opened using modern training aircraft and competent their training. instructors. The era of the DH 60 Moth in WA had begun. UFK suffered a few minor accidents common to club Cirrus Moths G-AUFI; G-AUFK; G-AUGO Moths but on 9 October 1931, while in flight with T Moran By June, 31 men had applied for flying training and 21 at the controls, the petrol cock vibrated shut and the of them were under instruction. Three had gone solo, Mr engine stopped. Fearing a mechanical failure the pilot LA Wolff earning the distinction of the being the first to do attempted a forced landing on the airfield but crashed so. Just when everything seemed to auger well for the heavily, extensively damaging the aircraft which was never new venture, tragedy struck. On 18 July 1927 Rae Wilson rebuilt. was practising steep turns in G-AUFI and lost control of UGO was to have a far worse fate. Apart from a minor the machine which crashed into the 600 volt power supply landing accident in October 1931, it led a trouble free life cables for the tramway service near the East Perth power until 1933. On 29 November 1933, an international station. The machine wedged in the cross tree of the speedway rider named Sydney Catlett who was a member power pole and caught fire, Wilson falling to the ground of the Aero Club, hired the aircraft for a one hour flight and being struck by the engine of the aircraft when it broke over the nearby foothills. When he had not returned after from the fuselage. He only survived for a few minutes and three hours and his fuel supply known to be exhausted, died before the ambulance reached the hospital. The Moth the alarm was raised and enquiries made over a large caught fire and was totally destroyed. Brearley area as to his whereabouts. The club was soon notified immediately ordered a replacement machine from England that the aircraft had stalled on take-off from an which arrived early in September. Plans to locally unauthorised landing ground at Picton Junction, 120 miles

4 AHSA Aviation Heritage south of Perth with, Catlett and his passenger being killed. from East to West. At the end of her epic trip, which was Catlett only had 20 hours flying in his log book and was conducted in poor weather conditions, she noted that she not authorised to carry passengers nor had he notified the had doubled her flying time hours! In 1933 Irene secured club of his intention to make a cross-country flight. UGO a commercial "B" licence, the first woman to do so in WA. was a total write-off and, being a Defence Department To help with her flying costs she began to hire out the aircraft on loan, had to be replaced by the club. aircraft and UJH suffered considerably in the hands of Unfortunately it was uninsured due to the high premiums some of the pilots. In September 1932, she flew the Moth required. to Lake Perkolilli, where a car race meeting was being held and loaned it to Frank Sissons to take a passenger The increasing interest in aviation at Maylands in the for a joy flight. He came into collision with a spectator's late twenties inspired two men to acquire their own Moths. car, which was driving alongside him as he tried to take off The first to do so was Arthur George Simpson who causing extensive damage to the Moth and also to Irene, imported a new DH60G with a Gipsy I engine in February who was watching the scene and had an attack of 1929 which was registered as G-AUJH c/n 982. hysterics. Remarkably, no one was injured even though DH60G G-AUJH VH-UJH the back of the car was torn off. The Moth had to be Simpson was a very successful brewer of beer and a trucked to Perth for repairs. very unsuccessful aviator. He was a founding member of In February 1933, in the hands of H A Blake, UJH the WA section of the Australian Aero Club in 1919 and suffered a partial engine failure over the city and was a was the only member without wartime flying experience or forced down on a nearby golf course. Blake made a ability to fly an aircraft. Though not a young man he heavy landing which broke two longerons in the airframe. became obsessed with becoming an aviation identity in He tried to rectify the engine defect and broke several the West and proceeded to indulge his dream in a series bones in his hand when the engine backfired while he was of activities and aircraft purchases that ranged from the ill- swinging the propeller to start the engine for a test. Luckily judged to the ridiculous. From 1921 to 1925 he owned an one of Perth's leading surgeons, who was part of a group old Armstrong Whitworth FK8, a tiny ANEC I and an old of one hundred interested golfing bystanders, was able to DH6. By 1928, Simpson had realised that being render immediate aid. unlicensed to fly had left him vulnerable to others that could and so he finally took proper training and secured Slightly over a year later, in March 1934, J C Miles and "A" licence in 1929. He bought his first decent hired the Moth to initiate a programme of night joy rides aircraft, the DH60G, to try and finally make a success of over Perth. UJH was equipped with lights and flares were flying. laid out at Maylands. The first night was very successful, several people paying to go aloft, including a reporter from He entered the aircraft in the 1929 Centenary Air Race the local paper who gave a lyrical account of the beauty of from Sydney to Perth, nominating his wife as his Perth by night from the air. The venture came to a sudden passenger, but they never appeared on the starting line. end the next day when Miles was practising aerobatics at One year later he was part of the old committee of the low altitude in the aircraft and failed to come out of a stall Aero Club who were ousted by the "young lions" of the turn. The resultant antics were spectacular in the club. Now over 50 years of age. he gave up his idea of extreme, the aircraft falling sideways, levelling out and aviation success and sold UJH to the Perth Flying squishing into the ground and striking the river bank just outside the aerodrome boundary with a noise heard half a mile away. Being a Sunday this ensured a good audience for what was to follow. UJH bounced ii and, with the engine still running, tried to clear a six foot high levee bank tearing ill: off the undercarriage as it did so and * then flying on for 300 feet until it hit the * ground, slithered on its belly for some distance until It hit an obstruction and came to a halt considerably bent. Miles stepped from the cockpit unhurt except for a slight cut on the forehead. He admitted to performing aerobatics in a dangerous manner and without permission, Unfortunately, his irresponsible attitude to flying was to have far more serious consequences VH-UJH in the livery of Baker Aviation.. only a few months later as we shall see. School's most spectacular and successful graduate, Harry The estimated cost of the repairs "Cannonball" Baker, who formed the Baker Aviation were more than Irene's already over stretched repair Company to do charter work and give flying training. account could afford. VH-UJH lay idle for over a year Baker was a good instructor and his most notable pupil while she tried to decide what to do , but it was struck off was Miss Irene Dean-Williams who showed great natural the register in April 1935 and her aviation career was over. talent for flying. She gained her "A" licence in May 1931, The remains were sold to Vivian James who owned James and in March 1932 bought the Moth from Baker whose Taxi Planes and who had already operated a Moth for a business had succumbed to the effects of the depression. short time in 1931. He had the machine rebuilt by Solent A few days later, with a total of 64 hours flying time in her Engineering and it was returned to the register in February log book, she flew UJH to Sydney and back, becoming 1936. James operated the machine for eighteen months the first woman to fly an aircraft from West to East and

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and then sold it to the Aero Club, now the Royal Aero Club Australian Aerial Services to take over the business of of WA (RACWA) in August 1937. Western Aerial Services. Smith was included in the list of While the Club had settled down into a steady training directors. When the outspoken Sunday newspaper in routine at Maylands, there were inquiries from country Perth learned of the proposal, it printed a damning expose residents who wanted flying instruction, but could not of Larkin's activities in the Eastern States and the float spare the time to continually travel between outlying areas was abandoned. Nesbit's company changed its name to and the city. The Club evolved a scheme whereby one or Wings Ltd to avoid confusion with Larkin's proposal, listed two aircraft would be stationed at a country centre for its fleet as one Simmonds Spartan VH-UMQ and one short periods of the year with an instructor and ground Gipsy Moth VH-UKM and announced an extensive range engineer. They would give concentrated instruction to of flying training, aerial photography and charter work. pupils over a two-week period. Most of this activity took Smith was also a director of the new company, the only place in the mining regions of Wlluna, Kalgoorlie and person whose name was common to both companies Norseman, but south west towns clamoured to be in the Charles Snook was recruited as another pilot, and the new scheme as well. It was a complex story but caused venture proved most successful as they increased their considerable difficulties when it was in operation as fleet in October 1930 by importing a Puss Moth. It was to damage rate was high due to pilot errors and high winds prove their undoing, the DH80 snapping off a wing two (willy-willys), and city members found that the depletion of weeks later and killing Nesbit and two pupils. Snook took the city fleet left them short of aircraft. This all came to a over the company and Smith appears to changed or head in 1938-39 when the country centres had formed severed his connection with Wings Ltd, as the registration actual clubs, often with mining company support, and of UKM was transferred to the company in November wanted a better and more continuous presence. The 1930. solution was finally found by selling two Moths to the In July 1931, with Duncan Stewart at the controls, UKM Norseman-Kalgoorlie group (ULT and UJH) when the crashed heavily at the north eastern gold mining town of Perth Club had sufficient aircraft to spare. It was really a Leonora when the aircraft hit a fence while taking off. By wasted exercise as the RAAF impressed the aircraft nine then the Depression was biting hard and Wings Ltd was months after they had been acquired. VH-UJH became on its way out of business. The DH60G was never A7-77 and was transferred to Point Cook on 4 December repaired and was struck from the register in November 1939. It became an Instructional Airframe No. 4 in June 1931. The remains were bought by Avi Tours, a company 1940 and was converted to components In January 1945. DH60G VH-UKM The second private owner In WA was Lawrence Smith who purchased a DH60G just In time to escape a G- registration and received VH-UKM instead on 6 April 1929. Smith was a wealthy young pastoralist with a taste for fast cars and boats so aviation offered an adventurous diversion in his life. He qualified as a pilot with the Perth Flying School and threw himself into flying with great enthusiasm. On 4 June 1929, soon after Hugh Grosvenor had left Maylands for Parafield In his Moth G-AUGS on the final stage of his round Australia voyage. Smith and co-pilot Harry Baker set off for the same city. It was to prove an The ill -fated Galwey biplane. uneventful trip as far as Forrest but after leaving there, they ran into heavy fog, so dense that Smith set up by a group of Perth businessmen to finance the could barely see the nose of the aircraft. By flying very construction of a revolutionary new design of biplane with low they were able to pick up the railway line and flew variable incidence wings. The designer, Edward Galwey, back to a fettler's camp they had passed before the fog set used the fuselage and engine of UKM for his experimental in. Baker saw a narrow avenue between the huts and set aircraft, which after a series of minor crashes during its UKM down, pulling up only a few yards away from the huts trials, crashed heavily in November 1932 killing Galwey at the end. The next day the fog had cleared but, as they and finally ending the last vestige of the DH60G. were too late to transact the business in Adelaide they had DH60M VH-UNI c/n 1431 set out to do, they returned to Perth. Subsequent events William Henry Wood was a man of substance, skill and were to indicate that they were possibly going to see business acumen. Born in WA in 1872, he had built up a Jimmy Larkin of Australian Aerial Services. thriving business in the automotive industry, owning a Smith was very friendly with Charles Nesbit, a pilot with large service station and several lucrative agencies WAA who had a desire to set up his own aviation including Speed King motor oil and Golden Fleece petrol. business. In June he formed Western Aerial Services and In the late twenties. Wood cast around for a new venture ordered a Simmonds Spartan three seater. Smith to absorb his boundless energy and decided to start an Invested in the company and, while waiting delivery of the airline in WA. He devised a straightforward plan of action. Spartan, Nesbit used the Moth to make an extensive He and his sons would learn to fly and, having gained their survey of country landing grounds that he might need in commercial licences, would start a company, purchase his new venture. In February 1930, it was announced that aircraft and commence operations. a new company was being floated in WA by Larkin's

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Wood senior and his two eldest sons. Bill and Eric, firm of Barrett Burston who now owned the old AG joined Perth Flying School. Aubrey, the third son, had Simpson company, Union Maltings. Barrett had been suffered a severe motorcycle accident and was unable to taught to fly in UNI by Snook and had been a shareholder take lessons but remained as a shareholder. While Bill of Wings Ltd. By now, the Moth had nearly 900 hours on and Eric continued their instruction and ran the service the airframe giving an idea of the increased rate of station. Wood left for England to buy a Gipsy Moth to be utilisation in Air Taxis' hands compared to the previous used by them to get up their hours towards a commercial owner. Barrett's stated intention in buying the aircraft was licence. It was typical of his acumen that, upon to visit the South West of the state to survey barley crops discovering that there were restrictions on the amount of and to use it for "the delight and delectation of my friends". capital he could take out of the country, he purchased a He operated the aircraft until March 1934 when it was quantity of wool in bales which he shipped to Bradford in ferried to Essendon for sale to Dr Clyde Fenton. the UK. Arriving there, he sold it to the wool trade and Fenton had to borrow £500 to purchase the Moth, half took the money straight to de Havilland at Edgeware and of which he obtained from his mother and half from a bought a new Moth off the factory floor. NSW parliamentarian, Mr Thomas Murray. His new The aircraft he chose was a DH60M Gipsy Moth, c/n machine was to last for only two months. On 31 May 1934, 1431. There is evidence to suggest that it was destined for Fenton crashed heavily near Victoria Downs station when his attention became distracted while trying to drop a note to Dr. Woolnough who was on the ground. The Moth was wrecked and Fenton was lucky to escape with relatively minor injuries. A full and graphic account of the incident can be found in his book "Flying Doctor". The wreck was taken to Darwin and slowly rebuilt. On 5.11.37 Fenton test-flew the Moth and the log book of the aircraft indicated that the airframe had done 1197 hours. VH-UNI did not re-appear on the register until September 1939 when de Havilland Aircraft Pty Ltd informed the Department of Civil Aviation that, with Fenton's approval, they had sold the machine to a Mr E. Macarthur-Onslow, the William Wood standing by the rear fuselage of VH-UNI with his two sons. proprietor of the Macquarie Grove Flying School. As the airframe had 1198 hours and 30 minutes logged to it when sold, it a Swiss buyer but Wood was able to induce de Havilland to divert It to him. Despatched promptly to WA, the Moth would indicate that the aircraft had not flown for nearly two was registered VH-UNI on 24 January 1930, a few days years. Fenton makes no mention of this in his book and it after Wood had obtained his "A" licence. He falsified his is hard to understand why he would have held on to it, age and birthplace on his application, as he believed that unused, for this time when it could have been sold to help a new commercial licence would not be granted to anyone discharge some of the debts that he had acquired. over 50 years of age. In February 1930, the family The Moth was now to pass from hand to hand for the registered the company of National Airways in Perth with next few years. The Macquarie Grove School of Flying offices at 126 Adelaide Terrace in the city. requested DCA approval to "lend or hire" VH-UNI to Airflite Unforeseen problems soon arose as they often do. Bill Ltd in August 1940, but almost immediately it was and Eric were slow to get their flying hours up. They had transferred to a Mr Cleary of Camden who would hire it to both married and were under some pressure from their Airflite. DCA approval had barely been received when wives to reconsider their involvement in commercial flying. Cleary wrote again to the Department to tell them that the The depression was beginning to and it became apparent hire had been terminated and the aircraft was to be used that the venture was not going to succeed. By November by Mr Les Ray to give flying tuition to four pupils at 1931, the Moth had only flown 140 hours and Wood Camden. From then on, petrol restrictions were to limit senior, now nearly 60 years of age, felt the time had come flying hours. There was some talk in April 1943 of the to quit. In December 1931, National Airways sold VH-UNI Royal Aero Club of NSW hiring the Moth as a replacement to Stanley Kirby of Perth who had plans to start a flying for a machine under repair, but it did not eventuate at that school and charter business which he had named Air time. The Club did use it later In November 1943. In Taxis and School of Aviation. February 1946, the registration was transferred from His search for a pilot and instructor was soon over. Cleary back to the Macquarie Grove Flying School who Charles Snook, who had been operating Wings Ltd on his held it until 1951 when it passed to William Campbell- own since the death of his partner CH Nesbit in the 1930 Hicks of Condobolin NSW. The new owner was an ex Puss Moth crash, had gone Into liquidation and was Canadian Air Force officer who had married and settled in looking for work. He joined Kirby and spent the next 16 NSW. He started a flying school at Condobolin with VH- months making extensive barnstorming tours in country UNI and one of his first pupils was Mr Cliff Wright of Mount areas, often with a parachutist named Jimmy Reeves. On Hope, NSW. In 1954, Campbell-Hicks sold the Moth to weekends he would return to Perth and give flying Wright for £400 and it remained in his possession for the Instruction which he was well qualified to do. next 34 years. In April 1933, Snook left for England and Europe and By the mid-eighties, problems with the use of high Kirby sold the DH60 to Lance Barrett, a principal in the octane fuel had virtually grounded the aircraft and Wright,

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now over 70 years of age, was approached to sell the forthcoming and finally UPD was shipped back to Perth aircraft to the Katherine Museum for a delivered cost and remained unused until June 1934 when it was struck reputed to be $100,000. After a preliminary inspection of from the register. the dirt strip at Wright's property, Wynwood, by a RAAF Caribou crew from 38 Squadron, a 36 Squadron Hercules Soon after, Joe Thorn found another use for the flown by Air Commodore John Mitchell landed there safely aircraft. There was often an urgent need in the mining to collect the Gipsy Moth. With Wright and his family on industry for spare parts to be sent to remote mines and the board, the Cl30 took VH-UNI on its last flight to a final delays In doing so were costly. As the owner of an aircraft home in the museum at Katherine. which was lying Idle, Thorn conceived the idea of starting an aerial delivery service for these areas. He had become From the first dream of William Wood in 1930, through friendly with George Lewis, an ex WW I pilot who had barnstorming, business flying, flying doctor work, pilot come back Into aviation in 1930 and suggested they form training and agricultural flying, VH-UNI managed to a partnership to operate as Goldfields Airways. It was an survive nearly sixty years of almost continuous use. It is outstandingly successful move and, with Kalgoorlie as his now preserved as a memorial to the outstanding work of base, Lewis made numerous flights over large areas of the Dr. Clyde Fenton In the north of Australia, a fitting end to hinterland, many of which were in answer to medical Its career. emergencies. UPD served alone until 1935 when its DH60M VH-UPD c/n 1558 limitations for ambulance work were highlighted when The next Moth to appear on the WA scene was also a Lewis had to bring an unconscious patient back to DH60M and it was also the last new Moth to be imported Kalgoorlie In the Moth. Thorn ordered a Fox Moth from Into the West, all succeeding aircraft being pre-owned. It England, Lewis engaged Alec Whitham, a young newly- was purchased in late 1930 by J J Thorpe, who had built qualified commercial pilot, and UPD was relegated to up a lucrative bus company and had gained his licence passenger and light freight duties until early 1937 when it with the Perth Flying School. The Moth was registered as was sold to ANA as a trainer after Goldfields Airways VH-UPD on 1 November 1930 with a Gipsy II engine bought another Fox Moth. VH-UPD was impressed by the installed, the first of the local DH60 Moths to be so RAAF and sent to 3 E.F.T.S. on 2 June 1940 as A7-104. equipped. Thorpe was a very private man who avoided It had a rough life, suffering a heavy landing in November publicity wherever possible and his aircraft arrived 1940, was transferred to 1 E.F.T.S a month later, hit by unremarked by the press. In June 1931 he embarked on Tiger Moth A17-236 in February 1941 and struck a fence an extensive solo tour of northern Australia In the Moth and overturned in May 1941 suffering enough damage to which was a curtain raiser to a more ambitious project In warrant a conversion into components. An Inglorious end 1932 when he left Maylands in April 1932 to make a to a faithful Gipsy that had flown around Australia, battled leisurely solo flight around the Continent. UPD was fitted Its way to England and saved lives on the Western with an extra fuel tank but otherwise unmodified. The trip Goldfields. was highly successful, Thorpe returning to Maylands in DH60G VH-ULD c/n 1128 late June an briefly telling the press that nothing untoward By the time Sir Douglas Mawson undertook his had happened on the whole trip. voyages to the Antarctic In 1929 and 1930 he had already In May 1933 Thorpe sold the Moth to Joe Thorn, gained first hand experience of the region. These manager of the Lake View and Star Gold Mine in experiences convinced Mawson that an aircraft, with its ability to examine terrain from a height, would be of great value and so for the 1929 expedition he purchased a de Havilland DH60 Gipsy Moth, which came equipped with a standard undercarriage, floats and skis. Prior to its deployment with the 1929 Antarctic Expedition, the Moth had made only one flight, at the makers airfield at Stag Lane on the 18 July 1929. As it was intended to communicate with the aircraft by radio it was "bonded", that is to say all metal fittings were connected by wires to provide earthing. The British and New Zealand Antarctic ship "Discovery" sailed from London, with the Moth on board, in August 1928 and picked up the Australian team at Cape Town. The After Jlying 'UPD to England, Woods flew the Moth to Aberdeen with wife Mollie to see his pilots chosen to fly the aircraft were parents. Jimmy had the comfort of an enclosed cockpit, Mollie had to brave the elements. Flight Lieutenant S Campbell and Pilot Officer E Douglas of the Royal Kalgoorlie, who arranged for the registration to be Australian Air Force. They made six transferred to Jimmy Woods, a WAA pilot who proposed flights In the Moth totaling 12 hours 30 minutes between to attempt to lower the Australia to UK record time. 31 December 1929 and 19 February 1930. Sometime Woods set off from Wyndham on 7 July 1933 with the about 5 January 1930 the fabric was gashed and two name "Spirit of Western Australia" emblazoned on the upper starboard trailing edge ribs were broken by falling nacelle, and after many mechanical failures and minor ice, but the damage was quickly put right and the Moth accidents, finally reached Croydon on 18 August having was flying again by 25 January 1930. On its return to taken 42 days for the flight and failing to lower the record. Australia VH-ULD was put into storage, possibly at RAAF Woods tried to sell the Moth in the UK but no buyers were

8 AHSA Aviation Heritage

board, R K Butterworth and a club instructor Val Abbott. There was some misunderstanding between them as to who was making the landing and as a result ULD landed itself with dire results to the aircraft and the pride of the crew but luckily without physical injury. On 22 December 1935 it taxied into a horse trough at a country airstrip and its undercarriage was written off. A mechanic made a rush trip by car with the undercarriage from the wreck of VH- UAW and the aircraft was flying again the day after the accident. In April 1937, the perennial problem of a waterlogged Maylands airfield caused ULD to turn over on take off when it hit a pool nearly a foot deep and dampened the club The southernmost Gipsy, VH-ULD in the Antarctica with an iceberg in the background in instructor, Ken Steele, who was at the 1931. controls. He was new to Maylands and was probably unaware of the hidden Point Cook, until the middle of the following year when it dangers that lurked on this tract of river land. By mid 1940, was fully overhauled at that RAAF base. ULD had flown a total of 3,500 hours and had served at On 16 October it was dismantled and stowed on the the club's training centres at the country centres of "Discovery" which sailed for the Antarctic on 22 November Katanning, Kalgoorlie and Wiluna, as well as Maylands. 1930. During the aircraft's second spell of duty It made By July 1940 the club was advised that the aircraft had nine flights before serious damage was sustained on 27 been impressed under requisition number 12538 and January whilst hoisting the aircraft on board in heavy seas. became A7-94. After a period of service at RAAF Base The starboard wing dipped and was caught by a wave, Pearce, the Moth was transferred to 4 S.F.T.S. at forcing the aircraft back into the sea. The occupants, Geraldton for station duties. In May 1942 it crashed into Campbell and Mawson, were thrown into the water and the sea near Geraldton and, being too damaged to rebuild, were forced to hang on to the wing struts until rescued. All was converted into components. Today the aircraft exists four mainplanes, the petrol tank, undercarriage and fabric only In illustrations, one of which has had world-wide were badly damaged but repairs were completed by 5 circulation. In 1973 VH-ULD was one of six aircraft chosen February and the aircraft continued flying until 11 by the Australian Post Office to appear on a definitive set February, albeit with a slight droop to starboard. of Australian Antarctic Territory stamps. The Moth with yellow fuselage and fin, silver flying surfaces and floats At the end of this expedition VH-ULD went into storage and black registration letters, was depicted flying over a at RAAF Laverton, Victoria until the middle of 1931 when It snow-covered mountain range. was offered for sale. The Australian Aero Club (Western Australian Section) which was operating two Cirrus II DH60G Gipsy Moth VH-UKY. c/n 1041 Moths, made strong representations to the Government This Moth was purchased by W.V. Pendle of South and, with the help of some lobbying by the Vacuum Oil Australia on 8 July 1929 and little did he know that it Co., managed to obtain the aircraft for $800 complete with would establish a record list of crashes over Its lifetime. He floats and skis without It being offered for sale on open sold the Moth to L.C. Leonard on 27 June 1930 who flew it tender. On 25 July it was collected by Hart Aircraft to Kalgoorlie when he joined the flying staff of The Services and taken by road to Essendon Aerodrome, Goldfields Aerial Navigation Co. in June 1931. When the Melbourne where it was stripped and totally reconditioned. company was about to close, he sold it to Vivian James on The petrol tank and undercarriage were painted black and 18 September 1931. In January 1932 James attempted the top fuselage in yellow. The rest of the aircraft was some night flying at Maylands and, without adequate presumably doped silver, but this is not confirmed. VH- cockpit or airfield lighting, flew UKY into the ground, ULD was briefly test flown for 15 minutes by H Baker on bouncing 20 feet into the air, returning to earth and 23 July and then it was flown to Perth WA between 25 and standing the aircraft on its nose. The undercarriage was 29 July by Baker in a total flying time of 28 hours and 10 destroyed, the propeller broken and a lower wing main minutes. Cliff Nicholas travelled in the aircraft as a spar fractured . On 2 April 1932 it had a serious accident passenger and paid $100 for the privilege of making the at Wagin when being flown by H. Boston with a Miss 2,500 mile flight. Hornsby as passenger. The young lady was enamoured with flying and made a habit of attending country airfields The Moth then entered on a more normal period of whenever air shows were advertised, to buy a joy flight. existence with the Aero Club, mostly flying training with an Boston stalled the Moth at low altitude and was fortunate occasional flight to one of the country centres. Following a to hit the ground in a flat spin. Both were injured, the lady crash landing on the Canning Park racecourse on 12 breaking both legs and Boston suffering scalp wounds and December 1931, co-Incidentally in the hands of the a broken ankle. The next day Harry Baker flew a Perth passenger on its flight from Melbourne, it was extensively surgeon. Dr. J Ainslie, to Wagin to treat the injured woman damaged but was flying again on 30 January 1932. The and it was reported that the incident did not dampen her aircraft also suffered the usual minor Indignities to the enthusiasm for flying! undercarriage, tail skid and wings at the hands of its student pilots. In January 1924 it received considerable The aircraft was extensively damaged and James sold damage while competing in a landing competition at West the wreck to the Aero Club to use as spare parts for other Subiaco airfield. Two very experienced pilots were on Moths. However, due to shortage of aircraft the Club engaged the Solent Engineering Co. to repair it at their

