The Journal ill of the ■ iiill Aviation Historical Society ■III illiil: ill I of Australia Inc. A0033653P, ARB\ 092-671-773

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■ The Journal of the AVIATION HISTORICAL SOCIETY OIO of AUSTRALIA Inc. A00336533P, ARBN 092-671-773 Volume 34 - Number 2 - June 2003

EDITOR, DESIGN & PRODUCTION EDITORIAL Bill Baker I believe that this issue of Aviation Heritage has wide and Address all correspondence to; electric variety of interesting articles which I hope you will The Editor, AHSA, enjoy. As you will see there are many aspects of Australian P.O. Box 2007, aviation history that can be recorded. Think about it!! As South Melbourne 3205 Victoria, Australia. always I welcome any new material from members, pictures 03 9583 4072 Phone & Fax from your collection could make an interesting page. E.mail: [email protected] Don't forget the Newsletter (still looking for a new Editor) do www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/ahsa.html you have a product (book, CD, Models) that would interest Subscription Rates; our members - we would be happy to advertise it. Australia A$45. The September issue will have the second part of Greg Asia-Pacific A$55 Banfield's biography on the amazing Ray Parer, a vastly Rest of World A$68. underrated Australian Aviator Overseas payment to be in Australian currency by International Money Order or Editors wish iist; Bank Draft. Overseas personal cheques Priority 1: First to Fly in Australia.{ Still waiting, waiting.) cannot be accepted. Any facet of Australia's aviation history, Malaya, GAF Articles for Publication; Nomad, Korea, Vietnam, anything that interests you and can Are to be on an Australian theme. be printed. How about the history of Airbus in Australia? Or The Editor reserves the right to edit any some photos out of your collection for the Members Photo article accepted for publication. Page? Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands come Payment is not made for articles. under our banner also. Anything!! Please include sufficient postage for the return of originals if that is required. Cover: A terrific picture taken of Ray Parer's crash at A - H and the Computer; Contributions for Moulmein, Burma on his England-Australia flight co the Journal are most welcome in any form, ordinates the start of Greg Banfield's two part article. but if you have a computer, exported on a Next Issue; Volume 34 Number 3 will be in your letter-box 3V2" disc in ASSCII format (plain text), or in the first week of September 2003. WIN 6, would be just great! (Include hard copy also). However Macintosh discs can be Contents; translated. All photographs submitted will be 43 Ray Parer Pt-1 Greg Banfield 57 Madang Memories Jim Dunstan copied and the originals returned within 5 60 David Staig and the Young Australia Keith Meggs days of receipt. 62 Secret Mission X Denis Baker Disclaimer; 63 On a Ring and a Prayer Neville Hayes 1. Whilst every effort is made to check the 64 Aspects of the Flying Doctor Service Mike Flanagan authenticity of the material and advertising 66 An Old Contagion Mac Job printed, the Publishers, Editors, and the 71 Tail Skid Charlie Reg Adkins Aviation Historical Society of Australia and its 73 An Easter Saturday Tragedy John Laming 76 Toilets Roger Me Donald Office Bearers cannot accept responsibility 77 Douglas DC 3 Kelly/Hopton for any non-performance. 79 Fijian Belle Richard Hourigan 2. The views expressed in 'Aviation Heritage' are not necessarily those of the AHSA or its Editors. Meetings of the AHSA; Melbourne Branch: The fourth Wednesday in every AVIATION HERITAGE month, 7:30 at the Airforce Association, 4 Cromwell Street, ISSN 0815-4392 South Yarra. Further information - Keith Meggs 9580 0140. Print Post Approved PP 320418/00017 NSW Branch: The first Wednesday in every month 7:45 Studio 1 at the Powerhouse Museum, enter from the Macarthur Street end. Further information Warwick Bigsworth 02 9872 2323 Queensland Branch: The last Friday in every month 7:30 at the RQAC Archerfield. Meals available. Contact Richard Hitchins, 07 3388 3900 P.O. BOX 2007, SOUTH MELBOURNE, VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA AHSA Aviation Heritage

RAY PARER by Greg Banfield PART 1 - "BATTLING PARER" Raymond John Paul Parer was born on 19th February, White Boxkites. 1894 in Melbourne, the second of seven sons of Mr and When he first soloed Mrs Michael Parer. He spent much of his childhood in after 572 hours' dual Queenstown, Tasmania, before the family moved to King instruction, he took * Island in Bass Strait, where he was educated by a off and didn't just do ■ ' .... : governess. His maternal grandfather, John Paul Carolin, one circuit as was ■ was for nearly 27 years a member of the Bendigo City expected but he did Council and served two terms as Mayor. Carolin was an turns and banks ■ astute businessman who was deeply interested in all before coming in to things mechanical: he held the Australian agency for land. His instructor ■ Singer Sewing Machines; was agent for Hastings Deering; panicked at this and another of his American agencies brought with it the behaviour but Parer took to flying like a ■=■'1 dealership for Lambert motor cars. Grandfather Cardin's .... taste for engineering was inherited by the Parer boys and duck to water. Ray, who took his middle names from him, was a gifted Unfortunately, he (though at times very rough) mechanic, who could turn his never did excel at hand to repairing anything. Even at an early age Ray was passing the obsessed with aircraft, and built kites and at one time a theoretical exams glider in which he made his first "flight" from the top of a and, at the end of six barn in Mentone, Victoria. That glider's only flight was months, the other six trainees were given their aviator's from the roof straight to the ground, but Ray climbed out of certificates while Parer was turned down. He was told he the wreckage unhurt. Later he built successful gliders, would never make an aviator and that he would be constructed of ti-tree timber and covered with calico. returned to the ranks, in spite of his French instructor's report that he regarded him as the most promising pupil The family later returned to Melbourne, where his he had ever had. At the first opportunity, Parer rode to father ran the Bourke Street "Crystal Cafe". One night, as Melbourne on his motorcycle to put his case before higher a joke, Ray and his brothers put a lantern in a boxkite and authorities. The officer who interviewed him was so flew it above the town, causing a deal of consternation. impressed with his keenness, enthusiasm and practical He attended Christian Brothers' College at East St. Kilda ability (which counted most in those days) that he for a short time before moving on to Mentone College as a intervened in the matter and within the month Parer was boarder, then worked as a mechanic at O'Grady's Foundry given his commission as a Lieutenant. for a few months before he was sent with his elder brother to St. Stanislaus Vincentian College at Bathurst, NSW. At Point Cook he had met up with another junior One of his pursuits at school was boxing, at which he was subaltern, D. R. (Reg) Williams, and they became firm quite successful. friends. They were posted to England for further training, first at Reading, then at Shawbury, near Shrewsbury. Next On King Island in 1913 he drove off in a truck to go they went to Turnhill for training in stunt flying, and then to hunting. His shotgun was lying on the floor of the truck Ayr in Scotland for training in fighter tactics. By this stage, and it accidentally discharged, the blast hitting Ray in the Ray Parer and Reg Williams were the only two remaining leg. This resulted in septic poisoning, so serious that at of the original course of seven, the others having failed to one stage it was thought he might lose the leg, and qualify at various points. leaving a lifelong scar. He then went to work for the Brodribb Engineering Company in Melbourne and during Early in his flying career, his record was annotated by this time realised that he needed a higher standard of his first medical examiner in Australia that his heart was education in mathematics and physics to fit him for the not very strong and that he should never be permitted to career In aviation he even then envisaged. Consequently fly above 10,000 feet. This comment was copied by each he enrolled in St. Francis Xavier's College in Melbourne, succeeding medical officer he saw, without any further test from where he graduated in 1916. or investigation, but as a result, he was precluded from combat flying, even though he had often flown well above It was usual for men to transfer from the Army to the that altitude without noticing any ill-effects. Instead he Australian Flying Corps but Ray Parer applied straight for was seconded early in 1916 to the Royal Flying Corps, the Flying Corps in 1916 and was accepted as a Private. where he was posted to the Central Despatch Pool. This It was the dawning of the era of aviation and he Unit received new aircraft and tested them before they desperately wanted to be in on it. A short (160 cm/5 ft 3 were delivered to the squadrons, as well as assessing in), slightly-built man, he was sent as a mechanic direct to damaged aircraft before and after repairs. Point Cook where his familiarity with engines and thorough knowledge of their principles were of great benefit. In fact, Ray appraised damaged aircraft at the Front to see if he had been working on building an engine of his own they could safely be ferried back to England for repair, and design prior to his enlistment. He had an Intuitive way with tested all types of aircraft and delivered many to France. engines, and could pick any defect just by listening. After delivery, he would return to England either by air or by fast torpedo boat. The pilot mortality rate in the Central Up to that time. It had been Australian policy to select Despatch Pool was some fifty percent, as they were pilots from officers of the permanent army, but now it was dealing with hurriedly-built aircraft in a variety of designs, decided to train some of the best mechanics as pilots as and it was the only non-combatant Unit in the British an experiment. Ray Parer was one of seven selected for Forces to be regarded as an active fighting force, thus flying training and he began learning to fly on Grahame- eligible for all awards and decorations. Ray Parer's record