9 AHSA Aviation Heritage

end for disposal. It was sold in 1945 by the Disposals Commission to H.C. Fitzgerald, a licensed aircraft engineer working for MacRobertson Miller Airways. It is probably only fitting that an aircraft with such a disastrous record should come to a sticky end. In December 1946, he disposed of it to F.L. Betts of Geelong Victoria and it was ferried to the new owner by R. Brewett with Fitzgerald as a passenger, landing in a small field at Barwon Heads where Betts was staying. Three days later, Betts made his first flight in UKY and hit a tree while taking off, wrecking the aircraft and slightly injuring his VH-UKY in the reeds of Monger's Lake near Perth in January 1938. brother who was in the front cockpit. Considerable trouble arose out of the incident, as Betts refused to pay for the leisure and by March 1934, UKY was back in the air after aircraft and three months later was prosecuted for fraud a lengthy rebuild. But not for long as two months later it and sentenced to three months jail, but released on a was crashed by H.P. Teske, the first of several crashes it good behaviour bond. The Department considered would experience at the hands of inept or unlucky Club prosecuting him over a contravention of the safety pilots. On 4 January 1937, while being taxied by A.J. regulations but finally dropped the case. He was the 'bete McPhee, it struck the verandah of the clubhouse noir' of the Department who described him as an sustaining £200 damage. On 29 September 1937, while untrustworthy and untruthful prevaricator. VH-UKY was parked at Meekatharra with wings folded and controls spared any future indignities and struck from the register locked, it was hit by a willy-willy and overturned resulting in on 22 April 1947. On 21 November 1949, the works damage to wings, fuel tank and engine cowling. Only 3 manager of Corio Air Engineers, Belmont Aerodrome, months later, when landing at Wiluna, the pilot, J.Scott Geelong informed the department the company had undershot and hit a tree, breaking the propeller, purchased the wreck of UKY and requested a copy of the undercarriage and tearing wing fabric. On 28 January engine records, so it is possible that the Gipsy I, probably 1938, while flying over Lake Monger, the engine failed and Eng No. 470, which was in the aircraft in the RAAF, turned the pilot, Alan Maclean had no option but to attempt a again in another Moth. landing in the reeds lining the banks of the lake. The aircraft overturned, sustaining undercarriage and propeller DH60X Cirrus/Gipsy Moth VH-UAO c/n 613 damage and straining the airframe. The pilot and a young This Moth was undoubtedly the most well known of its 14 year-old passenger, David Read type that came to the West. A very complete history of the were uninjured. Reid had won the flight as a prize in a aero-modeling competition and the incident did not dampen his enthusiasm for flying as he joined the RAAF towards the end of the war, sadly being killed flying a fighter near the end of hostilities. A few months later, P. Patterson made a heavy descent at Wiluna, landing with the full weight of the aircraft on the port wheel which collapsed and caused the port side of the fuselage to split. Two months later in December 1938, UKY was blown onto its nose sustaining damage to the engine bearers, and on 29 July 1939, it suffered major damage in a crash at Rottnest island. Two Harry Baker (left) and Cliff Nichols relax by VH-ULD after ferrying it from Point Cook to aircraft had left Maylands to make the Maylands in July 1931. sea crossing , but the weather was so bad that one turned back to the home aircraft can be found in "Aussie Moths" and so this airfield. Roy Charman, piloting UKY, decided to proceed account will be restricted to the salient moments in its and reached Rottnest safely. However, when leaving the long career. island for the mainland, a gust of wind hit the Moth when it was 50 feet into the air and the pilot lost control, crashing The aircraft came to Australia in 1928 in a shipment of heavily and extensively damaging the aircraft.. The pilot 20 for the RAAF and was allocated the serial A7-9. It and passenger were only badly shaken. served for four years as a trainer an then was brought on to the civil register as VH-UAO in August 1932 for loan to UKY was rebuilt by the Club and was airworthy again the WA Section of the Australian Aero Club. The club by 12 March 1940 but 4 months later it was impressed by instructor. Max Allen flew the Moth back to WA and it went the RAAF and became A7-93 in that service. A7-93 spent straight into service having had a complete overhaul at the war at 4 S.F.T.S. at Geraldton, experiencing two more Point Cook before delivery. Only a few days later the accidents there before being returned to Maylands at war's engine failed on take-off at Maylands, immersing Max

10 4HS4 4viation Heritage cause of the engine failure was traced to a very badly- by the steel bodywork, which absorbed the impact and maintained carburettor the club found it hard to believe showed only a few dents and broken windows. The that the aircraft had been overhauled by the RAAF. The aeroplane had one wheel nearly twisted from the mystery was solved some years later when a senior RAAF undercarriage, a broken the propeller, damaged wings officer, calling into Perth on his way to the staff college in and rudder. Aero club officials were astonished at the lack the UK, told the club that the night before Allen left to fly of the damage to the plane, even the petrol tank In the UAO to Maylands, he had swapped its carburettor for one centre of the wings escaping unscathed. on his aircraft which had been giving trouble-the The Moth was to have five more accidents until it was privileges of rank! The incident was a precursor of UAO's impressed by the RAAF as A7-92 in July 1940. It was taste for water as it was to experience two more entries stored for nearly a year at RAAF Base Pearce and was into the river before the war. then allocated to 4 S.F.T.S at Geraldton where it spent the The Moth settled into routine training at the club, rest of the war, miraculously only having one minor suffering the usual minor casualties that club pilots were accident, a broken propeller, in that time. prone to inflict upon their aircraft. In 1936 the club decided In January 1945 the Moth was ferried to 9 E.F.T.S. at that as UAO was the only Cirrus engined aircraft left In Cunderdin to await disposal by the Commonwealth their fleet, they would convert it to a DH60G. Gipsy I Disposal Commission and was sold to J.K. Vines of Vines engine No, 470 was installed and the undercarriage Motors in Perth for £100. Vines was a prolific buyer of replaced with the split axle type of the Gipsy Moth. Only a disposal aircraft, mainly DH82A Tiger Moths, selling them month later the Moth was involved in an unusual accident later at higher prices to those not so quick off the mark. at Maylands which could have had very serious consequences but luckily did not. An extraordinary The Moth was purchased by J Lane of Kalgoorlie in sequence of events began with the failure of the North- June 1945. Lane had A7-92 ferried to Kalgoorlie where West mail plane to take off. About 10.30am the North- George Lewis of Goldfields Airways agreed to overhaul it. West DH84 VH-URY taxied out to take off for the flight to but only worked on it sporadically as Lane had discovered Daly Waters. Flown by Mr G McCausland, the machine he was prone to severe air sickness and his enthusiasm had only risen a few feet from the ground when an engine with the idea of flying had waned From then on the failed. The pilot promptly landed the machine again, but aircraft's future became subject to Lanes' lack of interest before it had lost its momentum it rolled into a drain four and when he went to Adelaide he left UAO abandoned in a feet deep and about 20ft wide, climbed the bank beyond Kalgoorlie hangar. and came to rest with the nose about three feet from the The Moth was eventually sold in 1956 to Vic Davies 10ft high levee bank on the aerodrome's river frontage. who towed it from Kalgoorlie to Maylands and restored it to The pilot's wife, who had witnessed the mishap from the flying condition., selling it to E H Packer in November of hangars, drove her car across the aerodrome to the that year. A few months later it was sold again, this time western boundary where the Dragon had come to rest. to Albert Edward Aylemore of Gnowangerup and was With a number of officials and other people, she found that URY had sustained merely a small dent to one of the wheel fairings. It was decided to taxy the plane back to the other end of the aerodrome and take off again, the cause of the engine failure having been found in a partially turned off petrol cock. Mrs McCausland, having satisfied herself of her husband's safety, left the spot to return to the hangars and drove off across the aerodrome. In the meantime C V Sainsbury had returned from a flight in UAO and was gliding down to land. In accordance with standard practice, he was looking out on the left hand side of the plane gliding straight Into the wind. VH-UA W on the grass at Maylands in 1954. The starboard wheel of the undercarriage struck the car, which was regularly flown by his son George who became the owner approaching at an oblique angle from the right. The wheel of the Moth on his father's death in 1964. In 1976 George buried itself in the steel sedan body of the car and the commenced a total rebuild of UAO, a task which was to plane, checked suddenly in full career, turned a occupy the next ten years, culminating in the Moth's return somersault and came to rest upside down beside the car. to the register in March 1986. In 1988 George, Mrs McCausland pulled up immediately and ran to the accompanied by Alan Mitchell, flew the Moth from Perth to Moth to help the pilot, but the latter, held securely by his Richmond NSW and back for the Bicentennial Air Show safety belt, was uninjured and dropped down to the and made the double crossing again in 1991 for the RAAF ground. Mrs McCausland, suffering from shock, and her 70th Anniversary celebrations. Fittingly, the aircraft had infant son, who had been in the car with her and was cut been repainted as A7-9, the colour scheme in which its with a small piece of broken glass, were taken back to the life started 63 years previously. hangars and later went home. Within half an hour of the two accidents, the mail plane was on its way, and the Moth UAO now lives at the Sports Aircraft field at had been dismantled and repairs commenced. All three Serpentine, south of Perth and still flies regularly to the people concerned in the collision had remarkable escape delight of the local enthusiasts generally and the author from serious Injuries. The occupants of the car were saved particularly, as his constant attendance at pre-war

11 AHSA Aviation Heritage

Maylands as a young spotter was rewarded in 1938 by a the second death recorded by an Aero Club member since kindly Aero Club pilot giving him a 10 minute "flip" in its inauguration, the fourth to occur in a local Moth and, UAO. thankfully, the last before the war. The Moth was damaged DH60GVH-UAW c/n-uncertain-either 1071 or 1072 beyond repair. This Moth was destined to have a history of crashes, DH60M VH-UNX c/n 1400 rebuilds and tragedy. Imported in February 1929 by de In 1930, an 18 year old named Cyril Kleinig pestered Havilland Australia and purchased by the Civil Aviation Horrie Miller' for a job. There was nothing available so he Branch in May or June 1929, it had its first accident almost came anyhow and worked for nothing until Horrie finally immediately when Major A. Murray Jones of the Civil took him on as a general rouseabout. In October 1932, he Aviation Branch crashed at Forrest while attempting a learned to fly in a DH60M Moth VH-UNX that Horrie had night landing on 31 May. The aircraft was severely bought in May 1930 for light charter work and joy riding, damaged and had to be crated for return to Melbourne to and within a few months Kleinig was flying regularly In all be repaired. This took nearly a year to complete and of the company aircraft. Jones air-tested the Moth on 1 June 1930, pronouncing it satisfactory. It was the issued on loan to the Australian In October 1934, The MacRobertson Miller Aviation Aero Club (SA section) in September 1930 and flown to Co. succeeded in taking the contract for the north west Adelaide by club member W.H. Treloar. coastal service in WA from WA Airways. Miller flew UNX to Perth and used it to survey the landing grounds that he On 30 January 1931, while being flown by W. was soon to use for the new service. Kleinig remained in Robertson, the fuel supply ran out and the pilot force South Australia to manage the company's operation there landed in the sea. The aircraft was again rebuilt, this time and was to become the general manager of MMA after by the Aircraft Engineers and Supply Co. of Parafield, SA the war. and re-registered on 9 March 1932, in the name of their chief engineer, F Roberts. VFI-UAW suffered an The service commenced in October 1934 with three embarrassing forced landing on 9 October 1933 when DH84 Dragons for the main route and the Metal Moth VH- flying over Gleneig in SA. The passenger, Alex Ward was UNX, which was stationed at Ord River to fly the Ord gesticulating to the pilot, Laurence Newman, when he River-Wyndham side service. The pilots engaged were unknowingly knocked the ignition switch off and the pilot Jimmy Woods, Bert Hussey, George McCausland and was forced to land on the Broadway at Gleneig. The wings Arthur Affleck as well as Miller himself. Woods was were folded and the aircraft towed to a nearby field from overseas in Miller's Vega competing in the Melbourne where it was able to fly back to Parafield. On 12 February Centenary Air Race so there were only four men left to fly 1934 the aircraft was bought by Viv James of James four aircraft. Miller would have every reason to remember Taxiplanes in Perth who only operated It for seven months for a long time October and November of 1934. Bert before selling it to the local section of the Aero Club on 25 Hussey crashed one DH84 on the second day of the September 1934. Miss N. Ranee had an emergency service, and another was damaged by a willy willy a few landing in DAW at Moora on 2 June 1935 whilst returning days later when Hussey forgot to tie it down at Ord River. to Maylands from Geraldton. Her flight time was extended He resigned and joined Qantas. Woods crashed the Vega by a strong headwind and darkness was falling while she at Aleppo and then McCausland wrecked the last Dragon was still some distance from Perth. While landing in a at Halls Creek in early November. field, the aircraft struck a low post causing slight damage. To replace Hussey, Miller had engaged J C Miles, an On 16 September 1935, Alex Gilpin was flying solo ex-RAAF pilot, and stationed him at Ord River in the near the Maylands aerodrome and while flying at 700 feet DH60M. He was told to fly the Moth back to Halls Creek decided to practise a spin. He had Insufficient height to and pick up the mail from the crashed Dragon along with recover and crashed heavily, the aircraft bursting into one of its passengers, Charles Pite, who was anxious to flames and Gilpin sustaining serious injuries and burns, get to Daly Waters to catch the Qantas connection. Miles from which he succumbed the next day in hospital. It was left for Daly Waters with mail and passenger but stalled the Moth coming in to land at Ord River, the resulting crash breaking his arm, killing Pite and wrecking the Moth. Miller wrote a long letter to the Controller of Civil Aviation listing his tale of woe and bitterly regretting employing Miles. "Miles had close on a thousand hours flying and held an instructor's certificate and yet he stalled and spun the machine into the ground. He appeared to be the best pilot available and yet was not able to fly a Moth". Miller, perhaps, was unaware of Mile's crash in VH-UJH in March 1934 which has already been mentioned earlier, and may have hesitated to employ him if he had known that the accident was caused by Mile's irresponsibility. VH-UNX was struck from the register one month after the crash. Horrie Miller (left) and GC Gregory, the aviation officer of the Vacuum Oil Co., boarding VH-UNX in June 1934 to survey the new MMA service to the North West of WA.

12 AHSA Aviation Heritage

DH60M Gipsy Moth VH-UNP c/n 1407 aerodrome. Ronald Avery, who was piloting the aircraft, This Moth had a history of ownership change, was severely injured when the engine was driven back into accidents and a tragic end. It was imported by the cockpit. Q.A.N.T.A.S. in March 1930 as a new aircraft but was sold The DH60M was eventually repaired and put back into by them to Queensland Air Navigation Ltd two months the air but the end came on 11 June 1939 when a Mrs later. It only remained on the register for a short time as McKenzie took off with a boy passenger in the front its registration was allowed to lapse in June. In May 1931 cockpit and hit another Moth VH-UHS being taxied across the Moth was bought by George McCausland, who had the aerodrome by a Miss Wurtz, who was also carrying a been a Q.A.N. pilot. In early October 1931, McCausland boy passenger. The aircraft locked together and caught flew the Moth from Townsville to Innisfail and attempted a fire, Mrs McKenzie managing to extricate herself and her landing in a field near the showground. The surface was passenger as did the boy in UHS. Miss Wurtz was uneven and the aircraft overturned, causing sufficient trapped in the wreckage and the rescuers were unable to damage for it to be railed back to Townsville for repairs extinguish the flames owing to the inefficiency of the fire and struck off the register for nearly a year while the work equipment. She received severe burns from which she was done. A month later McCausland was noted as flying died. After 1650 hours in the air, VH-UNP's flying was for New England Airways who had taken over much of ended. Q.A.N's equipment. DH60G Gipsy Moth G-AUJX VH-UJX c/n 838 UNP was returned to the register in September 1932 This Gipsy was acquired by the Commercial Aviation and in September 1933 it was registered to Northern Company in January 1929. On 27 April 1930 at Orroroo Flying Service of Northcote, Victoria. McCausland had with J A Jukes at the controls, UJX became trapped in joined Hart Aircraft Services flying the Bass Strait service heavy fog in a valley while on a medical emergency flight. and left that company in September 1934 to join MMA in The aircraft crashed and was sufficiently damaged to take the West when they won the north west mail contract. four months to repair. Luckily, the company had taken Whether Northern Flying Service actually owned the Moth delivery of UNX only a few days after the accident and is unclear as McCausland flew it to Perth when he joined was able to continue its light aircraft work with that aircraft. MMA in September 1934 and sold It to R J Bartle a month later. Bartle was the attorney for a New Zealand firm By October 1935, Miller had little use for the Moth and which was marketing a new bread-making process in agreed to sell It to the WA Section of the Aero Club to Perth. replace a Moth that had recently crashed beyond repair (VH-UAW). It was an unusual sale, as the SA Section of Almost immediately after acquiring UNP, he set off in the club wanted to purchase the engine from the machine. it fly to Melbourne to view the Centenary Air Race Cyril Kleinig flew the Moth to Maylands on 26 and 27 celebrations in that city. His co-pilot was F W Collopy, the October, the engine was removed and railed back to instructor at the local aero club, who was given special Parafleld while UJX was fitted with a spare Gipsy engine leave of absence for the flight. By early November they that was on hand locally. were back in Perth and on 18 November his flying in UNP came to and end. While attempting to turn downwind and The Moth's life was uneventful until 13 February 1937 land on the West Subiaco aerodrome, the Moth stalled when W Smyth taxied UJX head-on into ULT on the and crashed heavily. Bartle escaped with minor Injuries Maylands tarmac with some damage to both machines. In but the Moth was extensively damaged. The broken wings June 1938, the Moth had become sufficiently dilapidated could have been repaired in Perth but the metal fuselage to warrant an extensive overhaul with new ply and linen was badly twisted and UNP was sent back to the Eastern being fitted. In August 1939, the Club sold the DH60 to F States for repair. L and C M Higginson then of Albury NSW but who intended to take the aircraft to Queensland. The Secretary In May 1936 UNP was acquired by Holymans Airways of the WA Club, Bob Giles, had ferried the Moth to in Tasmania and was transferred to ANA in November Melbourne for delivery to the new owner a month 1936 in the rationalisation that followed ANA's acquisition previously but Higginson's ownership of UJX was brief as of other airlines. November turned out to be a particularly it was soon impressed into the RAAF as A7-76. This unlucky month for the Moth as it struck a sheep while impressment created one of those minor mysteries so taking off on the 9th and was extensively damaged on the beloved by the dotted i and crossed t people as the 29th when it spun into a paddock adjoining Essendon Department records list the impressment date as 24 October 1939 when it was delivered to 1 F.T.S. at Point Cook while the RAAF status card lists 13 December as the date on charge with the Air Force. Six months later A7-76 became an instructional airframe and was converted Into components in January 1945.

DH60G Gipsy Moth VH-ULT c/n 1060 This Gipsy was imported by MMA in South Australia for Allan Keith Lawson of Naracoorte SA and was test flown by Horrie Miller on 14 August 1929 at Parafleld before being handed over to the new owner In Late 1935 Lawson sold the Moth to W Crosthwaite of Bidgemia Station, Carnarvon WA. The problem of delivery was solved very Horrie Miller and a prospective lady passenger posing for pre-flight photo alongside VH- UJX. neatly as MMA had taken delivery of a

13

A AHSA Aviation Heritage

the Fox Moth VH-UDD in Perth and wanted to use it in and later M S Austin to do the flying for him . White South Australia so Cyril Kleinig flew the DH60 to Maylands moved to Queensland and the DH60M flew there until and returned to Parafield In the DH83. His log book November 1937 when it was sold to R Lauder of shows the 18 hour flight to WA was made in two stages- Cunnamulla Qld in whose hands it suffered an accident a Parafield to Penong in 6 hours 30 minutes and Penong to month later at Brunswick Heads, striking unseen Maylands in 11 hours 30 minutes. The interesting part is telephone wires while landing, the pilot and Captain that he records the flight being made in one day, 4 Maitland, who was instructing Lauder, escaping injury. January 1936, a fact confirmed by a newspaper report. Another close encounter with some tree tops while landing However, as he arrived at Maylands at 4 pm local time it caused some damage but again, no injury. It remained would have meant a take off from Parafield about midnight with Lauder until 1943 when he purchased a DH85 from which Is hard to believe. A dose examination of Kleinig's White and offered the DH60M for sale. No buyer was log book revealed that the flight from Parafield to Penong was actually made on the 3rd but was overwritten as the 4th. He had obviously overnighted In Penong! Cyril made a short familiarisation flight In the Fox Moth the next day and then, after a day spent on company business, flew it back to Parafield with his boss as a passenger, taking a leisurely two days for the 15 hour 20 minute journey. Once In WA and stored in the Aero Club hangar, ULT languished. The date of the sale is given as 18 March 1936 but as Crosthwaite was unable to fly and intended to come to Maylands for a course of instruction, the registration was never transferred and it was struck off the record. Crosthwaite finally decided he did not wish to fly and, as the Aero Club badly needed another Moth, a deal VH-UQH at an un-namedEastern States location. was done and ULT was registered to them In September 1936. The Moth sustained major found until May 1944 when the registration was transferred damage at Meekatharra on 27 March 1937 and a minor to the Spencer Gulf Aero Club.The Club only operated the encounter with the perimeter fence at Maylands six Moth until March 1946 when it was purchased by L months later. From then on the major enemy of the Moth McTaggart of Port Augusta, shortly before he moved to the was the wind as on no less than three occasions between north west of WA, taking the Moth to Bldgemla Station, October 1937 and October 1938 It was upended and near Carnarvon. The observant reader will note that this rolled over by wllly-wlllys. was the home of W Crosthwaite who was briefly involved with DH60G VH-ULT. Whether there is any direct link In March 1939, ownership of ULT passed to Robert between McTaggart and Crosthwaite or whether It was DeCean In Norseman when he obtained the Moth and also pure coincidence is unknown. UJH for use by the newly-formed Goldfields Aero Club. Four months later, the registration of the aircraft was UQH then began to do the rounds, passing to Kenneth transferred to the Club. They only had it for five months Maslen of Nardathuna Station, also near Carnarvon in when the RAAF Impressed it on 4 December 1939 and February 1950. A year later, the Moth went off the register both ULT and UJH were delivered to Point Cook . The but came back on again in February 1952 when it was DH60G survived the war as Instructional Airframe No. 2 sold to Reginald James Robinson of Mlnilya Station, again and was transferred to the Department of Technical in the Carnarvon area. In March 1953 UQH was badly Education in January 1946 and In June 1964, now damaged on the ground in a cyclone and the wreck was somewhat incomplete, was acquired by the Camden brought to Maylands. It became part of a parcel of Tiger Museum of Aviation for static display. Moths acquired by Bob Couper's crop spraying firm in Cunderdin and eventually found its way to a farm where it DH60M Gipsy Moth VH-UQH c/n 1685 was discovered by Ed Field. It Is reported to be under This Moth had a spectacular start to its career. restoration. ^ Registered as G-ABHY in the UK in January 1931, the References Moth was built as a long-range single-seater with the more Aussie Moths Bruce A Winley Bruce Winley 1997 powerful Gipsy 11 engine. The registration was transferred De Havilland Aircraft Since 1909 to CWA Scott In March 1931 and on 1 April 1931 he flew A J Jackson Putnam 1987 the aircraft to Australia, lowering the record for the journey The Historic Civil Aircraft Register of Australia (PreWar) to 9 days 4 hours and 11 minutes. Once here, Scott Bert Cookson AustAirData acquired VH-UQA, fitted the long-range tanks from BHY to Early Birds H C Miller Rigby 1968 it and flew back to England on 26 May 1931. Wings in the West R C Giles RACWA undated G-ABHY was converted back to two-seater Flypast a Record of Aviation in Australia configuration and re-registered as VH-UQH for R S White Parnell &Boughton AGPS Press 1988 of Strathfield NSW. White was a pastorallst who wanted Australian Registers of Civil Aircraft the convenience of an aircraft to visit his properties but Department of Civil Aviation various years 1927 to 1953 had no wish to learn to fly so he employed firstly R Young, The West Australian newspaper Various issues

14 AHSA Aviation Heritage

No 2 AIR TRIALS UNIT RAAF Base Edinburgh SA October 1960 by Milton Coffee The RAAF Base at Edinburgh ticular relevance to flying opera­ ing advantage of any significant had been established as a rear air tions. I wasted no time in flying with feature which came our way and support base for the Woomera as many of the aircrews as possible which, the map-makers had consid­ Rocket Range. The base was adja­ and soon found that morale needed ered, should be on the map. We cent to the Weapons Research Es­ attention. In the process, I was re- kept a schedule with Air Radio us­ tablishment which provided most of acqualnted with the Meteor and had ing our HF transceiver. the scientific support for the trials my second flight in a Bristol Some 3.75 hrs after taking off undertaken at Woomera. Some tri­ Freighter, the first having been at from Maralinga, we touched down als were also carried out at Edin­ Boscombe Down in 1958. on one of Len Beadel's constructed burgh. Those trials associated with SEEKING LEN BEADEL runways at Giles where we had to aircraft were thus either carried out On 26 October 1960, I set out on pump fuel, from 44 gallon drums, to at Woomera by No 1 Air Trials Unit, a fascinating mission in one of the again fill our tanks. Then off to the involving Woomera ground support, unit's Dakotas - A65-106 with Fig meagre living quarters at the Giles or at Edinburgh by No 2 Air Trials Off Budd as second pilot. This was meteorological station. Those sta­ Unit. a photographic survey of areas pro­ tioned there were always thirsty for Both trials units were normally posed for a road network to support news from the outside. Their sup­ commanded by a Wing Com­ long range firings from Woomera, plies were what we had regularly mander. The former CO had been down-range to the West Australian flown in on our monthly courier from reassigned several months previ­ coast. The route we flew was from Edinburgh. We had also brought In ously and a permanent replacement Edinburgh to Maralinga, Cook, some priority freight, including fresh had not yet been posted. During the Giles, Fitzroy Crossing food. intervening period, there had been Meekatharra, Maralinga, Edinburgh. Len Beadel had not arrived for several accidents and incidents and All of the route being surveyed was our rendezvous. He had been out of there was concern by RAAF Hq that flown at a minimum comfortable radio contact for a few days. I de­ inadequate supervision was a key altitude of around 100 feet so that cided that, if he had not turned up element. My posting was an attempt the photographer, sitting in the co­ by 10 am the next day, I would fly to have someone, with flight test pilot's seat, could take a series of out along the road he was making experience, prevent any further de­ oblique shots providing a road north west from Giles and try to terioration in the situation. maker with a familiar type of image communicate with him somehow. The base was commanded by of terrain to be traversed. We were With no final message from Len Air Commodore "Bull" Garing. His scheduled to pick up the famous Beadel, I took off the next morning command extended to all FtAAF inland surveyor and road maker, and flew at low level along his new units situated at Woomera and Len Beadel, at our stop over at the road. Two bulldozer blades wide, it Maralinga. Some RAF and Con­ Giles meteorological station. This is swept along, around and over sand tractor units lodged at Edinburgh. positioned close to the state boundaries of WA, SA and NT, hills and looked as though someone Trials were still in progress on could easily drive along the road at the carriage and release of the Brit­ Departing Edinburgh at about 4 about a constant 80/90 mph. After ish Blue Steel missile from the three am, I flew to Maralinga where we an hour or so, we came across a FtAF V bombers. Having extensive topped up our four fuel tanks. We parked semi-trailer which was obvi­ flight test experience in Vulcan air­ then flew to the small settlement at ously Len's rear support. A mile craft I had the opportunity to partici­ Cook, on the railway line to Perth, further and there were two graders pate in some of the trial flights and where we simply dropped down to and a dozer doing their thing. The as a current instrument rating ex­ skim the terrain on a heading due road then narrowed to one blade aminer renew the instrument ratings north. The photographer com­ width and quite dramatically there of the V bomber pilots. menced his mammoth task of was the lead dozer slowly extending shooting off hundreds of shots from the tip of the road deep into the very No 2 ATU had its headquarters a rather bulky hand held camera. heart of Australia. We were some­ in modern quarters combined with a I gradually tired of manually where close to the point which is the large combined Air Headquarters controlling the aircraft, being very and Control Tower. Aircraft on farthest from the sea - this being much alert however for adequate close to 700 NM. strength included Canberras, Me­ obstacle clearance. There was the teor 7s and 8s, Bristol Freighters occasional tree to rise over and the We knew Len Beadel would be and Dakotas. The Unit equated to a sand ridges to clear. Subtle close by and soon we spotted mirror Squadron having engineering and changes in the topography provided flashes from a ridge along the line maintenance, with aircrews having a continuing interest and we were of the road. We were soon circling a variety of experience and support always on the lookout for signs of over Len near his Land Rover and airmen. human presence of which there was his sextant mounted close by on a I concentrated on getting to grips only the occasional abandoned abo- tripod. Len furiously waved his hat with the unit and its problems. Su- riginal gunyah. and we waggled our wings. At­ tempts to call him on our radios pervision of all aspects of the unit's The navigator was on pure dead were fruitless. I dropped him a mes- operation was enhanced with par- reckoning for most of the time, tak-

15 AHSA Aviation Heritage

teor which must lie buried within the earth. Its impact must have been close to vertical to result in the circular rim. It appeared to be very old but still retained its spectacular appearance from the air. Some years later I took the opportunity to fly a Hercules around inside Wolf Creek Cra­ ter. The closest we could find to the beginning of the Canning Stock Route was a series of parallel vehicle and stock tracks through the spinifex, all heading in the same general SW direc­ tion towards the first well/watering point. That first well gave us a fix, on which to base our course to the next and we made good use of photo Len Beadel on the track. survey photographs which were an essential part of our naviga­ sage to tell him that we had waited Route. This had been developed tion equipment. The survey had for him at Giles and that we would during the early cattle developments been flown at high altitude a few now have to proceed without him. in the north of Western Australia. It years after the end of World War 2 He retrieved the message and was not much more than an ill de­ by Mosquito aircraft. Some 20 years then tried to signal something which fined droving track, from one water- later, fire streaks across the we could not understand. Later, we hole to another, across the western spinifex in the photographs were learned that he was trying to indi­ inland. Commencing some distance still evident and could be used as cate that, given about an hour, he south of Fitzroy crossing, it curved navigation features. At low level, could widen a section of his road to down towards Meekatharra NE of one could not see the fire streaks, permit a landing to pick him up. Perth. Interspersed along the way as these were only evidenced by Being unable to comprehend his were many dry salt lakes. I noticed slightly smaller clumps of spinifex. signals, we had no choice but to with interest that close to the begin­ The streaks started to become visi­ proceed towards Fitzroy crossing ning of the stock route there was a ble at altitudes above about 3,000 and in the process became some­ feature marked on the map simply ft. what concerned at the nature of the called meteorite crater. I decided it It was a long but fascinating terrain that Len was heading into. It would be worth while having a look flight, past many salt pans and per­ would have been a fantastic experi­ at the crater, so we planned it as a manent sand ridges. I alternated in ence to have seen Len carve out a way point. the cockpit with Rex Budd, my co­ 'runway while you wait' and then to I approached the meteorite cra­ pilot. I had brought along a ham­ have used it to take him on board. ter at about 3,000 ft AGL and its mock and found it to be very com­ Arriving at Fitzroy Crossing prominence became evident from fortable for taking a rest from the about mid afternoon, we again refu­ about 30 miles out. the crater edges periods of intense alertness neces­ eled the aircraft from drums and rose about 200 feet above the sur­ sary in the pilot's seat. The engines headed for the local hotel on the rounding flat terrain, forming an al­ droned on faithfully at 1800 RPM banks of the Fitzroy River. The river most perfect circle. I expected to and the auto-pilot, with its pitch was only a series of waterholes. We find a deep hole in the centre but channel at very low authority, held decided to cool off with a swim. The erosion had been active for perhaps the aircraft as steady as possible in water was somewhat muddy, but millions of years so that the centre the atmosphere, disturbed by many was a pleasant temperature. Having was now about 200 feet lower than low activity thermals. The occa­ spent some time splashing around the surrounding country. A small sional water hole was the focal point in the water, we returned to the ho­ lake to one side indicated the lowest for any signs of the passage of tel to be told quite seriously that one level. The diameter must have been stock along the Canning, concen­ wouldn't find any of the iocals close to a mile and I could not resist trating vehicle tracks and the scuff­ swimming in those croc infested flying down into the crater until we ing of the surface by animal hoofs. were well below the level of the rim water holes. A few cold beers At the end of the day was the big and probably below the surrounding helped to convince us of our good runway at Meekatharra, an old gold ground level. fortune at not having been eaten. mining centre. The big wooden pub Flight planning for the next day As we climbed out of the crater in town sen/ed us well for the over­ involved learning as much as we towards the beginning of the Can­ night and we were off again next could about the Canning Stock ning Stock Route, I pondered on the day for a flight due east. apparent enormous size of the me-

16 AHSA Aviation Heritage

The occasional ground feature Maralinga survey. He said we were what he describes as, the ultimate served to break the monotony and to see an Aboriginal Stonehenge. in smoothness of operation of any the navigator would periodically Sure enough towards one end of aircraft he has ever experienced. request a climb to 2/3000 ft to en­ the salt pan we found was a geo­ His praise is somewhat embarrass- able him to get some bearings from metric array of large stone columns ing. radio stations on the radio compass. obviously laid out deliberately by Visits to Woomera were always Eventually we intercepted our human endeavour. Perhaps this full of interest. The instrumentation northbound track from Cook. At that area is yet to be re-discovered. in the range head building was state point, we diverted to Giles for an On another Giles mission I in­ of the art. Radar and kine-theodolite overnight. The next day, we flew vited Major Tom Risher along as co­ sites abounded. Then there was the from Giles to Warburton Mission, pilot. Tom was a USAF test pilot on giant launch site for the big British Maralinga and on to Edinburgh exchange at ARDU, Laverton. Dur­ rockets at Lake Hart and the liquid having completed the survey on ing the early morning flight from oxygen production facility closer to approach to Maralinga. Perhaps the Edinburgh to Maralinga and while Woomera. 28 hours of very-low flying is crossing the Flinders Gulf we en­ something of a record. Leaving Woomera one afternoon countered some rain showers from on one of the civil passenger serv­ I now wonder if those hundreds cumulus clouds. This was where I ices operating between Woomera of photographs of central Australia saw for the first time the full circle of and Edinburgh I had settled back have been preserved. rainbows. We were all fascinated to into a seat beside one of the en­ see such a rare sight. I have not FURTHER DC3 FLYING gines. I watched as an engineer met many others who have seen Flying around Australia in trans­ undid a hinged cover on the nacelle such a phenomenon and have only port aircraft always provided the to check oil contents and noticed seen one other during a late after­ opportunities to see yet more of this that he omitted to re-fasten the noon approach into Canberra air­ vast land. Returning from Pearce in cover. Here was a potential safety port. WA in a DCS en route to a waypoint problem developing so I became at Ceduna I took the opportunity to At Maralinga we were met by the wide awake to the other prepara­ fly along the long length of cliffs at usual security officers. Suddenly tions for flight. The pilots came the southern edge of the Nullarbor. there was a crisis. I had not been aboard and the entrance door was These cliffs average about 200 feet aware that Maralinga was for Brit­ closed. An air hostess came around straight up from a usually raging ish/Australian eyes only. And here checking seat belts so I told her that ocean. Those who have ever flown was a United States test pilot on the the panel on the engine nacelle had for several hours along and beside loose, but not for long. Tom quickly not been fastened. She said "Oh the these cliffs never forget the experi­ had two security officers keeping pilot will look after that, you just sit ence. very close company as our aircraft back and relax." was refueled. Security wanted to Then there are some man-made To make a point I waited until we confine Tom and escort him back to landmarks which linger in one's had taxied some distance with the Edinburgh forthwith. I objected and memory. The huge PIONEER let­ panel flapping around before draw­ declared I would not proceed to ters bulldozed into the Nullarbor ing the hostesses attention again, Giles without Tom. I eventually below the air route from Perth to this time demanding that I be off­ agreed to confine Tom in the aircraft Adelaide. I'm sure the 'Greens' loaded unless she did something fuselage without external visibility would want to have this erased. real fast. She disappeared up front until we were 30 NM along track to Then there is the large orchard on for a while, reappeared and an­ Giles. This was all rather amusing the side of a ridge near Wangaratta nounced that there would be a short to Tom who had no particular inter­ in Victoria with the word HONEY delay while we returned to the ter­ est in Maralinga. laid out in trees. minal. There the engine stopped Flying down the length of the On my return to Edinburgh I was and someone positioned a ladder Barrier Reef at 2/3000 feet was an­ insistently invited to the office of Air and secured the panel. I became other highlight which added to all of Cdr Bull Garing, the Officer Com­ more relaxed. manding the base. The finer details the other impressions of this country On 25 January 1961, I flew of security of Maralinga were clearly have given me great pride in being again in a Vulcan. This was a Blue an Aussie. explained, albeit with some tongue in cheek. Steel trial to Woomera in XA903 The monthly supply flights from with Doc Savage. On 12 February Edinburgh to Giles via Maralinga During November 1960, I re­ 1961, I took a Dakota to Sydney never lacked interest. I took with me newed acquaintances with a British airport to pick up special optical as co-pilot on one of these missions Valiant. The flight in Valiant 204 tracking equipment for Project Mer­ Gp Capt George Pither. He was the was to renew the instrument rating cury, the USA's first manned space first Superintendent of the for Mr Savage, the trials pilot for the flight. Blue Steel project. My last flight that Woomera range and had chosen March 1961 was my last month month was to Laverton with Air the site for Maralinga. Setting out with No 2 Air Trials Unit during Commodore Bull Garing as passen­ from Maralinga we flew over the which I flew 43 hours, mostly in ger. Everything must have clicked sites of the nuclear explosions and Bristol Freighters with two supply into place on that flight. The Air then on to a salt pan which George missions to Giles. Pither had visited during his Commodore always reminds me of.

17 AHSA Aviation Heritage

Seventy years young? by Macarthur Job The Tiger Moth -- that living, open-cockpit biplane relic of the ''heroic”, helmet and goggles era of aviation — is seventy! Public misconceptions abound today forward. This certainly gave unimpeded in Australia’s aviation industry had cut their that it is even older. One newspaper is on access to the front cockpit. But the diffi­ teeth on the Tiger Moth. record as solemnly describing it as a culty now was that the lift produced by the There was (and still is!) a lot to be said “World War 1 plane.” And an indignant wings was too far ahead of the aeroplane’s for learning to fly in a Tiger. Although it has Tiger pilot owner acquaintance was once centre of gravity. The remedy was ingen­ none of the sophisticated refinements of asked, “How did they get the guns to fire ious, if simple. The wings, previously at today’s light aeroplanes - electric starters, through the propeller?” right angles to the fuselage, were swept wheel brakes, steerable nose wheels and rearwards sufficiently to restore the bal­ The Tiger may be old -- but not that wing flaps - its very simplicity is deceptive. ance between centre of lift and centre of old! Its real beginnings can be traced to Far more susceptible to the vagaries of gravity. Stag Lane airfield on the outskirts of Lon­ wind on and near the ground, it is consid­ don when, on 26 October 1931, De Havil- But curing one problem created an­ erably more demanding in skill and judge­ land test pilot Hubert Broad clambered into other. Though the sweep-back had the ment than its modern counterparts. the rear cockpit of much modified DH-60 desired effect, it also resulted in the tips of For this reason, just as the Navy once Moth G-ABRC to make the first flight of the lower wings being perilously close to thought it worthwhile to enhance the sea­ what was to become the prototype DH-82 the ground, leaving little room for error manship of its officer cadets by teaching Tiger Moth -- the first of many thousands of when taxiing, or during an “untidy” landing. them to sail a ship’s boat, so learning to fly the little biplane design that would win a Ad hoc methods again came to the in a Tiger Moth instilled sound “airmanship” place in the annals of aviation rivalling that rescue, and the “design” was completed that stayed with a pilot throughout his ca­ of the Model T Ford in the history automo­ simply by shortening the interplane struts, reer. tive development. so raising the lower wings enough for an “Design” may not be the right word. adequate wing tip ground clearance. Fi­ “If you can fly a Tiger, you can fly Notwithstanding its extraordinary success, nally, to improve forward visibility and pro­ anything”, it used to be said at the time. the Tiger has the unique distinction of peller clearance, the aeroplane was fitted Certainly, when airline pilots initially never having been designed on paper, its with De Havilland’s new inverted version of trained on Tigers were still flying, senior unlikely genesis unbelievably involving no its 120hp Gipsy III engine instead of the company training captains said they drawings or advanced mathematics. older upright engine with its cylinder barrels could tell the difference in their handling at the top. skills from those who had begun their Rather the prototype could be said to careers in “modern” nose-wheel aero­ have come together by trial and error. The The Air Ministry was impressed enough Royal Air Force was looking for a replace­ to place an order for the type -- now desig­ planes. ment trainer for its fleet of venerable Avro nated the DH-82 - and the RAF called it Until the advent of enclosed cockpits 504’s that had served the empire so well the Tiger Moth. Three years later in 1934, and cabins in the late 1950s, ab initio since World War 1.(The late King George when De Havilland introduced its higher flying training had changed but little in VI learnt to fly in an Avro 504K in 1918.). performance 130hp Gipsy Major engine, style since the days of Major Smith-Barry De Havilland’s DH-60 Moth Trainer looked this became the standard power unit on all and his famous Gosport flying school of a possible candidate -. the air forces of subsequent Tiger Moths. 1916. So the Tiger today is a relic sur­ Sweden. Egypt, Iraq, Brazil and even The DH-82A as it now became - the China, had all bought them. The ultimate viving from an earlier, distinct style of version familiar to countless thousands of development of the company’s graceful aviation that dates from World War 1, pilots since that time - was an immediate little 60hp Cirrus Moth that had first made when flying was frequently an adventure success, selling extremely well all over the private and club flying a reality in 1925, the and always a challenge. world, including Australia, where it first rugged 120 hp Moth Trainer was strength­ arrived in 1935. By the outbreak of war in There are peculiar delights still to be ened to carry the accoutrements that could September 1939, nearly 1400 DH-82As had in recapturing something of that be required of it in its military role - radio, had been delivered. traditional era of aviating, and these are camera gun, and small practice bombs on undoubtedly the characteristics that, racks under the wings. With the introduction of the Empire Air Training Scheme - the emergency wartime properly mastered, make Tiger flying the But there was one characteristic the air force expansion program conceived in fascinating experience it still is. RAF didn’t like. In common with the Cirrus Britain in 1940 to counter the might of the Moth and all the DH-60 versions that fol­ In more recent years there has been lowed it, the Moth Trainer’s upper wing and German Luftwaffe - the Tiger went into an upsurge of interest in the type, as a fuel tank lay directly above the front cockpit large scale production in Australia, Can­ result of which, with nearly 200 now air­ - the seat normally occupied by the flying ada, and New Zealand to become the worthy, Australia can boast having more means by which thousands of wartime instructor. With the wing’s supporting struts operational Tiger Moths than anywhere British Commonwealth trainee aircrew first and bracing wires, climbing in and out of a else in the world. Most of their proud experienced the exhilaration of flight. Moth’s front cockpit was something of an owners are members of the Antique acrobatic feat at any time. For a RAF flying Released for this vital if unspectacular Aeroplane Association. In Britain too, the instructor, wearing bulky service flying gear role in 1945, large numbers of Tigers cult continues to flourish under the aus­ and a parachute, a quick exit was well nigh quickly found their way into aero clubs and pices of the world famous Tiger Club. impossible, and the RAF reasoned that in flying schools, the type becoming the stan­ an emergency this factor could well be­ dard basic training aeroplane in Britain, As many AHSA members well un­ come a matter of life or death. Australia and New Zealand during the early derstand, provided its limitations are Yet in other respects the RAF was im­ post war years of civil flying expansion and allowed for, and its pilots have an ade­ pressed with the Moth Trainer, and finally development. quate grasp of yesteryear’s handling asked De Havillands to see what they techniques that it demands, the Tiger is could do to improve front cockpit accessi­ Today, the Tiger Moth’s contribution to an eminently safe aeroplane. In the right bility. Working in a small shed with a few aviation in almost all nations of British ori­ conditions it can be a source of great fun assistants, De Havilland’s chief designer gin remains incalculable. Indeed, until to those for whom open cockpit flying around 25 years ago, it was a safe bet that dismantled a Moth Trainer and experi­ has an appeal of its own. ^ mented with moving the upper wing further most, if not all, senior operations personnel

18 AHSA Aviation Heritage

Robert Alexander (Bob) Gray was born in the Sydney suburb of Cremorne on 10th January 1920. He joined the RAAF in 1940 and, after further training in Canada, served with the RAF on Hurricanes before returning to Australia in 1942 to join No. 76 Squadron, flying Kittyhawks. Malaria in New Guinea caused his transfer to instructional duties. At the end of 1944 he undertook a Production Test Pilot’s course with the RAAF, which led to his appointment to de Havilland Aircraft as a test pilot on Mosquitoes. He subsequently joined Qantas, where he progressed from the Short Empire flying boat to the Boeing 747. He recorded this interview with GtQQ BdnfiGlcI on 4th April 2001. From 1925 to 1930, I attended Middle Harbour Public School in Cremorne, and then went on to the Mosman Technical High School, which specialised in metal work and carpentry. However, I didn't want to do that, so the second year of my high school education was done at Crows Nest Commercial High School. But the course there ran for only two years, so for my final year, which was for the Intermediate Certificate, I attended North Sydney Intermediate High School. I had my first flight when I was seven or eight years old. My father drove my mother, my brother and me out to Mascot one day and I went for a flight with Goya Henry, who had a tin leg, in his Genairco. Mascot was only a grass airfield in those days, and where the Qantas complex Is now was then occupied by Chinese market gardens. Robert Alexander (Bob) Gray, Camden, 1972. Photo.-R.A.Gray I sat and passed the New South Wales Education Department's Intermediate Certificate Examination in six SS Monterey on a round-the-world tour. Carried on board subjects in 1933. At the age of 13 years, I was the was the Lockheed Orion, NC12229 The Spirit of Fun, a youngest candidate for the exam in the State. The old low-wing monoplane, and the aircraft was unloaded by school at North Sydney is now a pub, with shops all floating crane and taken by barge over to Anderson Park around it, and my daughter and I have had a drink there in at Neutral Bay, where it was assembled.^ My mother the classroom where I once sat my exam for the picked me up from school and took me down to see it. Intermediate Certificate. There were no trees or power lines at Anderson Park then, and the pilot, a man named Captain James P. Dickson, On 13th October 1932, the managing director of MGM took off from the limited space there and flew to Mascot. Film Studios, Mr N. B. Freeman, visited Sydney In the They flew all around Sydney and had a great time. This was the first US civil aircraft to fly within Australia. On 15th October they flew to Melbourne and two days later left Wyndham, WA, for Bali. After visiting Hong Kong, Shanghai and Calcutta, they sailed to South Africa. Unfortunately the aircraft crashed on take-off at Victoria Falls, Rhodesia, on 17th November 1932 after hitting a tree, and Dickson was killed. Many people think that Kingsford Smith was the first to take off from Anderson Park, but it wasn't until July 1934 that he flew his Lockheed Altair off from there, gathering all the big publicity. Originally, when he had the Altair taken off the ship on which it arrived, Kingsford Smith had wanted to take off from Macquarie Street but the authorities wouldn't let him. He then barged it over to Anderson Park and took off from there as Dickson had done before. In 1932 I helped Cliff Carpenter, who was constructing his home-built aircraft, by painting dope on the fabric. Cliff was a nephew of Sir Walter Carpenter, of the W. R. Carpenter island trading firm. Assisted by Bill Murrell, Harry Wyatt and Chris Scott, he built his aircraft over a period of two years in a garage belonging to Burrows and Thorne on the corner of Belmont Road and Military Road at Cremorne Junction. Harry Wyatt was a friend of mine who introduced me to the group.