43 AHSA Aviation Heritage with the Despatch Pool was so fine that he was classed as said I would like to get my port! Anyway, after Ray one of, if not the, best testing pilots they had. Soon he amused himself trying to blow over two small skiffs in the was involved solely in testing new machines as they were Channel, we flew back to Hendon." turned out of the factories and flying them to their Parer and Williams discussed the flight to Australia. destinations, yet he never crashed a machine nor had a Ray preferred a single-engined aircraft as he believed the single serious accident recorded against him. chances of engine failure on twin-engined types were At one time he found himself ferrying fully-armed double, and few twins could hold their height on only one S.E.5S to Ireland. As the war was in Europe, Ray Parer engine. The rules governing the contest were made public wondered what was going on. He found out that the on 25th May and on 24th June Ray Parer announced his aircraft were to support the Black And Tans in suppressing entry. He began seeking financial backing from aircraft Irish stirrings since the Easter Rising of 1916. Given his manufacturers in Britain and was reported to be Irish ancestry, it is not surprising that Parer informed his negotiating with the aircraft engine manufacturers William superiors that if he was asked to fly any more aircraft over, Beardmore & Company Ltd. not only would he deliver them to the Republicans in the south but he would fly for them as well! This did not Meanwhile, Brigadier-General A. E. Borton and enhance his career prospects with the military. Captain Ross Macpherson Smith, Australian Flying Corps, were dispatched by the United Kingdom Air Ministry to The Commanding Officer of the Despatch Pool twice survey the section of the flight route between Calcutta and recommended him for the Air Force Cross but on both Port Darwin. The motor boat in which they left Calcutta occasions it was withheld on some technicality. Perhaps was burnt out at the mouth of the Hooghly River and his early work with the Unit had a bearing on his General Borton returned to Calcutta for another boat. acceptance of sub-standard aircraft in later life. He did, Both officers contracted malaria at Koepang in Timor and, however, regard the Sopwith Dolphin as the best aircraft after a period of enforced inactivity, returned to India he ever flew. Ray remained with the Unit until it closed in without completing the survey to Darwin. General Borton May 1919, having been the only test pilot to have been presented his report in London on 19th September. Then with the Pool during its entire existence. on 18th October, Vickers Ltd entered a Vickers Vimy in the Next Ray went on to work with the aircraft contest, to be flown by Captain Ross Smith, his brother manufacturers. Short Brothers, at Rochester, under the Lieutenant Keith Macpherson Smith, and Sergeant AIF Educational Scheme, to gain practical experience in Mechanics Walter Henry Shiers and James Mallett the construction of aeroplane engines and to act as pilot Bennett. for their seaplanes. No Australian pilots, except for Ross Smith, had had Shortly before the war ended, an Australian pilot. any experience of long-range flying. Their flights on the Captain Harry A. Rigby, had written home saying that he French and Palestinian fronts were normally quite short intended to try to fly from England to Australia. This was and aerial navigation in the modern sense was unknown. reported in the press and received much comment, with The only navigation instrument fitted to aircraft was the the suggestion that the Australian Government should compass. One of the entrants. Captain George Campbell encourage Australian aviators to attempt the flight. Parer Matthews, AFC, had been an officer in the Merchant was still with the Central Despatch Pool when the Marine and proposed to use a sextant in the air while Australian Government announced on 19th March 1919 a flying a great circle route which would take him over prize of £10,000 for the first successful flight from England southern Russia and Afghanistan, but other competitors to Australia by an Australian within a period of 30 days. planned to use maps and be guided by coastlines. The entrants, of course, would all be Service personnel It was not until 28th November that a further statement awaiting repatriation. Ray immediately decided that he was made that, although 25-year-old Ray Parer had would compete but In April he and Reg Williams, who was entered the race, no machine had yet been decided on. also on aircraft ferrying duties when the war ended, were During this time he failed to gain definite support from any called to Headquarters and ordered to march with the company, but he teamed up at different times with six Dominion and Overseas troops in the Victory Parade fliers, all of whom wished to compete. One of these was through London. The two tried to explain to the Powers his good friend. Lieutenant A. G. Bill, the Adjutant of the That Be that they were airmen, and not built for marching. Australian Flying Corps Headquarters, who personally Ray was ferrying a D.H.9A to disposal and they managed approached several aircraft manufacturers seeking to get permission to fly the aircraft over the march. The backing, but without result. Another likely companion, march lasted about two hours and Parer and Williams flew Markey, was posted for embarkation and sailed for backwards and forwards, keeping away from Buckingham Australia while Beardmore's were putting off making a Palace and high enough to glide to the Thames in the decision. Everywhere Parer met opposition. Ross Smith event of engine failure. and his crew left London's Hounslow aerodrome in their Reg Williams later recalled, "We noticed a Sopwith Vimy G-EAOU, powered by two 375 h.p. Rolls-Royce Camel that seemed to be flying around Australia House at Eagle engines, on 12th November and even after that zero height and found out afterwards that one of our time, Beardmores were still equivocating over whether to Australian Flying Corps captains dive-bombed a number support Parer. The Vimy arrived at Darwin on 10th of our and RAF high rankers off the top of Australia House December, winning the prize. where they were viewing the march. There was a terrible Reg Williams had linked up with pilot Lieutenant search to get this man dead or alive by the RAF but our Valdemar Rendle, mechanic Lieutenant Garnsey Potts kindly AFC heads put him on a boat immediately for and navigator Captain George (later Sir Hubert) Wilkins to Australia and he was far out at sea before they told the enter a twin-engined Blackburn Kangaroo, G-EAOW. RAF they had 'found' who he was. We knew him. They left London's Hounslow aerodrome on 21st "After the march, Ray flew down the Thames out over November 1919, battling across France in blinding rain the Channel about half-way to France, so I became and sometimes fog and snow. They continued on through curious and asked him, 'Where to?' He said, 'Australia.' I Italy and Greece, where the weather at last improved but