Lockheed Orion 9A Special NCI2229 "The Spirit of Fun". * The Orion was registered to the Hal Roach Studios, and carried the Captain James P.Dickson in the cockpit. Anderson Park, Neutral titling "Hal Roach Studios" in the flash line under the two rear cabin Bay, NSW 13 October 1932. Photo:Via R.a.Gray windows. The Hal Roach Studios had an association with MGM Studios dating from 1927.

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built by the Clancy brothers, Allan, Bill and Jack. It was powered by a Henderson motorbike engine and, like Cliff Carpenter's machine after it, was not supposed to be flown more than three miles from Mascot aerodrome; Jack found himself in trouble with the authorities for his flight. I was mad about aeroplanes and used to make model aircraft out of balsa wood. I bought all my supplies - balsa wood, paper, dope and rubber bands - from a shop owned by a man named B. J. Baker, on the corner of Murdoch Street and Military Road, Neutral Bay. Then I used to fly my models at Cammeray, at an area which is now a golf course. We carved our own propellers out of balsa wood too, and I was carving a propeller one day using my father's best cut-throat razor, when I sliced the top of my thumb. I lost a lot of blood and passed out, sitting at a Cliff Carpenter's monoplane under construction at Cremorne basin in the bathroom. Fortunately my mother came and Junction, NSW in 1932. Photo:R.A. Gray found me there. The aircraft was a three-seat, high-wing monoplane, built mainly of spruce and birch, and fitted with a 115 h.p. After my 14th birthday, in January 1934, I entered the Cirrus Hermes engine. Professor Tom Leech, of Sydney workforce. At school I had learned Pitman short-hand, of University, did the stress calculations for the airframe. all things, and commercial studies related to banking, and When it was completed, on Christmas Day 1932 it was this gave me a good background when I went to work as a taken out to Kellyville, which was not far out of town but clerk in an accountant's office in the city. I used to do all still all bush country, and test-flown there by Cliff the banking. This office was also the registered address Carpenter. The tests revealed some bad control problems for many companies, including a lot of mining companies and the aircraft skidded around the circuit in a series of flat in Malaya, and when the dividends came along for turns before being brought back to earth in an "arrival". payment, I had to address all the envelopes, put the cheques in the envelopes, seal and post them. I was a busy, busy boy. At school I had won a scholarship with a company called Blennerhassett's Institute of Accountancy, and I started to study accountancy there. However, I found I didn't want to be an accountant - it bored me and so I gave it away. I enjoyed tap and ballroom dancing, and towards my mid-teen years, I started taking up amateur acting. I appeared in various amateur theatricals, and when I was 17 I joined a dance school as an instructor. Eventually I appeared in a locally-made film entitled Seven Little Australians, playing the part of Pip, the eldest of the seven. The final scenes of the production were filmed as World War Two broke out in September 1939. When I got serious about doing some flying, I used to The monoplane outside the garage where it was constructed go to Mascot with a bloke who was a classical musician by Photo: R. A. Gray profession. He had a private pilot's licence and he would The machine was disassembled and taken out to hire a Klemm Swallow from Adastra Airways. The Mascot, where further work was carried out on it. The Swallow was one of the easiest little aeroplanes ever to problem was found to be caused by the ailerons and fly. With the Swallow (as with other aircraft such as the elevators having insufficient travel, and after this had been Gipsy Moth), the person flying it sat in the back and the worked on, the aircraft was test-flown at Mascot, again passenger or instructor sat In the front. The control stick with unsatisfactory results. After all the time and effort that in the front cockpit was removable, secured by a little pin, went into building the aircraft. Cliff wasn't allowed to fly it. and If the passenger didn't have a licence, they would It was grounded by the Department, so Cliff sold it to remove it. Penfold's Wines, who displayed it standing on its nose in their Minchinbury Vineyards on the Old Western Highway On my 20th birthday In January 1940 I enlisted in the leading up to the mountains, with a sign reading "Don't RAAF as a trainee pilot under the Empire Air Training crash - drink Penfolds". ^ Scheme. I had always wanted to fly and, because I had the required qualifications, I was accepted by the Air When Cliff Carpenter was testing his aircraft at Force. Initially I was placed on the Reserve before being Kellyville, Jack Clancy flew up there too in his Skybaby. called up for service and training on 24th June that year. The Skybaby was another little home-made aeroplane. From then on, it was a totally different life. I had read all the books on flying and knew a lot before I joined the Air 2 In the mid-1930s, Cliff Carpenter led a "Flying Circus" of about a Force, so my first two months at No.2 Initial Training dozen pilots, who staged barnstorming air pageants around New South School at Bradfield Park, NSW, weren't too difficult for me. Wales. Cliff Carpenter later flew for McDonald Air Service in North I was well organised. Queensland, Union Airways in New Zealand, and then travelled to Then I proceeded to No.5 Elementary Flying School at England where he joined Imperial Airways. When World War Two Narromlne, NSW, in October for initial flying training. broke out, he Joined the Royal Air Force. While flying with No.210 Squadron as second pilot of a Sunderland (although he had more Flying came to me fairly naturally, and I didn't have too experience than the captain), he was shot down over Oslow, Norway, in much trouble. At Narromine, you did about 8 or 9 hours 1939 and was killed. with your instructor, then you were checked by the Flight

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Commander to go solo. I had done hours' flying when is limited. The airfield was covered in snow and all we my instructor said, "All right, you are going to do your solo could do was fly the aircraft on to the deck, as you put a check." flying boat on to the water. We developed the technique The Flight Commander arrived. He was not a very of "feeling" the aircraft on to the snow, because judgement communicative sort of bloke so I was a bit petrified, I must was difficult. admit. I taxied out and took off. He said, "All right, do me Keith W. ("Bluey") Truscott was on the same course at a circuit." I did a circuit and came in and landed. In those Camp Borden, and flew with me on occasions as my days, three-point landings were considered the "done" training partner in instrument flying. Some of those thing, so when I three-pointed the Tiger Moth, I thought, graduates, including Murray Curtiss, "Bluey" Truscott, Bill "Boy, I'm ready to go solo." Eccleton, George Inkster and I, went on to fighters in The Flight Commander said, "All right. Gray. Go and England. George Inkster was killed later at Milne Bay in do one circuit and come and pick me up." Narromine was New Guinea on 11th August 1942, and "Bluey" Truscott an enormous airfield. I was so excited, and when I landed was killed in Australia in 1943. The rest of the course I turned crosswind, did the after-landing checks, and went into various other Commands including Bomber taxied back onto the Flight tarmac. Command, where the death rate was pretty high, unfortunately. Over the Tannoy loudspeakers came, "LAC Gray - report to the Flight Commander." What had I done We progressed on to the Harvard for more general wrong? I thought I must have failed. "You forgot to pick flying, including instrument flying training. Normally the me up!" the Flight Commander thundered. He let me pupil flew in the front seat and the instructor sat in the believe that he had had to walk the best part of half a mile back, but with instrument flying, the instructor was safety back from the end of the airfield, and that took all the shiny pilot and sat in the front, while you got in the back and polish off my solo. I was over-confident to blazes, had pulled the hood over. My instructor was a bush pilot, who done everything right, made a lovely three-pointer landing, had a very broad accent and I had great difficulty in but I was so excited that I hadn't picked him up. I found understanding him. So it was with great difficulty that I out later, however, that he had thumbed a ride back with even got to the stage I did. another pupil. We did about 80 to 100 hours' flying at Camp Borden. I sailed from Sydney on 31st October 1940 in the I graduated and received my Wings there on 11th Awatea, one of 150 RAAF aircrew trainees, for advanced February 1941. I had my 21st birthday one month before training in Canada. We travelled via New Zealand, where graduation. From there we travelled to the UK, taking 22 we picked up another 150 aircrew trainees, from the Royal days to cross the Atlantic from Halifax to Liverpool in a 48- New Zealand Air Force. On reaching Canada, I ship convoy. The ship I was on was a little old banana proceeded to No.1 Service Flying Training School, Royal ship from the West Indies, of about 15,000 tons, and there Canadian Air Force, at Camp Borden, Ontario, where I were only twelve of us passengers on board. They used arrived on 27th November. This was the first mixed all sorts of ships in those big convoys, anything they could course of Australian and Canadian trainee pilots in get their hands on. The convoy travelled at 6 knots, which Canada under the Empire Air Training Scheme. was the speed of the slowest ship, and I think we were one of the slowest. We were positioned right up the front, I had a great time in Canada. One of the aircraft used just behind the leader. I was rostered for guard duty on for training there at that time was the North American the ship, with a .303 rifle. Yale. It had a fixed landing gear, a two-pitch propeller and 500 h.p. Pratt & Whitney Wasp engine (whereas the The British lost an awful lot of ships to submarines in the Atlantic in the early days. They did a remarkable job. Harvard had a 550 h.p. Wasp). The interesting thing is . * xu- ■ r x -ru u .. x i. • r . that the Yales were originally going to France and all the “• ^ad to bring in fuel and instruments were in French and read In metres, kilograms per square centimetre, and litres. They found a very simple way of solving the problem for raw pupils of understanding the Instruments by painting green areas for normal operations and red-lining the "Don't Exceed" figures. The Yale was the forerunner of the Harvard and one was brought to Australia in the lead-up to Wirraway production: that was the NA-16, which was the Yale with English instruments. The day after we arrived, snow covered the whole area. Our main problem was the lack of height perception when trying to land with snow covering everything around. It was like trying to land on smooth water in a flying boat - you can't judge height, as your peripheral vision Hawker Hurricane '*C-DX'' of245 Squadron, RAF (Bob Gray's aircraft) Northern Ireland 1941 Photo: R.A.Gray

21 AHSA Aviation Heritage supplies by sea in the face of concentrated attack, but who looked after the aircraft. He would open up a little morale was always good. The British put up a pretty good panel and turn on the master control, which was behind show, and the civilian population did a marvellous job. the armour plate where you sat in the cockpit. The oxygen supply then passed to the command regulator in the After a short leave in London, I was posted on 7th April cockpit, where you could turn it on in flight. This particular 1941 to No.55 Operational Training Unit, RAF, at Usworth operation was a high-flying sweep, up to 16,000 to 18,000 for conversion on to Hawker Hurricanes. First I was put in feet, in formation, and there was to be no radio a Miles Master to have a look around the area and orient communication. As we climbed out over the English myself The Station had Masters powered by either the Channel, I found that my oxygen wasn't coming through Bristol Mercury radial engine or the Rolls-Royce Kestrel. I the regulator and I was starting to feel a bit "whiffy". I was given one with the Kestrel engine. After about 20 couldn't talk to anybody because I was not permitted to, so hours' flying in the Master, I did a final check in it and was I turned back. And on the way back I had an engine then taken over to a Hurricane. failure. I landed on the first field I could find, right on the Various features of the Hurricane were pointed out to south coast of England, and I managed to get the aircraft me and I was briefed on what to do. I had a big, powerful on the ground in one piece. It turned out that my machine and away I went on my own. It was a beautiful mechanic had forgotten to turn on the oxygen at the aeroplane to fly, very kind. It had a good, sturdy landing master control (there was no way you could turn it on in gear and you could see everything that was going on and flight), and that had caused me to turn back, ultimately had a wonderful view of everything. The Hurricanes at the saving my life. OTU were early Mk.l models with fabric-covered wings My future wife, Vera May Burton (known as Dot), was mounting six machine guns, and the fuselage was also one of three WAAFs at Chilbolton, working as a telephone fabric-covered. In contrast, the all-metal Spitfire, which I operator at the Station. There were two quonset huts flew later (but not operationally) had a very narrow landing installed on the airfield, joined by a small connecting room gear and a long snout - where you sat was a long way which contained the telephone operators and their PBX back from the nose and you had to keep constantly equipment. All members of the Squadron, including the weaving while taxiing on a taxiway to see where you were WAAFs, were billetted out in houses in the village. The going. pilots were mostly Sergeants in those days and the On 2nd June 1941 I was posted with some other WAAFs were allowed to use the Sergeants' Mess and Australian pilots to No.245 Squadron, RAF, in Northern ablutions. All the girls were indeed popular, but Sergeant Ireland. The Squadron was there being rested after James Barton, RNZAF, and I were keen competitors for returning from France, and it was very quiet there Dot. operationally, giving the pilots a chance to sort themselves The Squadron's next move was to Middle Wallop, on out and quieten down. The Commanding Officer, the two 19th December 1941, and a week afterwards, I was sent Flight Commanders and the ground staff were English, but to No.56 Operational Training Unit at Sutton Bridge, the pilots were English, Polish, Czechoslovakian, Free Lincolnshire, as an instructor for a few months. In 1942 French, Canadian, Australian and New Zealanders, and No.245 Squadron became much more active, doing a were Indeed a mixed lot. Initially we were based at number of sweeps over France. During this time, Jimmy Aldergrove, which today Is the major civil airport. Then In Barton had been promoted to Pilot Officer and had the middle of July we moved to Ballyhalbert, another married Dot. Unfortunately Jimmy was killed ten days Station in Northern Ireland. after his wedding, in a raid over Dieppe. The Squadron was equipped with Mk.ll Hurricanes At No.56 OTU, I was instructing on Hurricanes, but on which had metal-covered wings and fabric-covered the odd occasion I flew Westland Lysanders, which were fuselage, and mounted eight machine guns. The last used to tow drogues. I wasn't very happy about drogue- Hurricanes I ever flew had four 20-mm cannon, which Is towing, because the pupils were firing live bullets and if quite a firepower. We used the old type of ring gun-sight. they didn't break off their attack, you would get a bullet Later on. Hurricanes were sent to the Middle East for use right up your rear end if you weren't careful. I didn't do a as tank-busters, mounting two 40-mm cannon. Even with great deal of that work, though, thank God. the 20-mm cannon, if you ever got a stoppage on one side, it caused a hell of a yaw. The Lysander was an amazing aeroplane, which had The hydraulic system which operated the landing gear automatic slats and automatic flaps. They handled and flaps was very simple. It was just like an H-gate, and nothing like a normal aircraft. They descended almost the lever sat in the middle; it moved up and down on the vertically, and landing was like doing a precautionary left side to operate the landing gear, and up and down on landing on a short field, where you have to get right back the right hand side to operate the flaps. (The Spitfire had to the landing speed and control your rate of descent with pneumatic extension and retraction of the landing gear.) your power. You had a greater ability to do that in the Lysander than you did In a normal aircraft because, with Most of my operations were convoy patrols, protecting its automatic slots and flaps, it was almost impossible to against German bombers. Sometimes we patrolled down stall. The Lysander was a fantastic aeroplane, and its in the English Channel, but nearly always we patrolled out features made it ideal for landing spies In France at night. in the Atlantic Ocean. I didn't see much on these patrols as we were away from the main air fighting. The It was whilst I was at No.56 OTU that I was posted Squadron carried out a tremendous number of convoy back to Australia, following the outbreak of war in the patrols there. Then, on 2nd September, the Squadron Pacific, along with a number of other RAAF fighter pilots moved to Chilbolton, an all-grass satellite airfield in the serving with the RAF. There were about 15 or 20 of us south of England, up near Andover, where once again I came back, including Squadron Leader "Bluey" Truscott, did convoy patrols. who had finished up as Commanding Officer of No.452 Squadron, the first Australian Spitfire squadron formed in On one particular occasion we did a reconnaissance England. sweep over France. The main oxygen bottle was turned on externally prior to start-up by your ground mechanic

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We sailed on 27th March 1942 back from Liverpool to invented PSP and its use was quite common - it was a Halifax on a small ship called the Banfora, arriving at the wonderful way of building an airstrip. You always thought RCAF's No.5 Manning Depot at Montreal on 9th April. your aeroplane was falling apart when you landed, Then we went down across the United States by train to because it used to go clang, clang, clanketty-clang. The San Francisco, where we picked up another ship which only real problem was that it became very slippery when it sailed on its own down to Melbourne. When we went rained. ashore in Melbourne on 14th May, we were given a couple The Squadron was moving up to New Guinea and of weeks' leave before being posted to No.76 Squadron. each of the two Flights had an escort of an American B-25 No.76 Squadron was being formed under Squadron Mitchell to do the navigation for us. We moved to the Leader Peter Turnbull. "Bluey" Truscott was appointed a main strip at Garbutt, from where we were to fly to Port Flight Commander, but I wasn't in his Flight. Although he Moresby. Garbutt had large concrete pipes lying in the had been Commanding Officer of No.452 Squadron, he grass along the side of the strip, ready to be rolled into was reduced to his substantive rank of Flying Officer, place on the strip as obstacles in the event of an invasion. However, he refused to remove the stripes of Acting Squadron Leader, and the furore created in the Press forced the Minister for Air to intervene and order that all men who had been on operations could retain their acting ranks. ^ The Squadron was equipped with Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawks and at that time was based outside Townsville, out in the boondocks near the weir. In fact. It was called the Weir Strip. I arrived there on 9th June and then next day converted onto the Kittyhawk when I flew the P-40E A29-74. The strip there had been bulldozed and covered with interlocking metal strips, called Pierced Steel Planking (or Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk A29-74 at Rorona, New Guinea, after the undercarriage collapse PSP). The Americans had 20 July 1942 Photo; R.A. Gray

I nearly killed myself taking off from Townsville on 19th 3 "Bluey" Truscott became Commanding Officer of No.76 Squadron July in A29-74. My kit bag was stowed in the back of the in August 1942, during the fight against the Japanese invasion at aeroplane and I had my mosquito net packed down by my Milne Bay. The incessant attacks by Kittyhawks of Nos.75 and 76 side in the cockpit. We always had to take off and land Squadrons proved the decisive factor in inflicting the first defeat on with the canopy open, and when I took off, the suction the Japanese on land. At the end of the battle in September, No.76 Squadron was relieved and returned to Darwin. Early in 1943, the picked up the mosquito net and blew it all over me. I Squadron was moved to a new base, "Potshot", at Onslow, on the couldn't see because of the net, and I had just got Exmouth Gulf in Western Australia, to protect the American airborne; I very nearly "bought it", as the expression was in advanced naval base there. On 28th March, "Bluey" was flying with those days. Fortunately I managed to get control of the his number 2, Flying Officer Ian Louden, escorting a Catalina of the darned thing and continued on. US Navy's VPlOl Squadron returning from a patrol. Thinking he We refuelled at Cooktown and then went on to Horn would give the Catalina crew a bit of a stir, "Bluey" made feint fighter attacks on the Catalina as it slowly descended preparatory to Island, where we refuelled and night-stopped. The next landing, accompanied by Louden. day, we flew on to Moresby, but when we had almost Dan Dennison, an aircraft crew chief mechanic of VPlOl, was reached our destination, we were warned there was an air standing on the deck of the seaplane tender USS Willie B. Preston raid on and we were diverted to Rorona, about 30 miles up waiting for the squadron's Catalinas to return from patrol. At 1630 the coast north-west of Moresby. The strip was still under hours one of the Catalinas was on final approach to land in the sea construction there, and the bulldozer had pushed dirt when he observed Truscott dive under and slightly ahead of it. The along and left it in mounds which hadn't yet been levelled. water in that area is fairly shallow and on that day was very flat, I was about the fourth of fifth to come in, and when I calm and glassy. Truscott misjudged his height and hit the water landed I hit one of these mounds of dirt. The landing gear but he yanked back on the stick and his Kittyhawk rose with a right on the Kittyhawk was an amazing piece of engineering. It spiral. The engine cut but caught again as the plane made another used to retract backwards first, then rotate 90 degrees and spiral, then cut, caught and made a third spiral before the engine cut tuck in under the wing. It never seemed to be very stable, again and the Kittyhawk plunged into the bay. and the wheels used to "walk" - when you landed, you Dennison noted that in her broadcast that night, Tokyo Rose claimed that Japanese aircraft had shot down the Australian ace. could see the landing gear moving. On this occasion it Squadron Leader "Bluey" Truscott, and that they had also shot down just folded. an American PBY patrol plane. I wasn't seriously hurt. I think my dignity suffered more The Captain of the USS Childs, which was also there, took a fix on than anything else, but I had a belly tank on underneath where the Kittyhawk crashed. Divers from the Childs searched until which was just about empty, so I was very lucky to have midnight without success, but finally recovered Truscotfs body the got away from it in one piece. And I can remember the next day.

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Commanding Officer rushing up. He never asked me if I and on 14th September 1944 we moved over to No.6 was all right, he never said a word to me. He had a Service Flying Training School at Mallala in South screwdriver in his hand and he unscrewed the beautiful Australia, right up in the dust-bowl country north of American Elgin 8-day clock from the instrument panel and Adelaide. At Mallala also, I was instructing on both away he went. The Kittyhawk was jacked up and found to Ansons and Oxfords. The Anson would just about land be not seriously damaged, although it would have needed itself, it was such an easy aeroplane to fly. a new propeller and some work on the undercarriage. Whilst still instructing at Mallala, I was successful in my I flew another Kittyhawk, A29-120, to Moresby on 22nd application for a Test Pilot's Course being conducted at July, and then I flew down to Milne Bay in A29-35 on 25th RAAF Laverton. The RAAF conducted six of these Test July. Milne Bay had been secretly reinforced by two Pilots' Courses for production testing, and I was on the brigades of Australian troops to forestall an outflanking fourth course, which started on 20th December 1944. The movement by the Japanese to capture Port Moresby, and ground instructors and the flying instructors were top we were at Milne Bay when the Japanese invasion took class. ("Freddie" Fox, who also later joined Qantas, was place. on the No.3 Course, ahead of me.) It was a very good I was never medically examined after my crash on course, and lasted three months, but after Number Six landing at Rorona, but in any event, after I had been at course it was suspended as the war had ended. The Milne Bay for about six weeks, I went down with a bad course covered engines, airframes, hydraulics, electrical dose of malaria. When we first went to New Guinea, all systems and instruments in fairly intimate detail. It gave a we had were the old-fashioned quinine pills which had greater understanding of the aircraft and it stood me in been used for malaria in the tropics for many years. good stead in my later career in civil flying. I enjoyed it Malaria attacks the red corpuscles in the blood, and every very much. bone in your body aches, you shiver, sweat, shiver and The aircraft I flew on the course included the Wirraway, sweat. You feel like death. I was flown down to Brisbane Spitfire, Boomerang, Vultee Vengeance, Beaufort, on 4th September and hospitalised for 14 days. Beaufighter and Mosquito. How the Vengeance ever got I didn't go back to the tropics after that, but was posted in the air. I'll never know. It was a dive-bomber, but it was to No.7 Service Flying Training School at Deniliquin on very heavy and just like a flying lump of lead. On 2nd April 14th January 1943 as a Staff Pilot instructing on 1945, I was seconded to Forest Hill, Wagga, for about a Wirraways. I wasn't a fully-qualified instructor at that week. There was a number of Beaufighters and Beauforts stage, and as a Staff Instructor I was really a Safety Pilot. at an Aircraft Depot there, and I had to make sure that On 12th July that year, I was sent to do a proper, six-week they were still airworthy. Flying Instructor's Course at Central Flying School at On graduation from the course, I was posted on 16th Tamworth, and then I returned to Deniliquin. April to Test Flight of No.2 Aircraft Depot at RAAF On 21st December 1943 I went back to the Central Richmond, where Air Force acceptance tests were carried Flying School and did another course, a double course out on Mosquito aircraft, which were being manufactured which was called a Combined Flying Instructor's and at Bankstown, and Beaufighters, which were being Advanced Flying Instructor's Course, which included both assembled at Mascot. I completed test-flying on these Elementary and Service instruction. I converted on to types, as well as Beauforts and a few Spitfires. twin-engined aircraft on that course, namely. Airspeed Harold Gibson Lee was the test pilot on the first flight Oxfords and Avro Ansons. My instructor was Roy Gray of the first Australian-built Mosquito, A52-1, on 23rd July (the same name as my father and my brother) and by the 1943. Another pilot, Hubert Boss-Walker, was killed on end of my courses, I had come to know him very well. He 10th June 1944 whilst testing Mosquito A52-12. The had originally been a fitter in the Permanent Air Force problem was traced to wing flutter and the aircraft just before the war, so he was very knowledgeable on aircraft broke apart in mid-air.'' Subsequently, because of my mechanically. After the war, he joined Trans-Australia involvement in the Air Force acceptance tests of the Airlines and eventually went into the Department of Civil Mosquitoes, I was offered a job as Number 2 Test Pilot by Aviation as an Examiner of Airmen. When I was flying de Havillands. Having solved their various production Boeing 707s and 747s with Qantas, he sometimes flew problems, they were now producing the aircraft fairly with me up the track to observe the operation. We knew quickly, and were also servicing the English-built each other of old and had a ball, but unfortunately he died Mosquitoes. De Havillands had only one test pilot at the a few years ago. time of my joining, Aubrey J. R. ("Titus") Oates, and On that course, I received my copy of the "bible", the because of the workload, they wanted another, so I Instructor's Handbook Of Advanced Flying Training. This entered their service after being released by the RAAF wonderfully-written training manual had been produced by and transferred to the Reserve. My last flight in the Air the Royal Air Force's Central Flying School and was used Force was at Richmond on 15th July 1945, when I tested by all air forces of what was then the British Empire. This the Mosquito A52-102, and four days later I was meant that all pupils reached the same standard of discharged. On 20th July I started with de Havillands, training and were interchangeable on operations; an testing Mosquitoes. Australian pilot could fly with a British, Canadian or New I carried out the initial test flights of aircraft straight off Zealand co-pilot without any problem. The standardisation the production line. "Initial" meant you had to go over of pilot training achieved in the Empire Air Training everything and test it all. The English Mosquito had a Scheme was phenomenal. control wheel whereas the Australian model had a stick I graduated from Central Flying School on 19th February 1944 and was posted four days later to No.1 Service Flying Training School at Point Cook, where I “ Also killed in the crash of this Mosquito was de Havilland's Supply instructed on Oxfords and Ansons. While I was there. Manager, Peter Rockingham. Then, on 21st September 1944, Flight Point Cook was closed as a Service Flying Training Lieutenant E. M. Ifould was killed in the crash of Mosquito A52-24 on final approach to Bankstown on his first flight as a de Havilland test School because the Central Flying School moved in there. pilot.