44 AHSA A viation Heritage

the landing grounds were flooded and boggy. They left Suda Bay, Crete, on 8th December headed for Egypt, but when 40 miles out to sea the return oil pipe of the port engine broke off hard against the crankcase and emptied the engine's oil into the sea. They turned back to Suda Bay on one engine, losing height and calling on all Rendle's skill as a pilot. By great good fortune they reached the aerodrome, grazing the roof of a house before crashing heavily into a ditch and coming to rest on the Kangaroo's nose, its tail high in the air but with no one injured. The flight was abandoned. Ray Parer, meanwhile, met up at the Sutton Veny embarkation camp with Lieutenant John Cowe McIntosh, an Infantry officer who had transferred to •Parer and McIntosh in front of ”P.D. ” prior to leaving Hounslow Airport for their long journey. the Australian Flying Corps only a short h.p. Siddeley Puma engine. The aircraft cost £900 with a time before the Armistice and had made only one flight so spare engine and Dawson asked why they hadn't told him far. A big and impressive man, Scottish-born McIntosh at once they needed more money; he gave them an had worked his passage to Australia in about 1907 and additional cheque there and then, along with a bottle of settled in Western Australia, where he became an expert whisky to give to Prime Minister Hughes, whom he knew. axeman in the timber country. On the outbreak of war he Friends at the Aircraft Disposal Board Depot worked had immediately enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force energetically on the D.H.9 to get it ready, and it was and sailed with the first units for Egypt. He served at registered G-EAQM and named "P.D." after their backer. Gallipoli for five months as a stretcher-bearer, being Its top speed was a little over 100 m.p.h. (160 k.p.h.) and, wounded and spending time convalescing in Malta and with a fuel capacity of 70 gallons, it had a range of only London before rejoining his unit in France. At this time, 500 miles (800 km). It had carried the military serial McIntosh made many requests to transfer to the Australian number F1287 in its service with the RAF in France. Mr Flying Corps until his request was granted as a reward for Moore, the rigger in charge at the No.3 Salvage Depot at inventing a modification to an aerial bomb, the research East Croydon, fitted an additional fuel tank of 28 gallons in for which included his crouching in a shell-hole to study the position of the bomb rack. Another fuel tank of 14 the effects of blast. He was sent to the Flying School at gallons' capacity was slung between the undercarriage, Oxford and then to Tetbury and Leighterton, where the giving a total capacity of 112 gallons, sufficient for 6 hours Australian Flying Corps had its training establishments, 45 minutes' flight. but then the war ended and he was posted to Sutton Veny. Then Gallipoli veteran McIntosh had to convince the McIntosh was not qualified as a pilot, but that could be authorities that he was an Australian and therefor eligible an advantage as Parer preferred not to entrust the to compete. He secured a licence from the British War controls to anyone else; McIntosh would manage the Office to carry firearms, and obtained a camera and films administration of the flight, the paperwork, financing, supplies, negotiations - all the detail work that Parer didn't from the Kodak Company to compete in the photographic competition which was being held in conjunction with the care to handle himself. The two pooled their resources, setting aside £100 for the race entry fee, and began race. As they were ready to leave, news was received of searching through the aircraft disposal depots for a the arrival of Ross and Keith Smith at Darwin. Further suitable machine as all other prospects had faded. But, official delays followed, and then officialdom forbad the with their repatriation orders for Australia only two days pair to start, owing to the perceived inadequacy of their away, they were told of a possible backer - the millionaire D.H.9. The British Air Ministry advised the Australian Scottish distiller, Peter Dawson. Dawson had a high authorities in London that they should not be allowed to regard for Australians and had entertained large numbers proceed and the problem was then referred to the of Australian servicemen during the war. He was quickly Australian Government in Melbourne for determination. persuaded to put up a large and generous amount of Britain's Royal Aero Club, charged with managing the money for the venture, drawing a cheque at once. race, returned their entry fee. Peter Dawson sent a telegram to them saying, "Carry on, good luck to both of Parer and McIntosh decided to buy an F.E.2b fitted you," and gave them a written guarantee of funds during with a 160 h.p. Beardmore engine, which was all their the flight. funds would allow, but when they went to Scotland to tell Peter Dawson their plans and to thank him properly, the The end of the year had passed and still there had Scotsman asked if they were thoroughly satisfied with the been no word from Melbourne. Disregarding the official machine. Hesitatingly, they told him of another, their ban on their flight, Parer set off from Waddon for preferred option, a de Havilland D.H.9 light bomber Hounslow airfield, the only one in the area from which they biplane,^ fitted with a low-compression six-cylinder 230 could receive Customs clearance, but darkness forced him to land along the way. The next day, three fences were removed to provide the necessary strip to take off This particular aircraft was built by Waring and Gillow Ltd, of but the length was insufficient. McIntosh got out and Hammersmith, London, as one of a number of sub-contractors to the Aircraft Manufacturing Company Ltd, of Hendon, London. It had a and a height of 11 feet 2 inches (3.4 m). Empty weight was 2,230 lb span of 42 feet 4-5/8 inches (12.9 m), length of 30 feet 6 inches (9.3 m). (1,012 kg), while all up weight in military use was 3,325 lb (1,508 kg).

45 AHSA Aviation Heritage continued the trip by train. Parer was now able to take off The aircraft's oil tank was empty, although it had been in the lightened aircraft and returned to Waddon. To cover filled at St. Raphael, and the next morning Parer and the embarrassment of his navigational difficulties, he told McIntosh located some cans of oil in the township, four the authorities that he had been making trial flights. He miles from the airfield. During a test-run, the engine succeeded in reaching Hounslow the next day, making appeared to misfire and there was an occasional drip of sure he did not receive a couple of official telegrams sent petrol from the front carburettor, but Parer took off anyway, to stop him. He did, however, receive a letter from Peter anxious to escape from Sarzana's appalling food and Dawson wishing them luck and instructing them to cable hoping that any blockage in the carburettor would clear him if they struck trouble. Peter Dawson's Glasgow itself. At 3,000 feet after ten minutes in the air, petrol manager, Mr Campbell, came to London to see them off, suddenly gushed from the engine. Parer closed the and John D. Siddeley, the maker of the engine, was also throttle immediately but a sheet of flame swept down the present when they left. So too were Parer’s brother Tony aircraft, reaching his elbows. Immediately he sideslipped and his Uncle John, who happened to be in England at the the D.H.9, to try to blow the flames away from the aircraft, time. Siddeley sent them a supply of engine spares, lent but Parer could feel the heat coming through on his legs. them an expert mechanic to tune the engine and also He increased the sideslip until he was dropping vertically guaranteed up to £100 in petrol expenses. at 90 degrees and fortunately by the time he was down to an altitude of 1,000 feet, the supply of fuel to the fire had The last of the seven entries to start, Parer and stopped and the flames had gone out. Below them was McIntosh took off in their heavily-loaded D.H.9 on 8th the abandoned airfield of Forte di Marmi, where they January 1920 at 10.24 a.m., headed for France. Although landed safely. the weather report was not favourable, they were determined to start that day at any cost. Almost Although the aircraft's plywood covering had been immediately they were battling a 40 m.p.h gale, with low severely burned, there was no structural damage to the clouds, and these conditions persisted for two hours. After fuselage. The trouble had been caused by a jammed crossing the English Channel, they found thick clouds carburettor needle valve which was quickly fixed. They left building up ahead of them. Forced to descend to 600 feet, immediately for Rome, bypassing Pisa, and landed on they were soon flying in rain and more lowering cloud and 24th January at the capital's Centorelle Aerodrome. Parer decided to land In the first field he saw. In a Parer had left England with £27 and McIntosh with momentary patch of clearness from the obscurity of the £18, they carried no baggage on the flight and now, in clouds, Parer spotted a patch of green and immediately Rome, their finances were nearly exhausted. They cabled shut off the engine and descended. They landed in the Peter Dawson in Scotland for funds and several days later fierce wind and rain at the small village of Conteville, but the money was transferred to a bank for them. hit a rut and buckled the aircraft's right wheel in the Departing on 2nd February for Naples, Parer's route landing. took them close by Mount Vesuvius. McIntosh occupied The next day Parer made his way to Paris, first by himself photographing the volcano, sending up its plumes horse and cart and then by train, and then went to Le of sulphurous gases, and Parer suddenly realised he was Bourget airfield, where he persuaded the manager of the almost over the crater. Seconds later, the aircraft fell like Airco Trans-Channel Air Service to let him have a a stone 500 feet or more towards the crater, not just replacement wheel. The wheel was second-hand and dropping but accelerating downwards with such force that close to the size needed, and Parer finally got it back to Parer feared for the structure of the machine. The engine the village. In the meantime, McIntosh, with the help of cut out for a few seconds, and fortunately recovered, but it the local blacksmith, had repaired the damaged was touch and go as Parer struggled to regain control and undercarriage and the wheel was fitted. Bad weather pull the aircraft out of the smoke to clear the lip of the delayed their departure until 3rd January, when they volcano with only feet to spare. After landing at Naples, reached Le Bourget. both men needed to lie down beside their aircraft to The aircraft was refuelled on their arrival but they recover. The aircraft had dropped with such force that discovered water mixed in with the petrol and had to drain Parer had strained his back through the pressure of his the tanks and fill them afresh. However, the continuing safety belt and the skin had ripped from the palms of both bad weather kept the airmen in Paris until 17th January, hands as he tried to hold on. when they took off for Lyons after nearly a fortnight's Parer and McIntosh, still dressed in their uniforms and delay. After spending two days repairing the rear petrol with Colt revolvers in their holsters, visited the troop ship pump and cleaning more remnants of the water- Osterley which was in port in Naples at this time, on its contaminated fuel from the petrol tanks, they left Lyons, way to Australia with returning servicemen. Here they against the advice of the meteorological experts. In poor recognised Colonel Horace Brinsmead, who had held the visibility, Parer was uncertain of his position but eventually post of Staff Aviation Officer of the Australian Flying Corps sighted the railway line leading to Marseilles, and in England and was later to become Australia's first continued on to land at the French naval flying base at St. Controller of Civil Aviation. He encouraged them to press Raphael. The Commanding Officer extended every on, while another officer told them, unofficially, that the assistance and provided a mechanic to help with the authorities had decided to ignore their flight rather than repair of a cracked exhaust pipe. continue to withhold permission for it. On 22nd January, Parer and McIntosh took off again, On the morning of 3rd February, they left for Taranto intending to fly to Pisa. The D.H.9 had been losing oil even though the weather was bad, their track taking them throughout the trip and when they were over the sea, across the Apennine Mountains. Parer and McIntosh were Parer noticed that the oil pressure had dropped from 40 lb forced to climb in cloud to 14,000 feet to cross the snow­ p.s.i. to 5 lb p.s.i. After an anxious time they reached the capped range and for three hours they endured the Italian coast and then continued on another 100 miles to numbing cold and lack of oxygen at that altitude. Finally the next known aerodrome at Sarzana, nursing the engine McIntosh saw a break in the cloud and they descended in all the way. frequent rain storms to land at the aerodrome at St.