24 AHS4 Aviation Heritage control, and the English one seemed to be a little heavier, to cure the glue. The wings were initially built by de because it had more equipment in it. The lighter Havillands but a shortage of space for construction saw Australian machine was much nicer to fly - absolutely this work sub-contracted to General Motors-Holdens Ltd, delightful. Garney Wharton was the Flight Shed with whom de Havillands had worked closely on the Tiger Superintendent and he was a very good engineer; he Moth production program. joined Qantas a few years later. De Havillands had a very I'll never forget V-J Day, 15th August 1945. I had an good team there and I got on very well with them. aircraft to test that morning and I was sitting in it, strapped in and just about to start the engines, when Aubrey Oates, the other test pilot, arrived and pulled up alongside in his powder-blue MG sports car. He was waving and calling for me to get out. He was the chief, so I got out. "What is the matter?" I asked. "I want to fly this; I'll take it, " he said, He set himself in and away he went, to beat hell out of Sydney for V-J Day. Garney Wharton and the other boys saw this and they said, "Gee, what a dirty trick that was." So they went and got another Mosquito inspected, and about half an hour later I was airborne in the second machine, also having a wonderful beat-up of Sydney. V-J Day was an incredible day. Bob Gray (L), with de Havilland office staff beside Mosquito A52-163 Bankstown, 1945. photo: R.A.Gray People went mad, more SO than V-E Day. The Mossie was a lovely thing to fly, and rolled beautifully. It was made of wood and had two good I obtained my first licence. Commercial Pilot Licence Packard Merlin engines. Because of a shortage of space, number 1184, including an Instrument Rating, in de Havillands took over several factories, including the September 1945. Strangely enough, whilst I was with de big, empty building of the Beale Piano Company, where Havillands I didn't need a licence, only an Authority. Even the fuselage and tailplane were built. The fuselage was though I was a civil pilot, the Mosquito was not a civil constructed in halves which were then joined and cooked aircraft. In this period, de Havillands were also overhauling a Initial Flights of de Havilland Mosquito Aircraft number of D.H.84 Dragons, which I tested. I flew the ______Conducted by R. A. Gray______Dragon A34-17 from Cootamundra to Mascot on 5th Date Aircraft 20 July 1945 A52-118 February 1946, and likewise A34-62 on 15th February. 21 July 1945 A52-121 These aircraft had been bought from Disposals and were 15 August 1945 A52-131 converted to civil standard at Mascot, before being 23 August 1945 A52-133 registered at the end of April to Mandated Airlines in New 25 August 1945 A52-132 Guinea as VH-AOS and VH-APL respectively. I also test- 27 August 1945 A52-136 flew VH-AOP and VH-AOQ, two other Dragons belonging 31 August 1945 A52-139 to Mandated. 3 September 1945 A52-50 Then I delivered the Dragon VH-AGI, with some 5 September 1945 A52-141 passengers on it, to the Bush Church Aid Society at 7 September 1945 A52-143 Whyalla in South Australia. I left Mascot on 18th March 12 September 1945 A52-144 1946 and arrived three days later. They had the D.H.83 14 September 1945 A52-107 Fox Moth VH-AAA, which they had operated since 1938, 20 September 1945 A52-146 and which they were trading in on the Dragon. I gave their 24 September 1945 A52-148 pilot, Mr Chadwick, a conversion on VH-AGI on 22nd 27 September 1945 A52-150 March and then flew the Fox Moth back. The Fox Moth 3 October 1945 A52-151 was not a bad little aeroplane, powered by a Gipsy Major 9 October 1945 A52-153 engine. It was like a Hansom cab, with the passengers 12 October 1945 A52-154 sitting in a cabin and the pilot in an open cockpit way up 19 October 1945 A52-155 the back. On the way back, I pulled into Point Cook, 23 October 1945 A52-156 where an old buddy of mine. Flight Lieutenant Ron Laver, 24 October 1945 A52-56 was Chief Flying Instructor, and I spent a couple of days 29 October 1945 A52-157 there and had a wonderful time before flying back to 30 October 1945 A52-158 Sydney. 2 November 1945 A52-159 23 November 1945 A52-162 Meanwhile, Dot had come back Into my life. Following 7 December 1945 A52-166 my return to Australia from England in 1942, I had heard 13 December 1945 A52-164 through the grapevine of Jimmy Barton's death and wrote

25 AHSA Aviation Heritage

to Dot. After a number of communications, we became 19th December. Earlier that year, when I had resigned engaged. At the end of the war. Dot received her from de Havillands, I had applied to Qantas for a job but discharge and worked for a short period in London before they had knocked me back because, at 26 years of age, I she was repatriated as a war widow to her then in-laws in was considered too old. I applied again later and finally Christchurch, New Zealand. In April 1946 I flew to New got In. Zealand and we married there on 3rd May. Jimmy Barton Captain Bert Ritchie gave me a check flight In the was an only child and his parents were wonderful people, Lockheed 14 VH-ADT on 16th January 1947 and three who accepted me when I went over and they actually gave days later Captain Eric Sims gave me my conversion on the bride away. the Short S.23 VH-ABG. This aircraft, Coriolanus, was the When I came back to Australia, I found my job at de last of the five Empire Flying Boats that Qantas had. I Havillands had been taken by Brian ("Blackjack") Walker. started flying as a First Officer on the run from Rose Bay I was very sore about that and I resigned on the spot. to Brisbane and Noumea and return. Coriolanus handled Walker had been a Group Captain in the Permanent Air just like a big, old Anson. It was very comfortable and It Force, while I was only a humble Flight Lieutenant, but I was so big you could have a game of golf in it. We carried was the only one of de Havilland's test pilots then who one steward, and it lumbered along at 80 miles an hour, held a Test Pilot's Certificate. I had no money, I had sold the same speed as a Tiger Moth. my car to pay for the air fares to and from New Zealand, Qantas at that time had two Liberators, VH-EAJ and and I had a new wife. To help make ends meet, my wife VH-EAK. On 18th June 1947, I did circuits and landings in and I shared accommodation with a friend and his wife. VH-EAJ with Captain Bert Ritchie for a conversion on to On 22nd June 1946, I gave a conversion to Captain the type. I flew the Liberator occasionally as a First Costa and Lieutenant Barbosa of the Portuguese Air Officer, but I didn't get an endorsement on it until the Force, in the Avro Anson CR-AAT. following year, when I went into the Training Section and Eric Sims gave me a full endorsement. I knew Jim Marks, who was running New England Airways, and on 24th June I took a job with him. Marks I started my conversion on to Short S.25 Hythes on was an ex-Air Force pilot who had bought several D.H.84 24th July 1947. These were BOAC aircraft, British Dragons which he was flying under contract to the Sydney registered, and we used to fly them as far as Singapore, Morning Herald, delivering bundles of newspapers up the where BOAC crews took over. I did quite a few trips on coast as far as Casino. In the Dragons there was not the Hythes as a First Officer on the run from Sydney to much between you and Mother Earth but a bit of plywood, Singapore via Bowen, Darwin and Sourabaya. but they had two very good engines, Gipsy Majors. I flew Then the big moment came when Qantas took delivery on the Mascot-Old Bar-Kernpsey-Grafton-Coffs Harbour- of their first Lockheed L.749 Constellation. Eric Sims Casino run carrying the newspapers, in the Dragons and started my conversion on to the Constellations on 17th two Ansons which they had. ^ November 1947, when I flew VH-EAC. My first trip out on On 10th July 1946 my trip to Casino in a Dragon was the line was on 4th December in VH-EAD, with Captain scheduled to coincide with the opening of the Casino Aero Donald Farquhar MacMaster, the Chief Pilot. Donald was Club. My wife came with me, and what a wild night that a very big man and spoke with a very pucka accent. ^ was! I had to give joyrides the next day and I wasn't very In 1948, Qantas established a Flight Training Section healthy. under Eric Sims ^ as Chief Flying Instructor. The Training Section had two DC-3s, two Liberators and two Wackett Trainers. The idea of the Wacketts was to give First Officers, who didn't do much handling on the aircraft on the line, some flying so they could keep their hand in. But really it was just a waste of time and eventually Qantas got rid of the Wacketts, selling VH-EAY in December 1949 and VH- EAZin March 1951. Early in 1948, Qantas called for applicants for the position of Assistant Flying Instructor in the Flight Training Section, and my application was successful, ahead of several others. Up to that time, I had been operating on a Commercial Pilot Licence, but to get my Airline Transport Pilot Licence, I had to do 50 hours of training in command under supervision. I did a conversion on to the Douglas C-47 VH-AIN with Eric Sims on 18th May 1948 and then I Consolidated LB-30 Liberator I VH-EAJ Mascot, NSW, 1948. Photo: R.A. Gray My last flight for New England Airways was on 6th 6 Don MacMaster died of a heart attack on 27th December 1958. November 1946 and I joined Qantas Empire Airways on ^ Eric Charles Sims was bom on 30th November 1907 at Kalgoorlie, WA. Rejoined Qantas on 2nd January 1935 and became a Captain on D.H.86 and Short S.23 aircraft. During the war he was Senior Captain ^ The Dragons flown were VH-AHY, VH-AFK, VH-APP, and the for Queensland, and later he captained Lancastrian, L.749 Constellation Ansons were VH-ARL and VH-AVS. and DC-4 aircraft.

26 AHSA Aviation Heritage did a trip up to New Guinea to get the hours up. I flew up taxying straight down the runway, which didn't seem very on the Sydney-Brisbane-Rockhampton-Townsville-Cairns- right to me. Port Moresby-Lae run with Captain Arthur ("Jake") Most of the demonstration was done taxying the Jacobson. aircraft, to get used to this swivelling function, either to one Qantas bought the D.H.84 Dragon VH-AEF from Butler side or the other. Hibbert then demonstrated a circuit for Air Transport on 18th June 1948 for use on Its me and then I had a go, with the landing gear unlocked. I Queensland services, I test-flew the aircraft, then can assure you it was quite a sensation, because it delivered it from Sydney to Archerfield via Coffs Harbour. seemed to me to be unnatural. When you are landing on The issue of my First Class Airline Transport Pilot Licence a runway, you are looking straight down the runway, not to came through and I was approved by the Department of the right or to the left. Yet with this, the aircraft was going Civil Aviation as a Check and Training Captain on DC-3s down the centreline but the nose was not. and Liberators in June 1948, at the age of 28. My first trip I made a few remarks at the time, but anyway the in command on the DC-3 was on 24th June and I was invention never came to anything. Even using a standard then operating as a Check Captain on DC-3s. landing gear, crosswind wasn't a serious problem in any I used to go to Parkes, NSW, with the Liberator quite a aircraft, unless it exceeded the design maximum, and then lot, doing licence renewals on it for the Constellation First it was a different matter. In those post-war years it was Qfficers. I would spend about seven or eight hours at considered very important to develop country areas in Parkes doing circuits and bumps and three-engine Australia, but now most strips are sealed and most aircraft approaches and so on. I liked the Liberator, which had have tricycle landing gears anyway. four good Pratt & Whitney R-1830 engines, the same In September 1951, at my own request, I returned to engine as the Catalina and DC-3 had. The Liberator was line operations in command on DC-3s on the New Guinea also used for carrying spare engines for the run. In July 1952, I transferred to the DC-4s, which were Constellations, in the event of failures up the track. excellent aircraft with four good Pratt & Whitney R-2000 On one occasion, Clarrie Hibbert, an Examiner of engines. We used to run to Hong Kong in the DC-4 in the Airmen in DCA, invited me to try out the Department's DC- early days, when it was a rather hazardous airport to get in 3 fitted with a swivelling undercarriage, which he was very and out of. I liked the DC-4. keen on. The gear was designed by the Goodyear Being a bit egotistical, I suppose, I went to DCA one company of the USA to facilitate landing in difficult day In 1953 and asked if I could have my licence endorsed crosswind conditions at aerodromes with only single strips, for the Short S.25 Sandringham, on the basis that I was by allowing the wheels to swivel up to 15 degrees either already endorsed on the Hythe, which had the same flying side of the central position. In Australia at the time there boat airframe, and I was endorsed on the DC-3, which had were plenty of aerodromes in country areas which only the same Pratt & Whitney R-1830 engines. The had single strips, some of them only dirt strips, and the Sandringhams were built as civil aircraft, not like the DC-3 was very popular with airlines so DCA were quite earlier Hythes, which were converted Sunderlands, and Interested. the Qantas aircraft had been bought from Tasman Empire Clarrie was an old ex-Air Force friend of mine, having Airways Ltd, which used to run them between Rose Bay been on the Staff at Central Flying School when I did my and Auckland. DCA agreed, and signed me out. I wasn't instructor's course there during the war. He was also the really doing anything wrong, but that was my downfall. man who checked me out as a training captain In the Not long afterwards, a pilot being trained for the Sandringham failed his command check. Qantas wanted another Captain in a hurry, and looked through their records and found a Captain with an endorsement on the Sandringham - me! I went down to Rose Bay on 22nd August 1953 and did a couple of splashes In VH-EBV and found myself in command of a Sandringham, which I had never flown before. Five days later I was out on my first trip in command on it, from Sydney to Brisbane, Noumea, Vila and Suva, and return. I went down in flight pay for the privilege, too. I went to the Operations Manager and complained. "That's too bad," he said. "You're on the boats." "For how long?" I asked. "I don't know," he replied. Douglas DC-3 VH-EAL, New Guinea, Photo: Qantas We also used to fly the Sandringhams up to New Qantas Training Section. He was a good pilot and a very Guinea, and to lots of places all around New Guinea - nice fellow, and we got on extremely well. Moresby, Samarai, Rabaul, Jacquinot Bay, Kandrian, Talasea, Rabaul. The trips around New Guinea were On 6th February 1951, I logged 45 minutes in most fascinating. One of the most amazing places was in command on the DC-3 VH-CAR. It was a very strange a lake In the crater of a large, extinct volcano. The water experience. First of all, I taxied the aircraft with its there was very calm, and it was very hard to judge your undercarriage in the normal, locked position, down the height above the surface when landing, just as it had been taxiway. There weren't any aircraft movements at that in the snow of Canada. time so we were allowed to get onto a runway and we taxied down it. Then Clarrie unlocked the gear and said, After about four months, the system recovered from "All right, now taxi it straight ahead." With a little wind the shock of the pilot failing his promotion, and I operated swinging the tail, I was pointing the nose off the beam and my last trip on 25th December 1953, from Brisbane to

27 AHSA Aviation Heritage

Sydney. Six days later I went back to the DC-4s again, the Impact was only 1.24 miles off its pre-determined flying from Sydney to Melbourne and back. I had only target. Of course, all hell broke loose, as such a rocket been back a couple of months when Qantas decided to fired westward from Tyura Tam could reach nearly any wind up the Sandringham operations and get rid of them point In the United States, The American press for good. Consequently, I was wanted back on the telephoned their counterparts in Sydney and we were Sandringhams for a couple of months, to cover the run­ interviewed when we landed. down. On 20th June 1954, I did a couple of circuits and I became a Check Captain on the 707 in April 1962. I splashes in the Sandringham and I was back on the boats. took up an administrative role In October 1963, when I I stayed on the Sandringhams then until they finished. was appointed Assistant Flight Captain for the Boeing 707 My last trip was to Noumea on 21st July 1954, and then, Eastern Division operations. However, I relinquished this six days later, I went back to the DC-4s again, starting with position 21 months later and resumed Check Captain a trip to Norfolk Island. I had four commands within twelve duties. months! But again my time on the DC-4 was only short, The early model 707-138 which we had was a little hot­ my last trip on that aircraft being on 28th November 1954. rod with good engines, but it was not a particularly nice I then began the technical course on the Lockheed aeroplane to fly. It had a characteristic of Dutch-rolling, L.1049 Super Constellation and started my endorsement waggling its tail, which the autopilot didn't correct. Its flying on it on 24th December 1954. My first trip in windscreen caught reflections very much like the Airspeed command on the L.1049 was to Bangkok on 17th January Oxfords in my Air Force days. The later model, the 707- 1955 and I then flew them on all major Qantas routes. 300 series, was a much longer aircraft and more stable. It The Super Connie was an excellent aircraft but it had a lot was a beautiful aeroplane, and I never experienced any of problems with Its engines. I only ever had one engine problems with it. shut-down, and it was a preventative shut-down, not an I started conversion on to the Boeing 747 in October actual failure, but others had more. From 1956 to 1958, I 1971. The Jumbo was a lovely aeroplane to fly, once you completed a two-year basing In London, operating Super got used to the fact that your rear end was so far off the Constellations from London to New York, and from ground! I remember the first time I sat in one after London to Rome. On my return to Sydney, I operated finishing the technical course. I was about 30 feet up in Super Constellations from Sydney to San Francisco until the air and I hadn't even taken off. Ted Harding, the July 1959, when I commenced training for conversion on Senior Check Captain who was giving me the conversion to the Boeing 707. In all, I flew 3,453 hours in Super (a darned good bloke who had been instructing with me in Constellations. the RAAF at Mallala during the war) went down and stood When I transferred to the Boeing 707, I flew It on all on the tarmac waving to me. But your mind adapts quickly routes, including Sydney to London, Sydney to Tokyo, and after a while you know exactly where your rear end is Sydney to Vancouver, Sydney to Mexico City, Sydney to in relation to the ground, and exactly where to flare. I New Zealand, and San Francisco to New York on the became a Check Captain on 747s in November 1973 and service we operated to London across the United States. operated in this capacity until my retirement from Qantas at the end of June 1975. I never had any problems with At the end of 1959, the Soviet Union announced that it the Jumbos. was to test-fire a long-range missile Into the Pacific and designated an area of 34,800 square miles about 1,000 I had been a member of the Royal Aero Club of New miles south-west of Hawaii where they expected it to fall. South Wales for some time, and in the early 1970s I was There were many sceptics who didn't believe they could elected to the Club's Committee. The other members of make it hit within the target area but the Americans had all the Committee had backgrounds in aero club flying only, their ships and aircraft patrolling around, waiting for the big and I was voted In because of my airline experience. event. However, I wasn't very happy in that sort of a position and We were flying a new route which Qantas had I only served the one three-year term. designated to keep us outside the target area and were Dot took ill in May 1991. After a long illness, she coming back to Nadi from Honolulu on 20th January 1960. passed away on 6th January 1997, just a short time before It was first light and I had just come on to the flight deck her 76th birthday. However, we had many good years after a short rest period. The First Officer was briefing me together and we did manage to celebrate our 50th about the conditions of the flight when, all of a sudden, wedding anniversary in May 1996. over to the starboard side, about 45 degrees off the nose I was admitted to the Freedom of the Guild of Air Pilots and a distance away, we saw this great fireball. We were and Air Navigators on 5th October 1972, and was awarded flying at 26,000 feet and we actually looked down on the the Guild's Master Air Pilot Certificate on 30th June 1975, explosion at about 2,000 feet, which was like a huge bright the day I retired. Through the Guild, I was also granted orange flash bulb going off. All three pilots saw it. I noted the Freedom of the City of London on 19th September in my log book: "Sighted explosion at 1705 hours GMT - 1978. Additionally, on 17th December 1973, the Royal possibly Russian rocket." We didn't know for sure but we Federation of Aero Clubs of Australia awarded me their suspected that what we saw was the re-entry of the Pilot's Certificate of Proficiency. missile into the atmosphere. We were still under the control of Honolulu Air Traffic Control and we immediately My total flying time over 42 years was 21,000 hours, reported the sighting to them. In spite of the big American comprising 26 years (11,000 hours) on piston-engined Navy and Air Force presence, we were the first to see it. aircraft and 16 years (10,000 hours) on jet aircraft. Altogether I was qualified to fly 43 types of aircraft. I think, The story hit the newspapers around the world then. of all the aircraft I have ever flown, those that I have The Americans said they believed the rocket was fired enjoyed flying the most were the Hurricane, the Mosquito, from Tyura Tam, in the area of the Aral Sea in southern and the Boeing 747 Jumbo. I enjoyed every bit of my Russia, and it travelled 7,760 miles before burning up as it flying career and I was sad when It came to a finish. ^ re-entered the atmosphere, while the Russians claimed

28 AHSA Aviation Heritage

MOVE OVER RED BARON By John Laming

In 1951 I joined the RAAF as a nineteen year old reasonable pass in flight grading on Tiger Moths, and from trainee pilot with an ambition to gain my wings and be a there we were posted to No. 1 Basic Flying Training second dickey on a Dak. That was cool language for School at Uranquinty, NSW. Several months later, and copilot on a Dakota DCS. Whilst not an impressive with 60 hours of Wirraway time in my log book, our course ambition in retrospect, it was probably coloured by my continued on to No.1 Advanced Flying Training School, at experience working as a general dogsbody, lunch boy, Point Cook, for graduation as a sergeant pilot. Having and loader with the Sydney Morning Herald Flying seen Mustangs gracing the skies over Archerfield, I soon Services based at Camden, N.S.W. discarded the idea of the right hand seat of Dakotas as the pinnacle of ambition, and decided to be a fighter pilot. I The company owned two Dakotas and three Hudsons. thought twice, however, after an episode at 4000 feet over These were used for flying newspapers to various towns in Little River training area. northern N.S.W. The papers were sometimes dropped by air into fields near Armidale, Glen Innes, and Grafton, and Whilst formation flying, gunnery, and divebombing one of my tasks was to go along for the ride and tip these were all part and parcel of the pilots course, we were not bundles out of the cargo door of the aircraft. As a reward trained in formation aerobatics. One morning I was on a for making inflight coffee, the pilots would let me fly from solo formation exercise in a Wirraway, with another 160 the right hand seat. They were mostly ex RAAF types who hour student in the second aircraft. The leader usually flew had flown on operations in Europe and the Pacific in at slightly less than cruise power in order that the other Hudsons, Mosquitos, Wellingtons, Beaufighters, and formation members could have speed flexibility in turns. It Beauforts. The Chief Pilot was Captain Harry Purvis AFC, was my turn to be follower and the course idiot in the front who had been the RAAF senior flying instructor on machine indicated that I should get in line astern for a tail Lockheed Hudsons during the introduction of these aircraft chase. The manner of signalling, I recall, was to pat the into RAAF service early in the war. He was a famous pre top of the head as though one were patting a dog. A war pilot and engineer who flew with Sir Charles Kingsford similar gesture today indicates that someone is slightly Smith. A captains salary at the SMH Flying Services was bonkers, which was an accurate assessment of the leader about 80 pounds a month for flying four days a week, and that day. there was direct evidence of mutual attraction between Shortly after I had settled into line astern, it became this breed of men and the attractive nurses from the apparent that the lead aircraft was easing into a dive. nearby Camden hospital. Determined to stick on his tail, I was slow to notice that he In view of these potential advantages, I decided to was now going from a dive into a steepish climb. Hauling become a pilot, and bought a pilots' logbook and a manual back into ever increasing "g" forces, I also failed to see the on how to seduce females. With Immaculate penmanship, now rapidly decaying airspeed until too late I realized the I had logged 160 hours as second (or, more honestly, third sod was inverted on top of a loop, with my propeller a few unpaid unlicensed) dicky on a Dak, before receiving a feet from his rudder. telegram from the RAAF pointing out that somehow I had Suddenly my Wirraway shuddered in the throes of a fooled the interview board Into believing that I was the high speed stall, the stick was whipped from my grasp as Right Stuff, and would I kindly care to present myself at the ailerons snatched, and the aircraft flicked violently into No.1 Flying Training School at Point Cook for Aircrew a power on spin. I lost sight of the other bloke, who must training. The date was October 1951. This news more than have spun off the loop a fraction of a second after I flicked. made amends for the complete lack of success that I had The twit had obviously gone into the loop at reduced at attracting nurses. cruise power, wiping off most of his airspeed with "g" force After three months of square bashing, morse code, as he was inverted. He came perilously close to wiping me grenade tossing, aerodynamics, navigation, and other out too. How we never collided whilst out of control I shall kindred subjects, we were sent by train to No. 1 Initial never know, but after recovery In and out of cloud several Flying Training School at Archerfield to be flight graded thousand feet later, I declined his invitation to rejoin into pilots and navigators. The basic handling that I formation for the return to Point Cook. A new caution was received on Hudsons and Dakotas helped me obtain a

29 AHSA Aviation Heritage born in me, and I secretly wondered if I really wanted to be jacket casually undone fighter pilot style. The modern a fighter jock with all this hack, flick and zoom stuff. generation of schoolboys affect an equivalent dress style by sauntering around in public with shirt tails flapping Nevertheless, when we were asked to nominate our outside their trousers. As I tipped the contents of the kit choice of posting after graduation, I put in for fighters. The bag on to my bed, I heard the wonderful sound of massed final recommendations were made by our flying Rolls Royce Merlins getting closer. I raced outside in time instructors, although this was weighted by operational to see a formation of four Mustangs flash overhead at 200 manning factors. Casualties amongst pilots in the Korean ft and peel off at 5 second intervals In a buzz and break war meant that many of my course went to the fighter landing manoeuvre. A tight glide pull up to wash off speed training base at RAAF Base Williamtown in NSW. I as quickly as possible, was made to the accompaniment graduated on No.8 Post War Pilots course on the 8th of crackling and popping of throttled back Merlins. December 1952, and was posted to Williamtown in Returning to the other end of the hut, I got there just in February 1953 for fighter training. Immediate volunteers time to see the first Mustang curve onto short final, landing were needed to go direct from graduation to Williamtown, gear spread wide apart, full flap down and speed bleeding but my lady friend threatened withdrawal of privileges back to 105 knots. The leader floated into a beautiful three unless I took 3 weeks leave which was due to me. pointer, whilst the remainder landed tail high presumably Hormones won Initially, but love of flying soon had me on to keep the aircraft in front In view for as long as possible. a train from Sydney Central to the RAAF base at Schofield, where I sidled up to No.22 (City of Sydney) The following morning, after signing for our Fighter squadron and begged for a trip in a Wirraway. parachutes, mae wests (life jackets), flying helmets and There were Mustangs at Schofields too, and armed with a goggles, we attended the initial briefing on fighter combat thermos of tea and sandwiches I sat in the cockpit tactics. The Commanding Officer, a gently spoken Royal pretending to learn my cockpit drills, but In reality Air Force Battle of Britain veteran, was Wing Commander breathing in the smells of high octane fuel,engine oil, and Peter Ottewell. As he walked through the doonA/ay of the daydreaming in the warm sun. flight hut, we were called to attention by the CFI, Flight Lieutenant Ross Coburn. Chairs were shuffled noisily on I had just returned from a back seat ride In Wirraway the wooden floor as we stood up, and as the CO turned to A20-340, when the Flight Commander F/0 Milton Cottee make his opening address of welcome, we were asked to see me in his office. He casually suggested that momentarily silenced by the sight of vivid burn scars which as I was going to fly Mustangs at Williamtown, I could if I covered his face. We were told later that Ottewell had wished, go ahead and take Mustang A68-144 for a ride been flying a Spitfire over Anzio when he was shot down that day. An hour later I was airborne,climbing at 2500 fpm in flames. He must have been an Incredibly brave man to to 15,000 feet. I spent the next 20 minutes belting around return to flying fighters after recovering from those the sky like a mad dog, graying out In steep turns and rolls disfiguring injuries.. off the top, spearing out of shockingly performed barrel rolls and generally horsing around from 100 to 300 knots. When the address was over, we met our Fighter Combat Instructors, known as FCI's. All had completed Back up to fifteen grand, I had a quick look around, tours of Korea in Mustangs or Meteors. Most wore World closed the throttle, and at the point of stall eased on full War 2 campaign ribbons on their uniforms, with the left rudder and back stick. The Mustang reared up and fell occasional DFC and DFM to be seen. Years later I into a classic spin. After five or six turns, I took recovery reflected upon those early days at the fighter school, and I action to pull out after losing nearly 8000 ft. Back for the felt that we could have learnt so much more from the fighter buzz and break, called on initial approach three combat experiences of those Instructors if only they had miles out, down low over the runway at 250 knots, close been willing to open up more to the students. Perhaps It the throttle to the accompanying crackling of the Rolls was the fear of being labelled a lineshooter that prevented Royce exhausts,rack the beast up and around,drop the them from describing their personal experiences to us. gear at 145 knots then problems! The gear has stayed up There was also a military induced class distinction in the wheel wells. I climbed to 3000, and spent anxious separating officers from " other ranks" which inhibited moments pulling "g" whilst skidding the rudders and some instructors from opening up. Whilst planning this generally wondering how I was going to waste four hours story in mid 1994, I read a fine book by David Wilson to burn off fuel for a belly landing. Eventually the gear fell entitled "Lion over Korea". While researching the combat down normally, and I landed safely of a very sedate circuit. history of No.77 Fighter Squadron 1950-53 in Korea, the author Interviewed several pilots and I quote in part some My time at Schofields had actually been during my of their recollections. leave after Christmas and shortly after the Mustang trip, and with everything cosy on the home front, I took up my "...Very little training. Almost laughable when you posting to Williamtown. I caught the train to Newcastle, reflect on it. We graduated on Wirraways say in December with a bus connection to the RAAF base. As I stepped off - then we went to Williamtown and did about 25 hours on the bus weighed down by the kit bag slung over my Mustangs and 20 hours on a single seat Vampire - we shoulder, the heady aroma of kerosene fumes pervaded didn't have duals at this stage. And that was that....We the air as several Vampires bustled along a nearby went to lwakuni..a rough introduction to the Meteor..then taxyway. I had never seen a jet before, and I was off to 77 Squadron. We thought we were really proficient intoxicated by the shriek of the Nene turbines. I now knew combat pilots, but we were far from It." how the children of Hamelin must have felt when they "The Operational Training Units did not prepare pilots followed the Pled Piper as he merrily led them away from to the standard required for combat even as late as their homes forever. I was in my paradise here, and 1953...the standard of replacement pilot is slightly below getting paid for it! that desired...training not organized, wasn't structured. No The Orderly Sergeant showed me to my quarters, tradition of air to air doctrine....fighter training consisted of whilst giving a disapproving glance at my carefully attacks on Lincolns which came down from Amberley crumpled service cap (spring backing removed by occasionally. We'd do rolls from height and quarter pursuit judicious use of a razor) and the top button of my battle shots, and some Mustang versus Mustang, but very little

30 AHSA Aviation Heritage of it. No coaching. We'd just go up. You broke up, one the weather was marginal then we would carry out a would head that way and the other this. At a set time you'd formation VHF/DF Instrument approach, culminating in a turn toward each other and get into it. There was so little Ground Controlled Approach (GCA) to 200 ft. With only of it, we were not fighter training.." 210 hours in my log book, I hoped that I wouldn't have to test my instrument flying skills whilst in tight formation! As a new pilot, it seemed to me that the Operational Training Unit was custom built for someone like me to During pre flight checks of my aircraft, I noticed that indulge. Snoopy like. In fantasies of being a fighter ace. Middleton was already strapped in and obviously impatient Except we had real fighters to fly. Later in the course we to get under way. He wore a RAAF issue red silk scarf (in fired machine guns, shot off rockets and dive bombed. Yet case one needed to attract attention If you were shot to me It was all a wonderful game, and I gave scant down), and real aviators sunglasses. Now in the cockpit attention to the thought that in a few weeks some North and hastily doing pre start drills, I pumped the primer a Korean gunner would be doing his best to cause me couple of strokes too much and was rewarded for my grievous bodily harm. inexperience at starting the Rolls Royce engine by the sight of terrifying tongues of flame licking from twelve open During the next few days, we were briefed on fighter exhaust pipes. Despite starting many Rolls Royce Merlins tactics, including battle formation (a wide spread pattern, since that day, I never failed to get the shivers when the rather than the dose in display type called pansy formation). There were lectures on air to ground gunnery, bloody things caught alight. This was despite the fact that the flames were more spectacular than dangerous. dog fighting, rocketry, and low level navigation techniques. We read combat reports and real life escape and evasion I returned Middleton's thumbs up, indicating I was stories, yet received precious little advice on the realities ready to taxy and with a burst of throttle, my leader swung of being shot at. After knock off time, the Sergeant Pilots out of the flight lines. When taxying the Mustang, went back to the Sergeants Mess, and the Instructors and Middleton preferred to raise his seat to full extent, so that Pilot Officers on the course returned to the Officers Mess. he could see over the top of the bullet proof windscreen. I believe we lost invaluable bar talk time because of this. With one gloved hand resting on the canopy frame, his scarf fluttering in the slipstream and his oxygen mask One morning, during a coffee break in the flight hut, I hanging loose to reveal a fierce moustache, Middleton overheard Squadron Leader Bill Bennett DFC, a highly looked like the original Tall in the Saddle cowboy. experienced fighter pilot, chatting to another instructor on the subject of how to avoid being shot down by radar I followed a respectful distance behind, most of the controlled anti aircraft fire. Bennett had flown Spitfires in time losing sight of his Mustang despite my obligatory Europe, and Meteors in Korea. From what I overheard, weaving of the nose. I decided to emulate Middleton, and one should never fly in a straight line or constant altitude jacked up my seat to full extent in order to (a) look cool for more than a few seconds lest predicted fire should lock and (b) to obtain better forward vision. Within seconds I on to your aircraft. Now this was vital Information, yet I felt had nearly ground looped the Mustang as I attempted to too shy to join the conversation between these two apply corrective rudder and brake to control a rapidly officers. Fortunately, due to circumstances I shall describe developing swing. The Mustang was built for six footers, below, I was never to use the little knowledge that I gained and to reach the rudder pedals I needed a well padded from eavesdropping on the two Instructors. Apart from cushion behind my back. The seat was fixed horizontally, nearly 40 years later that is, when avoiding being and I already had the rudder pedals fully extended towards clobbered by radar flak in Mig Alley (a computer game in me. With full up seat I could only just reach the pedals which my 12 year old daughter shot me down in a sneak with the tips of my toes, and as for depressing the brakes, high quarter attack). then forget it! I desperately unlocked the seat raising lever, and with a jolt the seat hit the lower stops, causing me to Enter Flight Lieutenant Peter Middleton DFC. He was look like Chad (that mysterious cartoon character of years one of the instructors on our course. I use the term ago, who was pictured with his eyes and long nose Instructor in general terms because few of the staff pilots peering over a wall). I now had no forward vision beyond were Qualified Flying Instructors (QFI) and in any case our the gyro gunsight, although on the positive side I at least Mustangs and Vampires were single seat aircraft. You limited rudder and brake control. read the Pilots Notes, climbed into the cockpit and flew solo. My pride somewhat dented, I managed to stop the aircraft at an angle to the taxyway and claw my way via the Middleton was tall, sported an impressive moustache, seat raising lever to a respectable position in the cockpit and looked every inch the true fighter pilot image. An as befitted a cool trainee fighter pilot. Middleton, whose experienced combat pilot, he had just returned from flying callsign for the flight was Red One, had been blissfully Meteors in Korea. He held a degree (or whatever) in unaware of the minor drama which had unfolded behind martial art skills and was well respected for obvious his tail, and had received a green light from the control van reasons. He also owned a dashing looking bone dome to line up on the runway for his run up. He was in the (crash helmet), which was painted with blue and white course of opening up to high power as I taxied behind him polka dots. I suspect he nicked it from the Yanks in Korea, in order to position myself on his right wing for the as bone domes were not then standard issue In the RAAF. formation take off. It was to be my first sortie involving formation flying in To my dismay the slipstream from Middleton's the Mustang, and the briefing was concise and to the propeller hit the tall of my Mustang, causing the beast to point. After engine start, I was to follow my No 1 ( weathercock viciously towards the tall of his aircraft. I Middleton ) to the runway, observing radio silence after the almost dislocated my toes In jamming on full right brake to Initial radio call to check radio serviceability. Before take stop the swing, and Red One never knew how close the 4 off drills were done after the engine run up. It was to be a bladed propeller came to clobbering his rudder. At this formation take off, battle climb to 15000 ft, then general stage I began to regret not volunteering for the position of formation practice. This was to be followed by a line astern second dickey on a Dak. tall chase In VMC (hopefully). Depending on the weather, we would return to land off the standard buzz and break. If

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So much for checking all clear behind before run up, I place to be was in the control tower. I was fascinated by thought grimly, but one never criticizes a Red Leader who the clipped and seemingly terse radio transmissions, in has a degree in martial arts. Not to his face, anyway. particular the macho callsigns such as "Taipan Formation" At this point, perhaps I should briefly explain that the or" Tiger Leader, 4 out with 4 (which I think meant that a engine run up on a Mustang includes checking the formation of four aircraft was four miles out, inbound). propeller operation at high RPM, testing the supercharger Before taxying the formation leader would call up his men, controls, magneto drop check, noting temperature and and say things like "Black Section- Check in". In reply, pressures with an especially careful note of the glycol each member of the formation would mutter into their coolant temperature. On the ground, where airflow through microphones "Black Two- Fives, Black Three- Fives" and the engine radiator is reliant mainly on the propeller so on. No one would ever dream of giving an accurate slipstream, it was important to be pointing into wind to assessment of radio volume and clarity such as " Three by keep the coolant below 110 degrees centigrade. If over Five" lest they be ostracized for life. On receiving the that temperature, the chances were that on take off, the dutiful replies from his brood, the leader would say In an coolant would boll and eventually cause engine damage. affected and mournful way "Black Section- All Fives". Such were the vagaries of powerful liquid cooled engines. Heaven only knows why the leader would repeat what was Battle damage to the coolant system on these Rolls Royce already known, which was that all radios were operating Merlins invariably meant engine seizure. The options then normally. But that's the way it was done. The taxying remaining were to abandon the aircraft by parachute, or to would then begin. attempt a crash landing. Now back to the story, where I had now closed the The Vampires were equipped with pneumatically canopy, set the park brake, and commenced the run-up. operated brakes, and as smooth and gentle braking was With only two Mustang rides under my belt, my cockpit not fighter pilot image, one saw Vampires weaving and checks were still hesitant and perhaps a trifle longwinded. bobbing along the perimeter track, as their pilots pedalled Red Leader DFC clearly thought so anyway, because the ineffective rudder bars and squeezed the brake lever when we received a steady green light from the control on the control column spade grip. Ham fisted brake use van, he waved his gloved finger In a circular motion at me, would soon deplete the air pressure supply, which meant which was the signal to increase engine power to 30 one could run out of braking capability altogether. When Inches of manifold pressure before commencing the take stopping the aircraft, it seemed good form to apply harsh off. Forty years on, I was to see a similar finger gesture braking, causing the nosewheel strut to bounce up and from my family doctor as he prepared to do a prostate down making the Vampire nod it's nose prettily. This was examination! preferably done when given the stop sign by the The canopy of Middleton's Mustang was closed, the marshaller in the lines. It really was schoolboy nonsense, flashing arc of the huge propeller solidified at 2000 RPM, but we all did It. and the man was ready to roll. I was still trying to scratch an itch in my bum, and apart from checking all clear Back on the runway, with the dust from Middleton's behind before run up,( my old Point Cook instructor would departure still settling, I had just given my harness a final have been proud that I remembered that one),I was tweak, when I heard a voice which sounded like "get your nowhere near ready to take off. I gave Middleton a furtive arse into gear Red Two". I wondered momentarily if I and somewhat embarrassed thumbs down to Indicate that should acknowledge the call, but could not think of an I was not yet ready, and went heads down to scan more appropriate phase, especially as the transmittee was an instruments and test more switches. officer (maybe not a gentleman though) with a martial arts degree. Seconds later, a sense of foreboding made me look across to Red One, where I saw that Middleton now had The controller in his little van had by now tired of giving his canopy open, oxygen mask undone and was glaring at me steady greens, and as radio silence had been me revealing bared teeth below his black moustache. He effectively broken by my leader's Impatient remark, I was again furiously waggled his gloved finger In a circular cleared for take off by radio, finally catching up with fashion indicating he had been sitting on "hack" power (a Middleton around 5000 ft. There were no niceties, no chopping motion of the hand to indicate brakes release for leisurely practice at pansy formation changes. No time to take off) for some considerable time - probably with marvel at the beautiful view of a Mustang close up, with rocketing coolant temperatures. I gave another regretful the Pacific ocean and white cumulus clouds as backdrop. thumbs down, and undoing my oxygen mask, I attempted Just a hard voice on the radio saying "go line astern. Red to convey via lip language that I needed a little more time Two, and stay on my tail". I dutifully did a text book drop to complete my checks. back and slide sideways, until Middleton's Mustang filled my windshield. This thoughtful gesture on my part clearly upset Red One, because he mouthed an obscene word or ten In my I called that I was in position, and barely had the words direction, clipped his oxygen on, slammed the canopy been uttered, when the aircraft nestled so sweetly in my shut, and ruddering furiously to counteract the torque of a gyro gunsight and which had been barely 50 feet in front probably overboosted engine, he roared off down the of my propeller, just disappeared upwards. I swivelled my runway. With his Mustang barely inches off the deck, I saw head In all directions, ripped into steep reversal turns, his undercarriage retract inwards in a classical "scramble" looked up through the canopy, and generally felt a right fashion. twit for losing my leader so quickly. All of my previous tall chases had been in Wirraways with the front bloke being At this stage I shall freeze the story and revert back to an amateur like myself. I flew in circles trying to spot my the first few days of my arrival at Williamtown. I had leader, finally deciding he must have gone home. arrived a day or so earlier than scheduled, and as I was keen to listen to real fighter pilot talk, decided the best There was no point in wasting a nice day, so I found a fluffy cloud and joyously flung my Mustang directly at it,

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rat-tat- tatting into my oxygen mask and generally playing accustomed to the sensation of night flight in a Mustang. Red Barons. I had just completed a 250 knot lazy barrel Following that, we had to descend into the circuit and roll around my cloud, when a voice cut across the air with, carry out a few touch and go landings. However, the lack "fight. Red Two, fight!". Looking into the rear vision mirror of forward vision on my first night take off put the wind up I saw a large blue spinner. The spinner was attached to a me, and I decided to do one landing only - the final one. silver Mustang and behind the gunsight the occupant of On a previous course, a new pilot lost forward vision on a the cockpit wore a blue and white spotted bone dome and night take off. Following several wild swings, he closed I swear I saw a glimpse of red silk scarf. the throttle and abandoned the take off run. The Mustang careered Into trees at the far end of the aerodrome After the initial shock and embarrassment, I decided to shedding various parts including the two wings. The do serious battle and flung my Mustang all over the cockpit remained relatively intact and the pilot was shaken Williamtown training area trying to get Red One off my tall. but unhurt. The aircraft was a write off, but the accident I remembered once reading Pierre Closterman's book, did no harm to the pilot's career as he eventually reached "The Big Show", where flying a Tempest, he turned Inside Air Marshal rank! Accordingly with that accident firmly in a German Focke Wulf 190 fighter by dropping a few mind, I flew up and down the coast with the lights of degrees of flap to lower the stall speed - just enough to Newcastle in view until my hour was up. There was no way get the required deflection for firing. I hauled around in a I was going to stretch my luck by carrying out touch and limit turn, felt the Mustang shudder at the stall onset, go landings! groped for the flap lever to drop the flap that few critical degrees, and to my chagrin, flicked inverted. I had missed During the climb I had a minor fright when I felt hot air the flap lever and inadvertently selected the adjacent coming from somewhere around the throttle quadrant and carburettor control lever. Upside down in the flick roll, I convinced myself that where there is heat, there may be a caught a momentary glimpse of Middleton's Mustang potential fire. Fortunately I was wearing gloves which rapidly rolling away from me to avoid a collision. protected my wrist but it was not pleasant feeling. After I did my one landing, I realized that the previous pilot had They were happy, carefree days at Williamtown. News left the cockpit heat selector to full on and I had failed to of pilots being shot down in Korea were received with notice this during the night pre start drill. some misgivings, but we felt invincible and relaxed in the knowledge that it couldn't happen to us. I saw a Midway though the course we were given the Vampire spectacular prang while watching a twelve Vampire MK 30 Pilots' Notes to read. There was no engineering formation take off. The take off was done with the second, course on the aircraft, although we received a useless third, and fourth formations rolling at 10 second intervals. lecture on the Vampire fuel pump. I recall something about An aircraft in the last formation was barely airborne and as a swash plate incorporated in the said pump, which if it the gear retracted, was caught by jet wash from the failed would cause a flame out of the engine. Precious preceding aircraft. It sank back onto the runway on its little else was passed on In the way of how to fly a belly, and broadsided across the grass strip with great Vampire, so I knew a bit about swash plates, but SFA clods of dirt and dust being kicked up by the jet blast from about high Mach number handling characteristics. On two its exhaust. The aircraft stopped within a hundred yards, previous courses, three new pilots had been killed when and I thought I saw a flash of flame in the cockpit area as their Vampires speared in vertically following high altitude the pilot hastily wound the canopy back and exited stage manoeuvres involving aerobatics and practice right. In fact the flame was not fire at all, just the pilots' interceptions. There were no ejection seats on the early bright red survival scarf. Damage was slight and the Vampires, so there was no way of getting out of the Vampire was flying within a week. The pilot escaped cockpit at high speeds. unhurt, but within a few weeks was posted missing The problem was caused by compressibility shock believed killed following a midair collision in cloud with a waves over two engine air inlets on the fuselage Mustang. Pieces of wreckage from both aircraft were later immediately behind the canopy. These air intakes known washed up on the shores of Morna Beach near Newcastle as Elephants Ears, were a modification to improve engine but the pilots were never found. efficiency in the Rolls Royce Nene engine. Beyond about After 30 hours on the Mustang I became quite Mach 0.80, shock waves would form on the curved competent on the aircraft, with respectable scores on air to intakes, affecting the smooth airflow over the tailplane. ground gunnery, rocketry, and dive-bombing. The course The loss of elevator effectiveness would show up as an allowed for just one hour of night flying and that really did ever Increasing nose down trim, exacerbated by the test our handling skills. With the canopy open, the forward increasing speed In the subsequent dive. vision could be a little improved whilst taxylng by simply If the pilot was too slow in closing the throttle and weaving the nose. No such luxury was available for take­ extending the dive brakes to prevent further speed build off and with only one runway flare visible on each side, the up, it was curtains, as the Vampire would pitch over into a temptation to get the tail up quickly to get a better view vertical dive. Later aircraft were modified by putting the air was overpowering. The penalty was always a harsh swing intakes under the fuselage, which apparently cured the caused by a combination of torque and gyroscopic effect. shock wave problem. Both the modified Mk.31 and dual The single landing light also reflected back from the seat Mk.33 Vampires then exhibited a strong pitch up propeller disc, and the flickering blue exhaust flames change of trim on reaching Critical Mach, which of course caused a distracting glare. Perhaps more frightening were slowed the aircraft naturally. Eventually ejection seats the tongues of red flame that I have described earlier, were also fitted, which gave one a sense of relief. licking several feet from the exhausts in an overprimed start. If starting into any sort of wind, the flames reached A recent book by Group Captain "Blackjack" Walker, perilously close to the cockpit and on more than one who test flew these early Vampires following the fatal occasion I hurriedly wound the canopy closed in fright. accidents, described how he climbed to 40,000 ft, and deliberately dived at high speed to investigate the reason My one night flight was uneventful. We were briefed to for the compressibility problem. In discussing this climb to fifteen thousand feet and generally get experience he wrote, "I put it into a very steep dive, as