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Euphemia, close to the island of Stromboli and very much Cairo to Capetown flight and they were asked to move off course. their aircraft to the aerodrome at Helioun (or Helwan), a further 16 miles down the Nile, where things were not so Soaked, cold and hungry, they secured the D.H.9 with busy. After lunch they flew the D.H.9 down to Helioun, the assistance of a group of locals. Now a supply of petrol where the RAF mechanics found that the aircraft's was the problem, there being none at the nearest town of fuselage was warped, all bracing and wires very loose, the Nicastra, a walk of 14 miles away. So Parer travelled by tail loose and the fabric rotting. Indeed, they considered train back to Naples, the nearest supply, and quickly its condition so critical that they believed that the tail would became bogged down in the bureaucracy regarding have separated within another half hour of flight. Helpfully permission to transport the petrol. As the days slipped by, they began a badly-needed overhaul which left it in better Parer enlisted the aid of the British Consul and after two condition than when it had left England and was in no more days of prolonged negotiations, the Commissioner of small part responsible for the successful completion of the Railways issued a permit for the transport of 200 litres of flight. The head mechanic suggested that a larger radiator petrol, provided Parer sat with the drum all the way. The should be fitted in view of the tropical flying ahead, and drum was dumped five miles from the aeroplane and, Parer happily agreed. unable to obtain any transport, Parer and McIntosh had to roll the drum up hill and down dale, all the way to the Having obtained from the RAF maps of the route from aerodrome. Cairo to Karachi to replace those lost, they set off again on 26th February for Ramleh in Palestine. They could not They set off once more for Taranto on 7th February. It follow the route that Ross Smith had taken through Arabia was only a short distance and the weather was fine but as hostile Arabs had taken control of all the landing they could not find the aerodrome. After searching the grounds between Ramadi and Baghdad and seized all the area, Parer landed at the Italian dirigible station at Grottaglie, where they were made welcome by the petrol stores. Because of the wildness of the area they Commanding Officer. were flying into, they took a supply of five Mills bombs (hand-grenades) with them, just in case. Leaving Grottaglie on 12th February, Parer and McIntosh intended to fly to Athens, but a fuel pump seized The next stage, from Ramleh to Baghdad, was a and, switching to the other tank, they were forced to divert distance of 640 miles. The RAF had planned to send a hastily to Brindisi. While making for Brindisi, the door of a Handley Page aircraft with a supply of fuel to accompany storage compartment blew open and their maps were them well into the journey, when they would both land and swept away. Apparently the door had been left the D.H.9 refuel before continuing, but ultimately were unfastened by the mechanics at Rome, as food stored in unable to do so. The RAF at Baghdad promised to send a the compartment was found to have been stolen. The Handley Page aircraft to meet them if it was at all possible, next day they repaired the fuel pump and then flew on but this arrangement could not be counted on. anxiously over the 70-mile stretch of water of St. George's With favourable winds, Parer and McIntosh set off on Bay to Corfu and Athens. They reached Athens during the 27th February with the fuel tanks filled to the brims. The afternoon and stayed there for five days, being lavishly tailwind dropped away after about an hour's flying over entertained during the time. rough volcanic hills, rocky valleys and sand ridges, and The next stage to Suda Bay, Crete, was flown on 18th then the edge of the desert appeared. While they were February, with bad weather causing Parer to divert nearly crossing the lifeless 500-mile expanse of desert, after 100 miles, navigating without the aid of maps which he three hours of rough running the engine backfired and had not been able to replace. Mindful of the reputation of flames appeared. Not wishing to catch fire again as they the ground for being very boggy, Parer circled the field a had in Italy, Parer made a successful forced landing in the number of times before coming in to land. The D.H.9 was desert and repairs to the carburettor were quickly made. welcomed by the only person at Suda Bay: Lieutenant An hour later they were back in the air but the wind had Garnsey Potts, the engineer from the Blackburn Kangaroo now turned dead against them. As the hours passed, they G-EAOW, which had crashed there on 8th December were unable to ascertain their whereabouts, the ground when an engine seized after an oil pipe burst. Potts had was too rough to land, and the light was fading. When the been left there by the rest of the crew to watch over the sun had set, Parer skilfully landed the aircraft on the remains of the Blackburn aircraft and was tired of his shores of a lake. lonely vigil. Parer was especially interested to see the There was no sign of habitation and a cold desert wind Kangaroo, as at one time he had applied to pilot this sprang up. They built a fire with some undergrowth but machine on the flight. this was soon exhausted and eventually they climbed into Parer was anxious to complete the next stage, the 220 the cockpit of the D.H.9 to shelter from the intense cold. mile crossing of the Mediterranean, which had never Here they both fell asleep. before been flown by a single-engined aircraft. In spite of When Parer woke in the morning, he found a lone a faulty exhaust valve spring which caused the engine to Arab standing by the wing. By drawing maps in the sand, misfire intermittently In one cylinder, Parer and McIntosh with great difficulty he was able to learn from the Arab left Crete on 20th February, headed for Egypt. During the approximately where they were in relation to Baghdad. crossing, the engine began misfiring badly and the D.H.9 Soon more fierce-looking Arabs had arrived and were gradually lost height until it was down to an altitude of 500 crowding around, to the mounting concern of Parer and feet. With not a ship in sight, they were contemplating a McIntosh. When a couple of them began to fiddle about long swim when fortunately the engine began to run more near the aircraft, the burly Scot threw one of their thermos smoothly and they were able to regain height. When they flasks a distance away and shot a hole in it with his reached the coast, Parer made for the nearby British revolver: Parer followed suit. The locals were impressed outpost of Mersa Matruh and landed on the beach. but not scared away and, indeed, the noise only brought After temporary repairs, the next day they flew on to more onlookers from the surrounding desert. Cairo and landed at Heliopolis. Here the aerodrome was When an Arab tried to take McIntosh's revolver, he occupied by a number of aircraft being overhauled for the then took two hand grenades from the aircraft and he and

47 AHSA Aviation Heritage

Parer walked to a nearby sand dune, with the curious magnetos, and checking the tightness of bolts and bracing Arabs following. McIntosh pulled the pin and threw the wires. At Karachi, the RAF personnel attended to this grenade some distance, he and Parer dropping to the servicing for them but it was later found that they had ground. The Arabs received the full blast and were thrown wrongly cleaned the distributors with emery paper. The off their feet, a number sustaining minor concussion. The following day, Matthews left first, as Parer was delayed mood of the Arabs was now such that McIntosh swung the with a leaking fuel pipe. When the D.H.9 finally took off propeller and started the engine as quickly as possible, they encountered severe turbulence all the way and when, Parer then taking off without further delay. after seven hours' flying, they landed to a reception by thousands of natives at the RAF base at Nasirabad to The amount of fuel they had remaining was unknown refuel, they decided to rest there overnight. The next and they flew apprehensively for the next half hour before morning, 9th March, they flew to Delhi where they found sighting the Euphrates River and Baghdad. The RAF Matthews, who took the opportunity to completely overhaul there had not received any news of their departure from his aircraft with some assistance from the RAF there. The Ramleh and had made no plans to send an aircraft to Wallaby's propeller was badly warped but Matthews was meet them. They landed after eight hours and ten unable to obtain a replacement. minutes' flying time across the desert, having encountered favourable winds, but with the petrol gauge reading empty. The Delhi base was the headquarters for the RAF in At Baghdad, Parer and McIntosh fitted a new propeller to the D.H.9 and shipped the old propeller (which had been badly eroded by the effects of flying through rain and hail, as well as the blast of sand and dirt when taking off), together with a quantity of spares they acquired, to Karachi. On 2nd March they flew to Basra, on the banks of the Shatt-el- Arab River, and two days later left for Bushire on the Persian Gulf. They left on 5th March for Bandar Abbas, their route taking them across a region noted for its bad sand-storms. Sure enough, Parer noticed one of these storms approaching from the sea like a wall of cloud and they were soon At Delhi. In the foreground is the Sopwith Wallaby. The figure in uniform is Capt. Matthews. enveloped by the swirling red sand. They climbed to 8,500 feet but the India and did not welcome visiting fliers. The frosty sand still filled their noses, mouths and ears and posed a attitude of some officers was readily apparent and Parer considerable danger to the continued functioning of the and McIntosh left again the next morning. Approaching engine. They flew out to sea, as it was too dangerous Allahabad, the D.H.9's engine developed oil trouble and inland, continually descending until 30 minutes later, at an began to vibrate badly. This and the irregular surface of altitude of 1,000 feet, they suddenly passed out of the the airfield contributed to a poor landing but there was no storm again. Heading back to land, they located Bandar damage to the aircraft. Abbas and were met there by the British Consul. After refuelling before daybreak, they left on 12th After leaving Bandar Abbas the next morning, they March for Calcutta. Parer and McIntosh were both dead encountered three more sand-storms as they flew tired and the engine was running very badly, leaving Parer eastwards, but were able to avoid the worst parts by flying in a state of constant nervous expectation of its failure. out to sea. As they passed Chah Bahar (or Chahbar), The strain was beginning to tell on the two airmen and they noticed a large, stone fortress and Parer decided to Parer was not feeling properly fit to fly. Soon they ran into land nearby. They were welcomed by thousands of a storm and visibility deteriorated. The turbulence was so natives and a British officer who gave them news of bad they found it was impossible to fly through it, so they another race competitor. Captain George C. Matthews, turned around to escape the thunderstorm before turning whom Parer knew. Flying the Sopwith Wallaby G-EAKS, back on their course. Unable to land, they kept flying, Matthews and his engineer. Sergeant Thomas D. Kay, had skirting the worst storm cells. Nevertheless, the storm crashed at Jask when a bent axle caused the machine to was the worst weather they had experienced so far on the tip up on its lower left wing on landing. However, they had flight. The engine was getting worse, the compass was managed to repair the Wallaby and were now in Karachi, revolving aimlessly, and blinding, jagged lightning filled the where they heard of the expected arrival of Parer and blackness of the sky. When they finally cleared the storm, McIntosh in a day or so. They decided to wait for them they were lucky to spot a landmark which enabled them to and, if possible, fly home to Australia together. fix their position, about two hours' flying time from Parer and McIntosh left Chah Bahar on 7th March and Calcutta. when they arrived over Karachi, they could see Matthews' The Calcutta airfield was very small and surrounded by aircraft on the aerodrome. Matthews and Kay were trees. Parer made two missed approaches before finally among the large crowd to welcome them and the airmen landing on the third attempt. After the D.H.9 had been tied planned to fly together to Delhi the next day. At each stop, down, Parer removed the engine cowling to find out what Parer and McIntosh carried out routine maintenance on was wrong before he left it for the night. He discovered the aircraft, involving cleaning the petrol and oil filters, that the engine bearer bolts were loose, as were the cleaning the spark plugs and the contact points of the

48 AHSA Aviation Heritage

cylinder bolts. Consequently the two sets of three There was no chance of taking off from the island but cylinders were vibrating independently of each other. over on the bank of the river was quite a long stretch At Calcutta they were met by officials of the Handley which would suffice if the bamboo and vegetation covering Page Aviation Company (a branch of the English aircraft it were removed. Using sign language, Parer and manufacturing company) who arranged accommodation McIntosh managed to convey to the Burmese that they for them and undertook the overhaul of their aircraft. With wanted the aircraft moved across the river to the bank. a total of only six shillings in finances remaining between The villagers brought large bamboo mats to place under them, Parer and McIntosh needed to find a way of quickly the wheels which had sunk to the axles in the sand and raising money to pay their commitments. They met a then helped drag the D.H.9 through the shoulder-high Major Cairncross, ex-Indian Army, who suggested writing water to dry land, After more sign-language a book on their journey so far, and arranged for them to communication, about a hundred Burmese set to with drop leaflets and perform other stunts over Calcutta (from machetes to cut away the dense vegetation of the jungle which he was to receive a third of ail profits). Parer had to clear a runway on the bank of the Irrawaddy. This was some misgivings about the deal but was hardly in a accomplished in an hour and the airmen took off, barely position to refuse. The D.H.9 was repainted with the getting Into the air from the strip which proved to be too words "SHELL" in large red letters underneath the wings, short due to the air density effects of the high temperature, "FIRESTONE TYRES" underneath the fuselage, and a little after noon on 2nd April. Two hours later they "MILTON" on the base of the fuselage. A display of mild landed at Rangoon. stunting at a race meeting (as Parer feared the aircraft Major Cairncross arrived by steamer from Calcutta, was not in good enough condition to stand the stresses of intent on raising money for an aviation company in anything more exuberant) earned them £400, which the Rangoon. One night Cairncross came to them with a Handley Page people determined to relieve them of with proposition from a Chinese millionaire offering them expensive charges for the repair work they carried out. dowries of 30,000 rupees each if they would marry two of Consequently, Parer decided to do all the repairs himself, his daughters. Such marriages to British officers would even if it took a little longer, but there were no facilities to have secured the millionaire's acceptance in the elite of thoroughly overhaul the engine and parts of the right size Rangoon society, something his money alone could not were unavailable. Their leaflet drops caused great obtain. Side-stepping this tempting offer, they were off disruption to Calcutta but, together with the advertising again a few days later, on 4th April, for Victoria Point at a painted on the aircraft, earned the fliers £2,000, some of time they should have delayed in Rangoon because of the which Parer and McIntosh eventually received. imminent approach of monsoons. In addition, they were Captain Matthews had arrived in Calcutta four days so tired, and Cairncross had taken up so much of their after Parer and McIntosh, and stayed at the same hotel as time, that they had not been able to overhaul the engine they did. Arrangements had been made for the D.H.9 to properly. take off on 24th March on the same morning as Captain The sector from Rangoon to Victoria Point involved Matthews' Sopwith Wallaby and two Italian S.V.A. aircraft, crossing the 100 mile stretch of the Gulf of Martaban, and flown by Lieutenants Maziero and Ferrarin, taking part in a part way across the engine began running badly. race from Rome to Tokyo. However Major Cairncross had Expecting it to improve, Parer continued but half way a lucrative order for another leaflet drop the next day and, across it began misfiring and vibrating badly, and suddenly as they were all set to start, suggested that Parer should a hole appeared in the exhaust pipe and flames spurted return a short time later with "engine trouble". Sure down the right side of the cockpit. Parer noticed that a set enough, soon after the four aircraft had taken off, the of three cylinders appeared to be loose in the crankcase. D.H.9 returned with a bad oil leak that caused the engine Then the gravity fuel tank began to overflow, spilling petrol to run badly. Nevertheless, Parer's finances were now in down the left side of the fuselage while the flames and hot much better shape, especially as Peter Dawson had also arranged a letter of credit for another £1,000. On 1 st April exhaust gases were crackling past on the right, and soon they finally left for Akyab in Burma. the engine stopped. At the time, they were flying in thick cloud at 3,000 feet and as they lost altitude McIntosh The trip to Akyab was uneventful and they left the next began blowing up spare tyre tubes to use as life morning for Sandoway, passing over mangrove swamps preservers and coolly got out the brandy and biscuits. As all the way, en route for Rangoon. After reaching they broke through the clouds, all they could see below Sandoway, Parer crossed the Arakan Yoma mountain was water, but again fortune smiled on them and the range at 7,000 feet, flying due east until he was over the engine burst back into life, still running erratically but upper reaches of the Irrawaddy River. Here their giving enough power to keep them flying. carburettor once again gave trouble, choking the fuel supply and forcing them to descend until, at 4,000 feet, Slowly, and gradually losing height, the aircraft made the engine stopped altogether. its way to the coast and the nearby town of Moulmein, where Parer knew there was a race-course on which they The only place suitable to put down was on a small, could land. However, as they were preparing to land, sandy island, about 200 metres long, in the middle of the hundreds of Burmese swarmed on to the course, leaving Irrawaddy River. Skilfully putting the D.H.9 down in the only a tiny space free. At this moment the engine cut out shallow water at the edge of the island, Parer was able to again and Parer elected to crash-land in the small area bring off the forced landing without any damage as the soft remaining, risking his and McIntosh's lives and sacrificing sand quickly slowed the aircraft. The airmen immediately the aircraft to avoid running down and possibly killing the began work on the carburettor but as they did so, natives. Parer and McIntosh were dazed from the crash hundreds of unfriendly-looking Burmese began arriving on but otherwise unhurt; the aircraft's propeller was broken, the banks of the river. As the numbers swelled to the radiator crushed, fuel tanks damaged, undercarriage thousands, many of the Burmese swam across to the torn off, and the fuselage sustained minor damage. island and the jostling crowd soon posed a danger to the It took six weeks to make good the damage aircraft. By firing his Verey pistol, McIntosh was able to Mr frighten the villagers away and restore control. Mitchell, a mechanic and the chief of the local fire brigade