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steep as I dared, with not too much power, about three coming through the earphones. Again he complained of a quarters, because if .anything was going to happen I headache, and I suspected he might be suffering from wanted it to happen fairly quickly. I soon found out. Once lack of oxygen flow. Approaching Richmond, the tower the aeroplane went over Mach 0.8, the nose got heavier advised us of low cloud and visibility half a mile in heavy and heavier and tlie aeroplane kept on endeavouring to go rain, but that a Ground Controlled Approach (GCA) to 200 past the vertical and the controls were largely ineffective. ft was available. I knew that the GCA radar was prone to So I closed the throttle and put on the dive brakes losing the target due to rain attenuation, and decided it immediately and this would have been around 27,000 ft. would be safer to divert from overhead Richmond at high The aeroplane had to be got out of a very sticky altitude to arrive at Wllliamtown with reserves Intact. The situation....It was pretty close and as the characteristics Group Captain, who had quietened down and was content were so different to the English Vampire at high Mach with mumbling into his oxygen mask, suddenly came to numbers, it seemed to me It must have something to do life. He demanded that I attempt the GCA, as he had an with those wretched Elephants Ears on the upper surface important engagement that day. I tried to explain that the of the fuselage." weather was bad news, and that we could be critically short of fuel if we failed to get in first go. Now with an instructor leaning over the cockpit to show us how to start our first jet engine, we were sent off solo, The Group Captain was normally a most pleasant chap with Instructions not to go beyond Mach 0.75, lest the to work with, but his Irrational manner throughout the flight dreaded compressibility lurgy get us. Initial climb speed reminded me of a fighting drunk. I reluctantly went along was 290 knots, to be attained as soon as possible after with his demands, and we pitched over from 31,000 ft into wheels up. This was a wonderful excuse to hold down at a 4000 fpm initial rate of descent. I mentally went over the tree top height after take off until hitting 290 knots. It was missed approach procedure as we were guided by GCA good fun at the time, although common sense should on to final approach. At 500 ft, GCA advised that visibility have dictated that it would have been prudent to climb a had dropped to under half a mile, with Indeterminate cloud little more steeply Initially, to allow a safer ejection or bale base. The missed approach required an immediate left out altitude in case of engine failure. turn through 90 degrees, and I remembered that with external tanks fitted, the landing gear had to be selected My overriding recollection of the single seat Vampire up without delay otherwise the gear flipper doors would was the fantastic 4000 fpm rate of climb, and the absence not close. This was because of suction in between the of engine noise, particularly after the Mustang. Apart from gear doors and the curved side of the adjacent external a strong nose up trim change on selecting full flap, the fuel tank. landings were easy. It was the first nose wheel aircraft that I had flown, and one had to watch for tail-scrapes If the At 200 ft, the controller gave us a slight heading aircraft was held off too high. A late go around from a long change, and advised that as we were now at the float could be dicey, as the turbine was slow to wind up to minimums we should look ahead and land visually. He take off power from idle. The aircraft would mush just was clearly an optimist because I was unable to see above the runway in a no man's land of high induced drag, anything due to the heavy rain. The time had come to give flaps at barn door setting with the pilot wishing he had ate it away and exit stage left. As I opened up to climb power, baked beans for breakfast to help with the thrust! the Group Captain grabbed the control column, closed the Eventually the Jet Pipe Temperature needle would head throttle, shouting that he had the runway to the right. We for the red line as the turbine would rumble its way through went into a high rate of descent, as I realized that what he several potential compressor stalls on the way to 12,000 thought was the runway was actually the long parallel rpm and the Vampire would be away. taxyway! At this point I thought bugger this for a joke, and pulling aircraft captain rank, firmly told him I had control, One experience I had of the slow spool up "Sir". characteristics of those early gas turbines was in 1960, when I had to ferry a Group Captain from Laverton to Advising ATC that we were diverting, I pushed the RAAF Base Richmond in a dual seat Vampire Mk.33. He throttle fully open, and began a left climbing turn, whilst was a large man who had some difficulty fitting into the retracting the gear and flaps. The engine took ages to right hand seat. There was much heaving on parachute wind up from the Idle closed throttle setting that the Group and ejection seat straps, and some un-officer like Captain had left me with, and there was much loud language as oxygen and radio leads became entangled rumbling and rocketing jet pipe temperatures. The port red around his bone dome. The weather forecast for gear warning light stayed on, so I adjusted the nose Richmond indicated dense cloud en route, with rain for our attitude to keep the speed back. It was the first time I had arrival. done an overshoot with external tanks fitted, particularly in cloud and with an irate VIP sitting next to me. With external fuel tanks fitted under the wings, there was enough fuel to get to Richmond and if necessary I was locked on instruments in a climbing turn, when I divert to Wllliamtown fighter base with perhaps 15 minutes became aware of my passenger pushing on the stick and fixed reserve. As we climbed through 25,000 ft en route saying "watch the speed man, watch the speed". I pointed Laverton to Richmond and in heavy cloud, the VIP in the out to him through gritted teeth that the bloody flipper was right hand seat clutched his head and complained bitterly not closing and that I had to keep the speed back to of a severe headache. This bitching occurred again in the minimize the external tank suction effect. To my relief the cruise and I murmured sympathetically. Approaching red light went out, and we soon accelerated to 290 knots Canberra at 31,000 ft, I was having my own troubles with as we passed overhead the Richmond NDB en route to precipitation static causing squealing noises on the VHP Wllliamtown. and rendering the radio compass as useless as the Sydney ATC asked for our ETA at Wllliamtown, and I proverbial whatsits on a bull. muttered that I didn't have a clue, just kindly give me an The Group Captain was getting very annoyed, and immediate clearance to cruising altitude. As we climbed testily knocked my hand from the ADF switches whilst rapidly through 20,000 ft the Group Captain began his shouting at me through the intercomm to stop the racket head shaking and again complained of headaches. He

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had his problems and I had mine, in particular rapidly diminishing fuel contents. Ten minutes later we got our We burst out of the tops at 25,000 ft and I felt very descent clearance, and with the fuel gauges hovering near chuffed to hear Turner's voice over the radio saying "nicely empty we were vectored into yet another high altitude flown. Red Two". This was praise Indeed, because the VHF/DF let down. We became visual at 1500 ft, and were flight commander was not known for idle pleasantries. I soon on the runway. eagerly mixed with him in yet another line astern chase, before he ordered me to close up in tight formation for an As I taxied towards the tarmac area, the canopy began Instrument approach. This required us to be vectored by to mist over with condensation. I was therefore grateful the ATC controller to overhead Williamtown at 20,000 ft, when the Group Captain volunteered to stand up in the and then with dive brakes extended and throttle back to cockpit and guide me to the parking spot. He undid his idle thrust, we would let down at 4000 feet per minute. The harness, and attempted to stand up, only to be dragged formation leader would make all required radio calls to back, garrotted by the radio leads attached to his bone- ATC, who would note the aircraft bearing by means of a dome. His curses were terrible to hear, and I silently direction finder in the tower. Our early Vampires were not thanked the Lord that the sound of the Goblin engine equipped with ADF and thus we relied totally on the skill of drowned the muffled sound of my hysterical laughter into the controller to get us down safely. If the one and only my oxygen mask. aircraft radio went u/s, then the situation became indeed On the tarmac, and with the engine winding down, I grim. Baling out was the only option. suggested to the Grouper that we could refuel and have Again I hung in there tightly as Turner called for dive another go at getting into Richmond In an hour or so. brakes extended "NOW". A two second delay on my part "Forget it", he said. I'll catch a TAA flight to Sydney and would have meant my aircraft shooting In front of the lead get a train to Richmond". With that we went our separate Vampire as he rapidly bled off speed with dive brake drag. ways. That would not be worth thinking about, because While the oxygen system was being serviced, an regardless of the collision risk at being separated in cloud, engineer found that the passenger side oxygen hose had I was more fearful of a tongue lashing by Turner on the completely separated from its supply box. During ground strapping into the small cockpit of the Vampire at On the inbound descending turn, we broke visual Laverton, the Group Captain had inadvertently pulled his between layers of cloud. Turner now ordered me to take oxygen hose from its supply socket. When he tested the up the lead, and I received swift promotion to Red One. mask for correct flow, all he inhaled was fresh air! A less Dropping my voice an octave or two, as befitting a fit man would have been unconscious at our high cruising formation leader, I was about to growl instructions to the altitudes, but in this case the effect of anoxia caused only effect that Turner should get thee behind me Satan - severe headaches and irrational behaviour. preferably into line astern, when he ordered me to proceed Back now to the fighter course, and fuel endurance towards a railway tunnel situated conveniently in our was always a problem with the Vampire because on training area. After much frantic searching for my map In landing after a one hour sortie, there was less than 10 the pocket of my flying suit, I realized that I had left it minutes of fuel remaining In the tanks. I recall reading in behind in the crew room. With some apprehension I "Flight" magazine an amusing anecdote where a visiting advised the boss that I had forgotten my map. His words American Super Fortress pilot In England was offered the now, are as crystal clear In my memory as they were forty opportunity to fly a Vampire. He had been used to flying years ago "So, Red Two (my promotion to Red One had 10 hour trans Atlantic flights in the B29. On being briefed lasted all of thirty seconds)...No map, eh? Well lets go that the endurance was just over an hour to empty tanks, home and have a little chat, shall we?" he became quite worried, and remarked that as far as he We landed, had the little chat, and I mumbled curses was concerned he was in a Mayday situation even before as I spent two hours on a solo route march around the starting the engine! airfield perimeter, carrying helmet, goggles, parachute, I enjoyed flying the Vampire, and especially the and Mae West (lifejacket). exhilarating sensation of flying at 350 knots at 50 feet One of the exercises in the syllabus was air to air cine above the sea near Seal rocks during low level navigation camera gunnery. Two aircraft would get airborne, battle exercises. I look back in time, and thank the Lord I didn't climb to 15000 ft, and then split up. One aircraft, known as hit any sea gulls at that speed. In terms of pure flying skills the "stooge" would fly level, whilst the other would position both visual and instrument flying, I had no problems with himself a couple of thousand feet higher and abeam. A the Mustang and Vampire. This was due to the first class diving curve of pursuit would be made at the stooge and training which we received on the pilots course. when within firing range, the gun button would be pressed Simulated Instrument flying on Wirraways was done with as the target aircraft appeared in the gyro gun-sight. We the use of amber window screens and polaroid goggles, were briefed to break off the attack at 200 yards. With a which gave excellent simulation with no peripheral vision. closing speed of around 80 knots, a closer break We were taught instrument flying shortly after first solo, increased the collision risk, particularly with inexperienced and my Wings test at Point Cook included, amongst other pilots. At the break, the attacking aircraft would push things, an 8 turn spin on instruments. under the stooge, missing him by 50 feet, then when clear I encountered the more serious side of fighter training would pull up sharply in a steep climbing turn to reposition shortly after getting airborne as No 2 to the flight for another attack. commander Flight Lieutenant Val Turner. He had a no If the attacker got too close, the merging of airflows nonsense personality with similar build and features as and jet efflux would cause a sharp bump to the stooge. I Alan Border, the Australian cricketer. It was a rainy day, always felt a trifle edgy when operating as the target, low cloud and windy, and at 500 ft we were still because one knew there was an attacker boring In behind accelerating to 290 knots as we entered turbulence In unseen, then a sudden thump would rock the aircraft, and cloud. I tucked in close and my eyes never left the lead the next second the windshield would be full of the plan aircraft just a few feet away. view of a Vampire literally yards away ripping into a hard

35 AHSA Aviation Heritage climbing turn. The sharp bump was sure proof that the dragged down with 'g' forces, when Hyphen again rolled attacker had left his break off too late for comfort, although rapidly into a second attack. Another perilously close, late the occasional cowboy would deliberately try to draw a bunt and this time I swear I saw for real the dancing blue protest from the target aircraft. But every stooge has his flames of the burner cans. Coleman's startled remark was day, as the roles would be reversed a few minutes later! angrier this time, and ignoring rank, I told Hyphen that I felt we should stick to the 200 yard break off rule. After landing, the camera magazines would be sent to Photographic Section for developing, and the results Hyphen asked me If his attack technique was worrying analysed. Some of my results were good, but on one me. After I admitted that it certainly did Sir, (Lesson No 1, sortie the last few attacks on film showed no aircraft in the never admit anything in the Services), he said "let's do one gun sight, or the target appeared out of effective range. more and then we'll go home." Again he flew the attack, which was useless for me, as I was the one that was Around that time, the unit received the first dual seat supposed to need the practice. It was a re-run of the last Vampire Mk 33. Prior to its introduction at Wllliamtown, two passes,- hack, flick, zoom stuff which left me cold, as fighter pilot proficiency was assessed mainly on gunnery, I realized that Hyphen was quietly enjoying himself, at my rocketry, and dive bombing results. Formation flying skills expense. were vital, of course. Thus provided that you could hold your own in a line astern chase, and could put your Fuel was getting low, so we returned to base in pansy ammunition reasonably near the target, then one was formation, did the ritual 290 knots buzz and break, and I quids In to pass the fighter course. The arrival of the first was a spectator to my instructor's immaculate landing. dual seat Vampire was to be the cause of an unplanned After a short de-brief, with no particular comments on the career change for me. exercise. Hyphen and I went our separate ways. Several years later, I was on the tarmac at Cairns, when a brand As my camera gunnery results were not good, the CFI new C130A Hercules arrived on a training flight. The pilot Flight Lieutenant Ross Coburn, rostered me to fly In the requested permission for a buzz and break landing. It was dual Vampire with one of the instructors, a Flying Officer a spectacular exhibition of pure flying skill, with a short with a double barrelled name. He was known as "Hyphen", field landing right on the piano keys. With a crescendo of and had recently returned from a combat tour in Korea. I reverse thrust, the Hercules stopped in a few hundred found him a most friendly affable chap and my only feet, then neatly taxied backwards a few yards, before misgivings about flying the dual Vampire was that It had parking directly in front of an admiring crowd of waiting an entirely different cockpit layout to the snug single spectators. As the baseball hatted crew came down from seater that I was accustomed to. the flight deck, I recognized the captain. It was Hyphen! The purpose of the sortie was to straighten out any The memory of that last Vampire flight flooded back in my problems with my cine camera gunnery. I was given no mind. Unknowingly, I think Hyphen had done me a favour. opportunity to sit in the cockpit to familiarize myself with The following day I flew a single seat Vampire on the layout, and in any case Hyphen himself had only a another cine gun exercise. With good scores that time, I couple of hours on type. We got airborne in formation with went to lunch well pleased with myself. Then came a Pilot Officer Brian Coleman, one of my course members message that the Commanding Officer wished to see me. who was flying a single seat Vampire. The climb to 15000 This seemed rather mysterious, and I felt a bit uptight as ft was in battle formation, 100 yards apart. The restrictive the Great Man beckoned me into his office. He explained view caused by metal bars that formed the canopy frame to me in a fatherly manner that although my flying skills made outside scanning quite difficult. The aircraft felt were quite satisfactory, and my armament work generally heavier than the Mk 30, and the unfamiliar instrument average, he felt that I was not fighter pilot material just at layout made normal scanning of the panel somewhat this stage. Perhaps a year or so later, after obtaining slower than normal. more flying experience (I had 260 hours), I could come We split up on reaching top of climb. P/0 Coleman back to the fighter school, and do quite well. Meanwhile, stayed as stooge and Hyphen watched my first few he said, I was to be posted to No 10 Squadron, Townsville attacks. After the second pass, he took over control and to fly as second pilot on Lincoln bombers. There was no commented that although the attacks were well flown, I mention of any specific shortcomings, but It seemed I should press In closer before firing the camera guns. I wasn't quite the Right Stuff.. pointed out politely that we were briefed to disengage at I left the Wing Commanders office, embarrassed and 200 yards from the stooge. Hyphen replied that regardless close to tears. The next day, I packed my kit bag, and set of the rule, and to ensure a successful attack, one needed about returning my flying gear to the clothing store known to close well inside that distance before firing. Something as "L" Group. Whilst waiting for the storeman to return like the equivalent of don’t fire until you can see the whites from smoko, I overheard the voice of the CFI Ross of his eyes, except In this case you hold your fire until you Coburn, who was talking to another officer in a nearby can see the burner cans up his jet pipe! office. Neither was aware of my presence, and I was "Watch this," Hyphen said Into his oxygen mask as he surprised and instantly angry to hear the CFI describing whipped the Vamp Into a steep wingover, smoothly how Hyphen had apparently scared the pants off a young reversed into a text book attack at 300 knots plus, and sergeant pilot during a cine gunnery session. The story bored right In towards the cruising stooge. The twin booms was exaggerated, and it was only my respect for rank that of Coleman’s Vampire loomed large into my gun-sight, prevented me from having a few well chosen words with and I involuntarily shut my eyes awaiting the Inevitable the CFI. crunch. A second later. Hyphen bunted under the stooge, Nevertheless I was determined to get the facts straight counted one potato, and pulled up hard Into a right with the CO, Wing Commander Pete Ottewell. He listened climbing turn. I heard a short transmission from Coleman, sympathetically to my side of the story of the instructor's which sounded like "Jesus! attack technique on the stooge. His eyebrows lifted I was none too happy with this game, either. I hardly slightly, when with ill considered bravado, I offered to fly a had time to tighten my oxygen mask, which had been Vampire inverted across the field at 500 ft to prove I wasn't

36 AHSA Aviation Heritage

a wimp! Wisely, and with no doubt a better knowledge of and to watch for the Vampires who doubtless would the Vampire fuel system than I, he gently declined my position themselves up sun. Another crossover turn in offer, and repeated his earlier promise that I could come battle formation was called, and shortly after we regained back in a year. That was a white lie, of course, because position, I caught a glimpse of silver dots barrelling down the old boy had no influence on postings. In fairness to from behind and above my starboard wing in a classic him though, he was only trying to let me down lightly. quarter attack. That evening, my course members were on night flying My job was to immediately alert the formation leader to for the first time on Vampires. I felt out of the club and a bit the situation but, before doing so, I reefed my aircraft into lonely, and decided to watch the circuits from the control a limit turn towards the rapidly closing jets. At this stage, tower. One aircraft floated and touched down half way no one else in the Mustang squadron had seen the down the runway. The controller hit the crash alarm when attackers and I clearly avoided being a victim by breaking it was obvious the aircraft was not going to stop in time. It early. Half way around my turn I called urgently that we crossed the perimeter track leaving a shower of sparks, were being attacked from the starboard side. The narrowly missed a civilian on a bike, and finished in an squadron commander called for the Mustang squadron to ignominious fashion nose first into the scrub outside the break right and a melee ensued between the opposing boundary fence. The aircraft only received superficial formations. Reversing my turn, I locked fleetingly onto a damage, but the cyclist was most upset at what he Vampire but his diving speed was far too great for an perceived to be dangerous driving on the part of the effective camera gun shot. I forget the details of the scrap unfortunate Vampire pilot. but, as usual, the Vampires soon got low on fuel so we As the pilot wound back the canopy to exit the cockpit, ^ went home. There was much hilarity the cyclist arrived with a rush looking decidedly and hand waving at the subsequent debriefing session as dangerous. The now thoroughly alarmed pilot smartly results of the mock combat were discussed. hunkered down into his seat, and slammed the canopy I sat at the back of the classroom listening to the shut. The stand off remained, until with bells and flashing claims and counter claims, and then decided to slip quietly lights, the fire crew arrived to the rescue. The pilot refused away without anyone noticing. I felt that, as a last minute to open his canopy until the sergeant in charge of the fire ring in and not really being a member of the club anymore, crew shooed the angry cyclist away. It turned out that I was not needed. Besides, I had to return borrowed flying after selecting full flap for landing, the pilot had gear before the RAAF bus arrived to transport me to inadvertently returned the flap lever to up instead of Sydney. Just before I could leave the room, the Vampire neutral. This caused the flaps to fully retract, and the formation leader (Wing Commander Ottewell) called for a aircraft floated far down the runway before touching down, shush to the chatter and asked who was Red Section No. I was not due in Townsville for another week, and as I somewhat nervously and admitted to hung around the flight huts, pondering the injustice of ®,P®* formation. Congratulations, Sergeant", he being scrubbed on the word of one instructor someone That was an excellent bit of flying. We couldn't get yelled that I was wanted, and fast. I was met by Pete because of your quick break, although I think we Middleton who said that after lunch there was to be a clobbered most of you other chaps", twelve versus twelve dog fight of Mustangs and Vampires. The compliment was not really deserved and I knew it The Mustang formation was short one man and I was to but rationalized by thinking that it was just a game, with stand in. Briefing was at 1300, and I found myself allotted me trying to right a perceived injustice to my pride, as No 4 in the last formation. My official position was wingman. Attacking aircraft attempt to pick off the Some twelve years^ later, I was to „fly an. RAAF Convair wingman first, particularly a straggler who may be lagging 440 Metropolitan from Richmond to Darwin. The purpose behind. As the Vampires were considerably faster than flight was to transport officers from Headquarters the Mustangs, it was probable that someone would be Ope^ional Command for a large scale mobility exercise aiming at me first. The 24 pilots consisted of all the '"''°'''ing fighter and bomber squadrons. Looking at the instructors, plus our course. The CO was to lead the manifest, I recognized the names of several Vampire gaggle, and the CFI was to be the Mustang fighter pilots who were now senior officers in desk jobs. It was a long flight and throughout the night we ran The Mustangs taxied out first, weaving like twelve ^'^^ck into some of the most vicious thunderstorms I have silver Chinese dragons around the perimeter track to the experienced. This particular Convair did not have duty runway. Run ups complete, each section leader gave ''^®®ther radar, which meant that flying in thick cloud, we the "hack" signal as engines turned up to 3000 RPM and °f storms along our track. Quiet 54 inches of manifold pressure. I stuck close to my section [^o'^®'^ts with no turbulence would suddenly be leader as we accelerated down the runway. I became 'n*®''''upted without warning by violent up and down airborne at 100 knots, and seeing the spinning wheels of °''®^gf'fS’ lightning, and general frontal weather mayhem. No's 1 and 2 retracting jerkily inwards, I checked that I was numerous cups of spilled coffee, nature called me safely clear of the deck, before selecting my own gear to ^'■g®'’fly ■ l®ft the copilot holding the fort while I up. The Mustang rocked in wake turbulence, and by the f*®®^®*^ for the loo. time we settled into the climb at 150 knots, the Vampire , Opening the cockpit door, I saw lots of white faced squadron leader could be heard calling for his sections to men, fearless fighter jocks, tightly gripping their seats with check in for taxy clearance. some of them holding sick bags. I momentarily We did a few crossover turns on the climb to 20 000 ft sympathized with their plight because everyone knows and I got one minor fright when climbing through 15^000 ft *^®PPy Passengers. They don't like to the engine gave a shudder and thump. I realized it was reliant on an unknown pilot because each of them only the automatic supercharger change over from low to secretly believes that no one else can handle dangerous high gear, and I reset the power to keep position on the situations as well as they personally can. I wondered then wing. The squadron leader warned us to keep weavina friendly instructor. Hyphen, was amongst that lot. ® And if he'd remember me >>

37 AHSA Aviation Heritage

AMELIA EARHART at DARWIN - as reported by the Press. by M. J. Flanagan

Darwin, Sunday 27 June 1937. MRS. PUTNAM - Expected at Darwin To-day. DELAYED AT KOEPANG. Mrs. Amelia Putnam, the famous American airwoman who is encircling the globe, is expected to arrive at Darwin to-morrow morning. Arrangements have been made to welcome her. A crowd gathered at the aerodrome early in the afternoon, expecting the 'plane to fly direct from Sourabaya, but Koepang wireless station advised that Mrs. Putnam had arrived at Koepang at ig 1.30 p.m., Darwin time, and had ^ decided to spend the night there. She would leave for Darwin at daybreak on Monday, arriving there between 10 and 10.30 a.m. (As reported in the Sydney Morning Herald dated 28.6.37)

Darwin, Monday 28 June 1937 Fred Noonan, Amelia Earhart and a quarantine officer walking away from the Lockheed Electral0 NRl6020 at Darwin. CyrU McCorey via Northern Territory Library MRS. PUTNAM - ARRIVAL AT DARWIN. To Leave To-day for New Guinea. PROGRESS OF WORLD FLIGHT (from our special representative). Mrs. Earhart Putnam (Miss Amelia Earhart), the famous American airwoman who is flying round the world arrived at Darwin at 11.26 o'clock (local time) this morning. She had left Koepang at 6.30 a.m. She will leave to-morrow morning at dawn for Lae, New Guinea. From Lae she will fly to Howland Island, 2,250 miles, the longest sea stage, and the most dangerous section of her journey, which will demand expert navigation. The final stages of her flight will be from Howland Island to Honolulu, and Honolulu to Oakland (California). Tall and slight, with a sun-tanned complexion and tousled hair, the airwoman, who was dressed in long ground slacks and an open-necked shirt, said in an interview, that the trip had been more interesting than exciting. "First and foremost, I want to be called Amelia Earhart, and not Mrs. Putnam," she said. "Even my husband introduces me as Miss Earhart, and not as Mrs. Putnam. I have always wanted to come to Australia, and my husband would like to see your country, too", she continued. "But I am in too much of a hurry now. However, we will probably come out later. Of course, we will fly. That is the only real method of transport. Objects of Flight. "The real object of the trip is that I want to be the first woman to fly round the world as near to the equator as possible," she explained. "I know others have flown round the world in sections, but I want to be first to do it in one continuous flight. I have been interested in fatigue problems, and have been studying fatigue and the human reactions as regards to flying for the Purdue University as well as the best food for aviators. Actually we rarely eat much, as it makes one so tired." Mrs. Putnam, who has an engaging personality and ready smile, was amused at a Qantas engineer's description of her 'plane as a "flying petrol tank." "That is more apt than 'flying laboratory,' she said, "for my 10 tanks have a capacity of 1,250 American gallons. I would have continued on to Lae to-day, only there would not have been sufficient time, so I am pushing on at daylight to-morrow on the 1,200-mile stage, and do not anticipate spending more than a night there," she added. "It will not be long now before I am home again." Mrs. Putnam said that they had had a perfect crossing of the Timor Sea. Comfort and Safety. She had had some propeller difficulty at Singapore, and consequently had made a short hop to Bandoeng, where adjustments were made by Dutch K.N.I.L.M. mechanics. She was forced to return there after setting off for Koepang because of a recurrence of the trouble. She arrived at Koepang again yesterday, and left at 8 a.m. Darwin time for Australia. She was flying as fast as comfort and safety would permit, but was not taking any unnecessary risks. That was the reason for the delay in her arrival at Darwin, where she had anticipated arriving last Sunday.