49 AHSA Aviation Heritage

they left Amherst, the first heavy rains of the monsoons broke and they dodged numerous rain sho\A/ers all the way. After five hours' flying they landed at Victoria Point, at the southernmost point of Burma. Their petrol supplies were waiting for them there but no oil had arrived. This caused them some disquiet as the engine was using a lot of oil and the level remaining in the tank was low. 9 Six days later, Parer and McIntosh left Victoria Point t T * ^ amidst a carnival atmosphere, with thousands of Burmese villagers there to farewell them. Heading for Penang, they were 100 miles out when the oil pressure gauge dropped to zero, The crash at Moulmein Parer had no option but to fly on placed his facilities at their disposal and undertook to until the engine stopped. The engine ran for a nail-biting rebuild the undercarriage with the aid of his Chinese hour and ten minutes without oil pressure and then workmen. The radiator was designed to be manually Penang came into sight, with the engine groaning and lowered below the fuselage for cooling in hot climates and vibrating in its dry bearings Over the suburb of McIntosh took it back to Rangoon to see if it could be Georgetown, the motor seized and they made a forced rebuilt, but it was a write-off. Major Cairncross arranged landing on a polo field where a game was in progress, for two Italian mechanics to be sent from Calcutta to work scattering the players. on the aircraft and their help was of great benefit. The propeller could not be replaced locally but the Italians A wealthy Australian businessman in Singapore, believed that their commanding officer had a spare at the Charles Wearne, had a branch of his motor business at aircraft depot in Lahore and Parer asked for it to be Penang and he wired his staff to do all they could to assist shipped to them. While the Italians continued work, Parer Parer, free of charge. This gave the airmen fresh heart went to Rangoon lo see what could be done about the and vvith a block and tackle they removed the engine from radiator. He decided that two Overland 45 automobile the aircraft and began repairing the damage to the radiators bolted together would suffice. Mindful of the bearings. The engine was re-installed and running within now-overdue monsoons, which could strand them there five days of their arrival and, as the polo field was too for another three months if they broke, Parer and McIntosh small for a take-off, the aircraft was towed through the continued with the repairs, noting that the tropical heat and streets to the racecourse which had a straight 600 metres humidity was already starting to rot the aircraft's top fabric. long. Then a punctured float in the carburettor was During this time, the only other competitor left in the race. discovered and this delayed them another two days. Captain George Matthews, had crashed on 17th April Parer persuaded the racing officials to remove two trees at while making for Grokgak on Bali. He had no prospect of the end of their take-off path, but even so they barely repairing his Sopwith Wallaby there and later shipped the cleared the fence in getting airborne on 15th June. Ten wreckage to Australia. miles out, the exhaust pipe vibrated loose and they returned to Penang, this time landing at the Prai Estate Back in Moulmein, the propeller for the D.H.9 finally rubber plantation on the mainland, breaking the tailskid in arrived from the Italian Government depot and Parer doing so. discovered it was much heavier than he had expected. A Caproni propeller intended for a big 300 h.p. Fiat engine, it After hurried repairs, they were off again, passing over Kuala Lumpur en route to Singapore, where they landed was calculated that the 200 h.p. Siddeley Puma would nevertheless develop sufficient power to drive it. Parer on the racecourse on 17th June. In Singapore they met gave the engine a top overhaul and discovered that the Charles Wearne, who had the agency for Ford and other cause of the trouble coming across the Gulf of Martaban motor cars and made available to them one of his auto was that the small split pins he had been forced to use in workshops to carry out any necessary repairs to the D.H.9. the cylinder bolts at Calcutta had sheared through. The As well as being given a general overhaul, the aircraft was bolts had worked loose and the cylinders were bobbing up completely repainted, courtesy of Wearne. Parer wanted and down on the crankcase. to obtain a more suitable propeller to replace the Italian substitute which threatened to shake the D.H.9 to pieces With some misgivings as to the effectiveness of the and Charles Wearne cabled his Dutch agent at Batavia to new propeller, Parer decided it would be too risky to find a new propeller and radiator if he could After a attempt a take-off fully loaded from the small racecourse. considerable wait, the parts arrived and the propeller was Consequently, McIntosh went with the fuel supply to a fitted, but the radiator was found to be unsuitable so they beach at Amherst, 60 miles away, and on 20th May Parer decided to continue with the makeshift arrangement of the took off from a main street, as lightly loaded as possible, two automobile radiators. Parer negotiated with the British then landed on the beach to complete the fuelling and Imperial Oil Company in Singapore, whose trademark collect McIntosh. The propeller was not a good match for "Shell" had been painted on the D.H.9's wings all the way the aircraft and vibrated a good deal due to its imperfect from Calcutta, to provide them with a free supply of petrol alignment, and they were unable to climb higher than through to Darwin. 1,000 feet until they burned more of the fuel load. The day

50 AHSA Aviation Heritage

The Australian Defence Department sent word that all the fuel supplies between Darwin and Melbourne which had been positioned for air race competitors had now been sold. In addition, the Department could now not provide warships on station between Timor and Darwin as a sea watch. Nevertheless, on 20th July, Parer took off. However, as they got into the air, heavy clouds started rolling in from the sea and the weather rapidly deteriorated, with the aircraft unable to make any headway against the strong winds and rain. At full throttle, Parer managed to fly north over Malacca but the winds were still Overhaul at Penang. too strong and he had to fight petrol and oil supplies had arrived. He explained that the his way back to Singapore after almost three hours in the aerodrome had been hacked out of the jungle and had air. The fabric on the top wing had been torn for about a now been improved by the incorporation of a number of metre in the turbulence they had encountered. suggestions made by Ross Smith when he landed there in They left again the next day for Muntok, on the western his Vimy on 10th December 1919. side of the island of Banka in the Dutch East Indies. They The next day they investigated the construction of an were warmly received at Muntok and the next day flew on emergency raft to be carried for the 500 mile crossing of to Kalidjati, the Dutch military aerodrome for Batavia. The the Timor Sea which lay ahead They bound a following day they left for Sourabaya, but then over streamlined fuel tank to two long bamboo poles, fitted two Samarang the engine began misfiring, due to a faulty automobile tyre tubes for more flotation, and tied wire magneto. Gradually losing height, Parer searched for a netting along the bottom as protection from sharks. The suitable spot to land and decided on a shallow stretch of a raft was tied to the D.H.9's wing with a connection made river over which they were passing. Parer made a text­ from the streamline tank to the main fuel tank. All the book forced landing under difficult conditions, with no tanks were filled but the raft tank was to be used first, and damage to the aircraft. The magneto was repaired in an if the aircraft did come down in the sea, the raft could hour but it was then too late in the day to continue and the quickly be cut free with a small axe. Observers airmen spent the night with a Dutch sugar refinery considered their construction to be totally ineffective but its manager, who waded across the river to meet them, and presence may have afforded some comfort to the airmen. his wife. After carefully attending to the aircraft, Parer and The next morning the local Javanese, who were seeing McIntosh were ready to take off on 2nd August when the an aeroplane for the first time, brought bamboo mats engine again gave trouble and stopped dead as they which were pegged down in a line to provide a firm began the takeoff run. Parer removed a piece of perished runway, and they took off safely for Sourabaya. The rubber blocking a petrol pipe and started up again. This surface of the Grisseek aerodrome at Sourabaya was explained the cause of their engine problems over the past treacherous and they had been warned by Captain few days and greatly relieved their anxiety. Had the Matthews to watch it closely. Parer made a safe landing blockage occurred when they were over the sea, they on 24th July but as he was bringing the aircraft to a halt, would have been lost. The heavily laden D.H.9 only just he saw a deep ditch in front of them which it was not rose between the trees at the end of the strip after running possible to avoid. The D.H.9 sank into it with a crash of its full length and would not climb above 1,000 feet. They splintering of timber, with the undercarriage crushed and could not rise high enough to cross the mountain range the propeller broken. running along Timor but after fifteen minutes found a Fortunately the commander of the Netherlands military valley which enabled them to reach the other side of the aviation unit in Sourabaya was an officer Parer had met in island. Course-setting out over the Timor Sea was a England, and he gave them all the assistance he could. rough matter, as their compass had a dial only three He ordered a new undercarriage and propeller from South inches across and was not marked in degrees but merely Batavia and made available two mechanics to help Parer the major points. Parer crossed the coast and set out over with the repairs. Six days later the D.H.9 was airworthy the sea at 800 feet; the D.H.9 would not rise above 1,000 again and on 28th July they left for Bima, where they were feet for the entire crossing, until they sighted Bathurst welcomed by the local Sultan and thousands of villagers. Island, at which time they were able to climb to 5,000 feet. Through the night, Parer suffered a severe attack of They had calculated that it would take five hours' flying malaria, and both airmen were run down, having had little before they saw the first land and they had a fuel sleep and very poor meals for some time. They left the endurance of a little under seven, but after flying for more next day for Atamboea In Timor, and located the than six and a half hours over water Parer became worried aerodrome there after searching for half an hour with their that he had not sighted land. Nevertheless, the steady petrol running low. They were met by the Dutch officer beat of the engine was a great reassurance to the airmen commanding that part of Timor, who told them that no and Parer held to his course. As more time passed, they word of their coming had been received, although their began to make ready their raft, as they expected the fuel

51 AHSA Aviation Heritage to run out at any time. At last they sighted a faint smudge own protection. on the horizon, the welcome trace of the coastline of That night was one of great celebration in Darwin. The Bathurst Island. They had now been flying for more than Administrator of the Northern Territory invited everyone to seven and a half hours and expected their fuel supply the welcome at Government House and Parer and would fail at any moment, but they flew on for another McIntosh met and shook hands with almost the entire forty-five minutes before reaching Darwin as dusk fell. population of Darwin there. It had been rumoured that They came over the Darwin Harbour Gap and picked out Parer would take paying passengers up for joyflights but it the landmarks of the jail and the old meatworks. Parer was considered that the D.H.9 was badly strained after the had made some total miscalculations with his airspeed long trip and the risk was too great. Parer was still and fuel consumption. He had throttled back to save fuel suffering the effects of his bout of malaria and the general and this had vastly reduced the fuel flow, although he had strain of the flight, and took the opportunity for a week's encountered adverse winds since leaving Timor. rest, lying on the beach in the sun each day. Hundreds of people had lined the Darwin landing The route across northern Australia from Darwin to ground all day waiting for the arrival of the aircraft. The Cloncurry had been surveyed by two former Australian bookmakers were out in force and most of the crowd were Flying Corps pilots, Hudson Fysh and Paul McGinness, betting that the aviators would drown in the Timor Sea; who went on to form Q.A.N.T.A.S. Ltd. In collaboration only a few laid bets that they would make it. By 6 o'clock, with the Lands Department, they had prepared a special thinking that Parer was not coming, the people had gone map to guide competitors in the air race across the long home. A short time later the D.H.9 circled over the town, featureless stretches of the country. The vast open plains which was blanketed with the smoke from bushfires, and were broken here and there by patches of timber which all sorts of vehicles headed back for the landing ground in contrasted strongly with the prevailing colours of the land, a great rush. With the last of his petrol, Parer descended so they coloured these areas on their map. Ross Smith through the smoke and triumphantly brought the decrepit had made use of this map earlier and now Parer and D.H.9 in for a perfect landing at 6.25 p.m. after a trip McIntosh also used a copy. lasting 206 days. The landing ground alongside the Fanny Bay jail had had a beautiful level surface three months After an early start, they flew from Darwin to Katherine, earlier when Ross and Keith Smith arrived, but now it was following the railway line. After refuelling, they were off covered in suckers and eight foot high spear grass. At the again at noon, following the telegraph line that ran south to end of the D.H.9's landing run, Ray Parer turned to taxi Adelaide. After seven hours' flying, they passed over Daly towards the crowd and then the engine stopped. His Waters and then flew on to Newcastle Waters, and brother, Vincent, who later became a doctor, had travelled Powell's Creek, where they turned east. Continuing their up to Darwin to meet him and he dashed over to the flight over the desolate Northern Territory, they flew to aircraft. After exchanging greetings, Vin asked him if he Anthony's Lagoon, where they found one of their tyres was was going to taxi the aircraft up to the reception punctured, probably from the poor landing ground at committee. "No," Ray replied, "I'm out of fuel." The Katherine. Having obtained only one drum of petrol, and aviators had been in the air for nearly eight and three- been unable to repair the puncture, they took off the next quarters of an hour and had made it with only a minute's morning for Brunette Downs, sixty-four miles away, where fuel to spare. They were thoroughly worn out. In a they would be able to obtain as much petrol as they famous example of public disorder, though, the winning needed. punters were rushed into the jail and locked up for their Arriving at Brunette Downs at about 7.30 a.m. just as the station staff were finishing breakfast, they flew very low over the homestead looking for a landing spot. Mechanic Ted Ansell jumped in a Ford "Tin Lizzie" and raced up and down a suitable area free of gibbers. On landing, Parer tried to keep the punctured wheel off the ground for as long as possible, but when the aircraft slowed and the wheel touched, the D.H.9 slewed round into a small tree, breaking the leading edge of the lower starboard wing. When the aircraft came to rest, the airmen jumped out. After introductions all round and a hearty welcome, they inspected the damaged wing. The station manager, Mr Russell, offered them every assistance and brought them refreshments while Ted Ansell set to work on repairs. Ansell had previously done some brazing work on the exhaust manifold of Ross and Keith Smith's Vickers Vimy when it had landed at Brunette Downs some months earlier. With Parer on hand all the time, advising and assisting, Ansell organised a number of aboriginal station hands to lift the tail and move the aircraft some 300 metres to the workshop, where he set about stripping the damaged wing and cutting out the broken parts. Fortunately there was some very good case timber stacked away, and after 15 hours' solid work, a quite respectable repair was affected. Parer and McIntosh then applied new linen they were carrying to the area and Ray Parer (left) and John McIntosh at Darwin following their arrival from England in the DH9 "P.D." doped it with a supply of dope they also had. To complete the job, Ansell nailed a long, thin strip of hoop iron along