38 AHSA Aviation Heritage

Mr. F.J. Noonan, her navigator, who also acted as relief pilot during the flight, was formerly a Pan-American Airways navigation instructor. He is a typical American, and summarised his impressions of the flight with a "Guess it has been very interesting." To-night, Mrs. Putnam will stay at the Victoria Hotel, where practically every well-known airman who has passed through Darwin has stayed. (As reported in the Sydney Morning Herald dated 28.6.37)

Tuesday, June 29, 1937. NOTED AMERICAN AIRWOMAN - Arrival in Darwin. ROUND THE WORLD FLIGHT. Mrs. Amelia Earhart Putnam, the noted American airwoman, who is flying round the world In a super special Lockheed Electra plane with Capt. Noonan as navigator, arrived in Darwin on Monday morning at 11.30 o'clock, after a 3 V2 hours' flight from Koepang. When she stepped from the plane she wore a check shirt and brown slacks. She wore no helmet, and her close-cropped hair was in wild disorder from the force of the wind. She immediately demanded a bath and lunch before interviewing anyone. She showed great impatience and when posing for the photographers, asked them not to take too long. The trip across from Koepang had been uneventful and she felt no apprehension about the trip to Lae. Mrs. Putnam was met by Mr. Leydln^ and the Misses Abbott^. At 5 p.m. she visited the residency. During the afternoon she assisted in refuelling and overhauling the machine. It took four weeks to fly from Miami to Darwin, but it was hoped the trip home would take four days. The plane, which is red and silver, was specially built at a cost of 90,000 dollars. Yesterday it took on 1,150 gallons of petrol, and has a range of 4,000 miles. The cruising speed is 180 m.p.h., and the maximum 206. Head winds will prevail throughout the journey back to America. Mrs. Putnam said she enjoyed the long flights, but bad weather was objectionable. The worst weather had been encountered at Akyab. (As reported in the Northern Standard dated 29.6.37)

Darwin, Thursday 1 July 1937 FLIGHT ROUND THE WORLD - Special Pratique. MRS. PUTNAM NOT DELAYED. Mrs. Amelia Earhart Putnam received a special dispensation by the Federal health authorities without which she and her navigator (Captain F. Noonan) would have been delayed at Darwin on their round-the-world flight. Mrs. Putnam had planned to spend the night here, and as pratique was granted hours before the scheduled time of departure, she experienced no delay. The special permission to leave DanA/in was Aviatrix Amelia Earhart on the steps of the administration building, Ross Smith given by the Director-General of Health at Aerodrome, Fannie Bay, N,T, CyrU McCorey collection via the Northern Territory Library Canberra. Both Mrs. Putnam and Captain Noonan carried certificates of health given by a reputable American doctor, but these certificates were not endorsed by the health authorities in the country of issue. Although the certificates were not questioned in other countries over which they flew, Australian health regulations require that such certificates shall carry the endorsement of the health authorities of the country in which they are issued. In the circumstances, the quarantine officer here (Dr. Carruthers) refused pratique for 10 hours until he heard from Canberra. Permission to grant pratique was received from Canberra at 9.30 p.m. on the day of arrival. Mrs. Putnam was very concerned at first, and declared that she would fly to Canberra and show the Director-General himself her certificates. When Captain Noonan drily pointed out the distance to Canberra, she declared she would be patient and await a wire from Canberra. (As reported in the Sydney Morning Herald dated 2.7.37)

* R. S. Leydin, the Administrator's personal secretary. Reg Leydin served with the RAAF during WWII The Administrator's daughters Marion and Dorothy. Marion was better known by her nickname Cherie.

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MRS. AMELIA EARHART PUTNAM - Airwoman and Navigator "Grounded" VACCINATION PAPERS IRREGULAR. Despite her outward cloak of calm, unconcerned cheerfulness during her stay in Darwin, great mental anxiety at the suspense must have been experienced by Mrs. Amelia Earhart Putnam at the thought of the possibility that she would have to undergo a further vaccination. This was revealed on Wednesday last (Wednesday 30 June) when it was learned that from the moment the famous airwoman and her navigator, Capt. Noonan, landed at Darwin on Monday morning last, until 9 o'clock that night, they were "grounded" as a result of their papers not conforming with the Commonwealth Health Regulations. Their vaccination certificates were signed by an eminent American doctor, but the Australian regulations demand that such certificates should be signed by a Government Health officer of the country of origin. When the fliers landed they were notified of the position by the Air Force Medical Officer. He then communicated with Canberra, and at 9.30 the Director-General of Health advised that in view of the exceptional circumstances the certificates would be accepted. As the aviatrix intended to leave Australia within 24 hours it was thought a vaccination might have affected her on the long ocean flights. The plane and its occupants were virtually In quarantine until their release was advised from Canberra. They were subjected to a particularly close medical examination generally as a result, it is understood, of a communication received from Karachi, India, stating they were under surveillance for yellow fever. Apparently one of the world places visited on their flight had been the scene of an outbreak of this fever. (As reported in the Northern Standard dated 2J.37f Darwin, Tuesday {30.6.37) WORLD FLIGHT - Near the End. (from our Special Representative). Mrs. Putnam left Darwin at dawn today. "It's getting near the end now," she said, as she impatiently strode up and down outside the hangar, waiting for her engines to warm up and for daylight to arrive. "I feel now that the flight is almost over and I will soon be home."

Dressed In her long brown slacks and open check shirt, Mrs. Putnam arrived at the aerodrome at 5.30 a.m., and immediately commenced to warm up the engines of the huge silver Lockheed with its red-tipped wings; and then waited for dawn. She said she had been bitterly disappointed In the tropics, as previously she had imagined the climate was always warm; she had never shivered so much as she had in Darwin's early morning."^ The airwoman, accompanied by her navigator. Captain Fred Noonan, once more checked over the machine before the Lockheed was wheeled out of the hangar. The petrol tanks were practically full, and she carried 1,150 American gallons of petrol, or more than three and a half tons of fuel for the hop to Lae - sufficient to fly from Darwin to Melbourne and back non-stop. The machine was actually lifting about eight tons on this flight, according to Captain Noonan. "Good-bye and many thanks for your hospitality," said Mrs. Putnam, as she clambered up the wing and into the cockpit. "I am sorry I can’t stay longer but I'll be back again one of these days." She paid tribute to the assistance of the Qantas engineers, and the co-operation of the Civil Aviation Department's representative (Mr. Alan Collins) before leaving The electric flares which circled the aerodrome were lighted and the heavily-laden machine slowly taxied along to the end of the runway, with exhaust and propellers roaring. It traversed practically the entire length of the 800-yard runway, and the handful of onlookers who had gathered to see the departure at one stage feared that the Lockheed would not take off before the boundary was reached. But about 50 yards from the fence the machine slowly lifted and appeared just to clear the fence and trees. With the early morning sun flashing on the wings of her machine, Mrs. Putnam circled the aerodrome before speeding into the north-eastern horizon. (As reported in the Sydney Morning Herald dated 30.6.37)

Honolulu, 5 July 1937. MRS. PUTNAM DOWN IN SEA - 400 miles off Howland Island. SEARCHING SEA PLANES FORCED BACK - ADVERSE WEATHER Mrs. Putnam and her navigator, Capt. Noonan, were forced down in the sea about 400 miles off Howland Island on their flight from Lae. The last message from the plane indicated fuel supplies were insufficient to reach Howland Island. A United States seaplane Is searching from Honolulu and another from Howland Island, but adverse weather forced the machines back. A search is also being made by sea. Mrs. Putnam's plane Is expected to float for several days. It has ample food aboard. (As reported in the Northern Standard dated 6.7.3 7)

Please note: Some paragraphs with repetitive information have been omitted from the above accounts. Entries in italics inserted by MJF.

^ Earhart makes no mention of this incident in her book "Last Flight' which was compiled from dispatches, etc, sent back to her husband. On the other hand, members of the press were obviously unaware that the fliers off-loaded their parachutes at Darwin because "A parachute would not help over the Pacific".

^ It was mid-Dry Season but even soil!

40 AHSA Aviation Heritage

AUSTRALIAN WACO BIPLANES & SORTING OUT THE ALPHABET SOUP OF MODEL DESIGNATIONS by BOB FRIPP Only five Waco aircraft were registered in Australia, were unanimous was that there was indeed an underlying the 10T (see below), VH-ULV which lived and died in New system. Guinea; VH-UAX, a 1933 UlC Model previously G-ACGJ; In this offering the aim is to show the steps through VH-UVW, a YQC-6 Custom Model I, re-engined in which the designations evolved, and to clear up some of Geelong (Vic.) about 1946 with a Gipsy Six, which had no the anomalies detected to date, with the object of being factory designation; VH-AAF, an EGC-8 late-model able to name the Models on sight. Custom which spent some time as a scenic flight aeroplane decorated with pirate logo as 'Jolly Roger', (this The earliest Waco products, before 1930, were simply one is extant and registered, based at Chewing Gum numbered in order, of appearance from Waco 1 to Waco Field, Qld, aptly disguised as VH-CGF); and VH-UYD. a 10 (usually written Ten). What could be simpler? But It model YKS-6, a Standard Cabin, from the year 1936. A could not last, sixth example is under slow restoration, this Is a 1935 In historical context the early Wacos had to compete model Custom, a Model UOC, ex-ZK-AEL, and we hope to for sales with World War I surplus two-seat planes such see it in its pristine glory one day. A recent import is a as the Curtiss JN-4. Waco and others producing new current model YMF Classic, VH-MD( - making It No. 7. aircraft offered three or more seats to increase earning Which brings us to the subject of sorting the model capacity to justify the higher prices they had to ask. Waco designations. Many years ago I read somewhere that the even offered, in the Waco 8, a plane to carry six or seven three letter groups attached to each type of Waco biplane paying passengers. None of these early models were viable. IWi Success came at last with the three-seat Waco 9 and ii Waco Ten which, in 1926 and 1927, sold in excess of double the sales of all other competitors combined. Production soared to two a day, and variants appeared - which needed new model numbers, of course. The early models had all had parallel-chord wings but now. in the Ten, customers were given the option of sportier and more efficient tapered wings. So appeared the 10S Straightwing and the 10T Taperwing. Confusion immediately arose because the Ten was eligible for its Type Certificate with either form of wing. Thus VH-ULV, the only example to come on the Australian Civil Register, though designated a Model 10T, in fact had the straight wings, as photographs show. Waco VH-ULV seen at Kiunga, New Guinea, photo via Mm Sinclair So far, so good; but these types were also offered with was some kind of descriptive code. I had seen illustrations different engines. To cope with such complexities the of such classics as the UMF, the YMF, the WHD, the three-letter Model codes were introduced in about 1929, YKC-S. and had admired their dashing lines. But what was and the Ten became the Model 0, which letter appeared the relationship between the characteristic features of third in the designation. The first letter told which engine each type, and its code letters? was fitted while the second letter was S or T, depending This was back in the days when Aircraft Recognition on the wing panels fitted, as explained in the previous was a fine art, strongly encouraged by the necessity of paragraph.,. ^ For example the famous ^ ATO^ model^ was sorting Theirs' from 'Ours'. It's all right, it's one of Ours" supplied with the Wright J-5 engine (coded A) and tapered was possibly the first of the 'Famous Last Words' series. wings (Coded T), and was obviously a Model 0. (A libellous cartoon of the time depicted a fighter pilot Engine codes used before 1930 included:- being debriefed and nonchalantly admitting I didn't know if A. Wright J-5 220hp it was one of theirs or one of ours, so I only gave it a short B. Wright J6-5 R540 165hp burst.") C. Wright J6-7 R760 225hp D Hispano 150-180hp Back to Wacos. Stated another way, was it possible to E. Chevrolair. (Martin 333) 120hp look at any Waco, in a photo or in the field, and say with F not known any confidence what Model it actually was? In brief, to G Curtiss OX5/OXX-6 90/102hp identify It? Despite collection and study of many articles H Packard R-980 220hp Diesel published on the matter, no coherent and satisfying I Kinner B-5 125hp summary seemed to be available. J Wright R975 330hp Whenever an article on the matter came to hand I A model was also offered with the German Siemens examined it In the hope that here at last was the complete radial engine of 125hp. No code appears to have been answer. It became clear that whoever had the complete allocated to that engine, and the plane was referred to as answer was not publishing it, or not, in anything found by Siemens-Waco or the Waco 125. (Conversely, or self or helpful colleagues. perversely, pilots and other aviation initiates often referred to a model with a works designation by its engine Some were no more than sketchy guesses, others horsepower; Waco 165 or Waco 300 as examples.) It is were most comprehensive, but one thing on which they possible that the gaps in the list represent engines considered as suitable, but never Installed.

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A fairly complete list of pre-1930 O Models includes lower. Also with annual model updates. C Models of this ASO, ATO, BSO, CSO, CTO, DSO, HSO, HTO, ITO, and era were BEC. CJC, OEC, PDC, QDC, UIEC. UlC, UKC QSO. A bit more complex than the early numbers system - and YKC. What the D, E, 1, J. and K were has seen but this is still early days, more complexity was to come; several explanations, but the most likely is that they refer as a wide range of customer requirements was suoolied to the particular wing drawings applied to that Model. on an often one-off basis. The other newcomer in this Great Depression era was An off shoot of the O series was the JYM Mailplane the Model A - now why didn't they start there ? -of 1932. which was an O with single seat, and with the fuselage This was a chummy two seater, side by side in the one lengthened by 14 inches to accommodate the expected cockpit, with the option of a framed, transparent canopy. volume of airmail of the day. The Y probably indicates a This was produced as the BBA, IBA, KBA, PBA, PLA, modified wing design, but the J Introduces to us a new RBA, TBA, UBA, and ULA, apparently with B and L wing series of engine codes which, in 1930, superseded the plans. Very few were sold! one above and was retained for ALL subsequent models Now all this went fairly swimmingly, up to and including A Jacobs L-6MB 330hp 1934, but 1935 was the crunch year when a new B Wright R-540 Whirlwind 5-cyl 165hp top-of-the-line model was introduced, and the whole ID C Wright R-760 Whirlwind 7-cyl 250hp system was reviewed. This flag Model was the Custom, for D Wright R-760E1 Whirlwind 7-cyl 285hp which the letter C was seen as vital. The C-Cabln Model of E Wright R-760E2 Whirlwind 7-cyl 350hp previous years was relegated to the status of Standard F not known Model, tagged, for 1935 ONLY as the C-S and to be G not known known in all subsequent years as the Model S. The 1935 H Lycoming R-680-E3 radial 300hp C-S Models comprised CJC-S, UKC-S, and YKC-S. I Kinner B-5 lOOhp J Wright R-975 Whirlwind (in JYM) 365hp To summarise the cabin models:- All ** C Models K Kinner K-5 lOOhp before 1935, the **C-S Models oM 935, and all **S Models L Lycoming R-680 200-225hp after 1935 were a continuous line of Standard Cabin M Menasco C-4 125hp Models. The **C Models of 1935 and after were N not known continuous line of Custom Models. The double use of the O Kinner C-5 210hp letter C causes most of the confusion, but the whole Waco P Jacobs LA-1 165hp system is admittedly a minefield. Q Continental A-70 radial 165hp The new Custom model was a buxom, curvaceous five R Warner Scarab 125hp seater, and it introduced entirely new wing design, with the S Pratt & Whitney Wasp Jr 400hp lower wing much less in span and chord than the upper, T Kinner R-5 160hp probably not quite a sesquiplane. Ailerons were restricted U Continental R-670 210hp to the upper wing, departing from the practice followed in V Continental W-670-M 240hp previous Models. In keeping with the harmonious fuselage W Wright R-975-E3 450hp lines, the wing tips took on an elliptic curve, made X not known fashionable by racing planes of the period. Optional wheel Y Jacobs L-4MB 225hp covers added elegance. The artistic soul of the Chief Z Jacobs L-5MB 285hp Designer A.Francis Arcier, must have rejoiced in his Waco designs. He had done his time with Handley Page during So here is a landmark. We can be sure what the WWI, where elegance was at a discount. engine is in that Waco - provided always that the correct three-letter code Is known. Looked at the other way, if the engine is Identified by inspection, then the first letter of the Model code can be confidently assumed. But let us go on. In 1930 the classic F Series was produced, to be updated for several years, and to be put back Into production in the 1980's, so some of these are current ■ii aeroplanes. This was a more compact, lower powered, more economical three seater, and was popular. About 180 RNF's were built. The 1931-32 model was called the F-2 series and in 1934 the F-3 facelift came out, the suffix « ■ I numbers being out of line with the year;. Just to make recognition harder, the front (double) cockpit could be covered flush, and/or the rear (single) cockpit could be provided with a sliding canopy, but they were all F Models. Included on the list were Models CPF, CPF-1, CPF-6, ENF, INF. KNF, LPF-7, MNF, PBF-2, PCF-2. QCF-2. RNF, UBF (XJW-1 in the US Navy), UBF-2, UMF, UMF-3. Brand new Waco yQC-6 Custom I, VH-UVWseen at Mascot. UMF-5, UPF-7 (which as a two seater went into the US A further aside - the model codes do not specify the Army as. PT-14), VPF-7, YMF-5, YPF-15, YPF-7, and tail surfaces, except that they seem to be included in the ZPF-6 and -7. Suffixes higher than -3 will be explained. final letter and suffix number - all F-2's for instance seem Production was finally concentrated on the UPF-7 for the to have had the same tail. \«hile all F3's shared a different Civilian Pilot Training Program, under growing prospect of shape. war. Now where were we? Yes, 1935, the tidy-up year. The Meanwhile back in '31 the first enclosed cabin model other thing was to line up all the suffix numbers. appeared, logically the Model C, a four seater with parallel Henceforth they would be the last digit of the year of issue edged wings, of unequal span, but equal chord, upper and of that model. As an instance the 1935 F Model was

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The N Model was innovative but premature, offering what was basically a Custom Model with nose-wheel undercarriage in the days when "real aeroplanes" including DC-3-s, had little wheels at the back. Few people wanted to be seen in one, which was unfortunate. However the range ran to AVN-8, ZVN-7, and ZVN-8. One N-7 and twenty N-8's were made. The E Model is regarded by many admirers as the aristocrat of Wacos, indeed it is often the first or only model which comes to mind when Waco is mentioned. A true masterpiece of biplane design it was conceived to compete for sales with the Beechcraft 17. It was a Remains of VH-UVWre-engined with a Gipsy Six by Ross Meehans' slimmed Custom with five seats and advanced engine Geelong Airways. Seen here at the Belmont aerodrome, Geelong after cowling. With fixed undercarriage it matched the Beech it's crash at on take -off at Colac, Vic. 17 in performance, and the few lovingly restored survivors labelled the F-5 regardless of what the suffix number treasured by lucky owners. The rest of us can only would have been by then: thus there was never was an wish. It was offered, with choice of engine, as ARE, SRE, F-4. Exceptions were made In the case of some models WRE. Suffix numbers were not used, as the Civil retained in production essentially unchanged for several Aeronautics Authority considered minor modifications did years. Notable in this way was the VKS-7, (VKS-7F with warrant new model numbers. This ruling affected flaps) which was used as a cross-country instrument several Models, so suffix numbers fell into disuse after trainer by the government-assisted Civilian Pilot Training 1938, and Wacophiles are forced to note such details as Program, and produced in some numbers in 1942. Several wheel track and the number of panels in the fly today. windscreen to determine the exact Model of the example. The S, Standard Cabin, series continued to be a Just for the fun of it I include a few side views for you workhorse, and a bread-and-butter production item as Model code. No tricks, no prizes, just a long as Waco biplanes were built. Numbers were check between you and yourself to see if you found any considerable and Models represented were SKS, UKS-6, value in the above brief and incomplete notes. Answers UKS-7, VKS-6 and-7 (and 7-F), YKS-7, and ZKS-6 and -7.’ This designation system was retained through all new As a more topical postscript, we have the Waco name models, with some anomalies of course until the end of brought before the Australian public by the amazing 1942 when Waco powered aircraft production finished, for display, by one Jim Franklin on a much modified UPF-7 at all practical purposes, in favour of military gliders of Avalon Airshow. If the registration 30316 is similarly unlovely aspect to the Handley Pages of WWI. authentic, and it probably is, then this example is Serial No One feels for Francis Arcier! But in the meantime Arcier 5533. Delivered on 6 Nov, 1940 to the Tuskegee Institute, had achieved artistic and aerodynamic, if not greatness, Tuskegee. Alabama (this is a little more South than then certainly high standing. We have not yet considered Tuscaloosa). The main modification is reduction of seating the fine Models D, Nnd E. from three to one, and the relocation of the pilot three feet T. n .JC .• . ... , aft to compensate for the weight Of the P&W R985 Wasp F, CustomirSln the Wa» Sn with S, <">"• ™s ptoducea what could and elliptic wings, it was intended to appeal to a wealthy, rr™*°olL‘’Tte S^cSMence''by RMn ™ his discriminating market as economic recovery from the immortality, and in his fifty- six-year-old ^biplane produced Depression began. It seated two under a long glazed as memorable a display as any in a long recollection of such acts. Both pilot and aeroplane are obviously of strong character. ^ For the other strong characters who are Interested in the sources of this article, the main ones are- Waco Airplanes "Ask Any Pilot". ISB No 0-9602734-0-9 Waco Aircraft Production. Waco The Versatile Cabin Series. ISB No 0-9602734-2-5 Waco The Famous "F:" Series. ISB No 0-9602734-3-3 All the above produced by Raymond H Brandy of the National Waco Club. Sport Aviation - Journal of EAA. The Waco Storly'R.Brandly. Aug., Sep Oct.. 1969 Journal of the American Aviation Historical Society:- Wacos Wonderful "W. (Spring 1964). Wacos Military "D". (Summer 1964). Days of the Waco Ten. (Fall 1965). The Waco Story. (Winter 1980). US Civil Aircraft. Joseph P Juptner. Aero Publishers IncVol 9 ISBN 0-8168-9182-6 The Great Planes. James Gilbert. Madison Press/ Grosset & Dunlap Lib WacoEGC-8 VH-AAF, "Jolly Roger". Cong 70-117510 Historical Aviation Album;- Paul R.Matt. Lib Cong -16736 series. ISBN No canopy, and was rather higher-powered. As a civilian it 911842 series:- was much yearned after but little purchased. An armed Waco Cabin Aircraft. Paul R Matt Vol 2 version found some favour with Latin American states. Its The Waco UPF-7. Peter M Bowers Vol 8 designations were a little complex. Models JHD, JHD-7, Waco UMF - YMF. Phil Mercier. Vol 13. S3HD, S3HDA, WHD, are listed. The S3 was a Wasp Jr, Editors Note: After all this, I think I will have a Bex and a nice lie down. of 450hp while the A suffix denoted an armed version.

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