52 AHSA Aviation Heritage the leading edge to protect the repair. The aircraft was had come out to escort them but the escorts failed to see then serviced and refuelled. the D.H.9. When they reached Mascot, where they touched down at 3.27 p.m., they were mobbed by a The station staff had orders from the management in cheering crowd, estimated at from 15,000 to 20,000 Brisbane to supply Parer with eight 8-gallon drums of people, which threatened to wreck the decrepit D.H.9. Plume White Label petrol, which the aboriginal boys The police were pushed aside and overwhelmed by the poured into the aircraft's tanks and judged enough for the human tide. The first to greet Parer was his brother, flight to Cloncurry. However, when the engine was Vincent, but then the crowd engulfed them and in the warmed up and tested, it would give only 1,250 r.p.m. at melee they lost buttons, badges, and in Parer's case the full throttle instead of the expected 1,500 r.p.m. Parer said tail of his uniform coat, to souvenir hunters. Parer's father he would not be able to get airborne without maximum and many of his relations, Ross and Keith Smith, and revs, and he shut down while the boys drained all the fuel Captain Nigel Love, were waiting with the Mayor of Mascot out back Into the drums. Ansell then sent the boys to the to meet them and then the aviators were to be carried off petrol dump to bring back eight drums of Pratt's Yellow to a reception at Sydney Town Hall. The Governor, Sir Label, the best petrol available in those days and normally William Davidson, entertained them at Government used in the station cars and trucks, with the Plume petrol House. The Australian Aero Club gave a banquet for being used in pumping engines. This time the Puma them at the Hotel Australia. After all the tribulations of the engine went up to maximum revs without hesitation and flight, the press dubbed Ray, "Battling Parer". Ray Parer was jubilant. However, as the south-easterly tradewinds were blowing every day, Ansell persuaded Next they were to fly on to Melbourne by way of Parer to take another drum of petrol because of the Bathurst, where Parer planned to visit his old school, St. expected headwinds to Cloncurry Stanislaus. Captain E. J. Jones, MC, DFC, the superintendent of civilian flying operations with the When all preliminaries had been completed and Defence Department, had flown up from South Australia farewells said, they set off on the long flight over via Melbourne in a D.H.9A aircraft powered by a 400 h.p. uninhabited country and the desolate D'Agoilar Ranges, Liberty engine with mails for the Prince of Wales, who was where they would have perished if they had been forced visiting at the time aboard HMS Renown, and he received down. They flew to Avondowns Station, and from there to permission to escort Parer and McIntosh to Melbourne. Cloncurry, where they ran out of petrol about half a mile When they left Sydney, they noticed another aircraft from the town's racecourse and managed to glide to a following, carrying a movie photographer who was to film successful landing. An enthusiastic crowd met them. The them over Bathurst. But over Richmond, the D.H.9's following morning, they left for Longreach, where Parer's magneto failed and Parer landed at the aerodrome there. mother and two of his brothers were awaiting his arrival. Seeing their plight. Captain Jones and the pilot of the They had not seen him since his departure for England in other aircraft also landed, and Jones gave them a spare 1916. After three days at Longreach, Parer and McIntosh magneto that he was carrying. They got away again but left for Rockhampton. On the way there, the engine this time Captain Jones' engine was running badly and he stopped suddenly and Parer made a forced landing in a did not follow. Worn-out, its bracing wires loose, the dry lagoon bed. Then they discovered that the stoppage strands of the control wires frayed and in need of was a result of McIntosh's having accidentally knocked the replacement, its fabric rotten after seven months' exposure ignition switches off. Continuing on, they arrived at to the elements and with paint peeling in large flakes, the Rockhampton, where they were given a civic reception. D.H.9 barely made it over the Blue Mountains as the On the way to Brisbane, part of the fabric covering the top movie photographer began filming them, and when he wing collapsed, rotted by the heat and moisture of the landed, Parer almost ran off the end of the small ground tropics through which they had passed and further that the townspeople of Bathurst had selected for them. A damaged by people writing their names on it with sharp reception at the Town Hall followed, and then came dinner pencils. The Mayor and representatives of the at the school. Government welcomed them at Brisbane and another civic reception followed. The Queensland State Parliament Captain Jones had rectified his aircraft's problem and made them a grant of £100 in recognition of their flight. passed over Bathurst the next morning, but continued on They patched and varnished the torn fabric but the whole to Cootamundra as the ground was too small for him to top wing was badly deteriorated and the plywood covering land. When Parer and McIntosh took off once more, the the fuselage was also in a poor state. engine was running very badly and the aircraft was in In high spirits, they set off the following morning for danger of falling to pieces in the air, with the starboard Sydney. About two hours out, the repairs they had made lower wing beginning to work loose. They reached to the fabric collapsed and they made a landing on a Cootamundra but could not see Captain Jones so decided beach, where the tear was again patched and varnished to carry on to Albury. Nearing Albury, the engine again with the materials they were carrying. Because of strong failed and Parer made a forced landing at dusk in a headwinds, their petrol supply was almost exhausted and cultivated paddock at Culcairn. Unfortunately the ground Parer decided to land on a beach at Newcastle's Walsh was a veritable bog following torrential rain a week earlier Island to refuel. A small crowd helped drag the aircraft and the wheels dug into a soft patch of mud and the D,H.9 away from the rising tide and the next morning, 22nd nosed over onto its back, badly damaging the machine's August, they were on their way again. After passing over wings, tail and propeller. Parer's seat belt had not been the Hawkesbury River, they spotted three aircraft ^ which fastened and he fell out of the cockpit head-first, but McIntosh was hanging upside-down in his harness as 2 Ray Parer met Ted Ansell again several years later in Sydney's St. petrol poured out of the tanks. Frantically Parer Vincent's Hospital, where Ray had come from New Guinea to recover unfastened McIntosh's seat belt and they beat a hasty from a severe bout of malaria. Almost his first words to Ansell were retreat, expecting to be engulfed in flames at any moment. thanks for making him take the extra drum of petrol at Brunette Downs. Parer and McIntosh travelled by motor car from " A D.H.9A piloted by Captain E. J. .lones; an Avro 504 piloted by Nigel Culcairn to Albury railway junction, where the Defence Love; and a Curtiss JN-4D piloted by Lieutenant Le Grice. Department provided a de Havilland D.H.9A aircraft from

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Point Cook which they flew back to Culcairn so that the successful flight. Nevertheless, they \«ere conscious of trip should not be broken. Parer and McIntosh flew their many minor pricks and disiilusionments since their arrival borrowed aircraft to Point Cook, where they were met by back in Australia and payment was demanded for many the officers of the Central Flying School, intending to fly to trivial services which had been provided gratis in other Flemington the next morning for the official landing. The countries. During their flight they had been treated battered "P.D." was taken to Melbourne's Flemington generously by the peoples of other lands, who, for Racecourse by rail, re-assembled there and exhibited on example, gladly provided a guard for the D,H.9; at Darwin, the course. One mechanic later commented to Parer that for the first time, they were charged for this service. the only reason the aircraft hadn't caught fire when it Meanwhile, back in Culcairn, a public meeting had overturned at Culcairn was because the magneto had been held following Parer's forced landing there. A been faulty. collection had been made which subsequently paid for In an Australian Flying Corps D.H.9A decorated with repairs to the aircraft and its transport to Melbourne. The three long white streamers, and accompanied by thirteen residents of Culcairn also purchased two illuminated other aircraft, they landed at Flemington at 2.30 p.m. on addresses which they presented to the grateful airmen. In 31st August for an official welcoming ceremony. Parer Sydney, too, a fund had been established for Parer and quickly noticed that the crowd was much smaller than it McIntosh by the Lord Mayor, and by October donations had been in Sydney. The public had paid for admission stood at £80. and had watched an aerial display prior to their arrival, After the completion of their epic flight, Parer and which included Captain W. J. (Billy) Stutt flying a German McIntosh discussed the fate of their D.H.9 while they were Fokker biplane, and displays of the S.E.5, Bristol Scout, in Melbourne in August 1920. Parer sold his half share in Maurice Farman and D.H.9. Prime Minister W. M. (Billy) the aircraft to McIntosh for £500 and the Scotsman set Flughes and the Premier of Victoria, Mr McKinnon, about having the battered aircraft overhauled for welcomed them. Billy Hughes, on behalf of the commercial use by Aviation Ltd. However, while the work Commonwealth Government, presented Parer and was being carried out, McIntosh wrote on 21st October McIntosh each £500 in recognition of their determination 1920 to the Minister for Home and Territories, A. Poynton, and courage and led the crowd in three rousing cheers for offering to sell the D,H.9 to the Government for £1,500. the airmen. Theirs was the first single-engined aircraft to The offer was referred to the Australian War Museum fly from England to Australia. (later known as the Australian War Memorial) whose Souvenir hunters had been at work on the "P.D." and Committee considered that it was difficult to estimate the the sight of their vandalism saddened Parer. In spite of all value of the machine but thought that £500 would be a fair the terrible conditions encountered on the flight and the offer. The Committee also wrote to McIntosh on 8th several minor crashes, one item completed the flight November stating that his offer would be considered at a intact, a bottle of Peter Dawson Whisky. This was meeting to be held within the next few weeks, but by this consigned by Peter Dawson himself to Billy Hughes, and time McIntosh had left on a motor-cycle and sidecar trip to Ray Parer walked over to the D.H.9 and removed the Perth, where he arrived on 14th December 1920. bottle from its protected storage place and presented it to In Perth, McIntosh met Major Norman Brearley, who the Prime Minister. It was the first item of air freight to be was running barnstorming flights with two Avro 504Ks carried from England to Australia. A fortnight later. King which he had bought from the Aircraft Disposal Board George V approved Prime Minister Hughes' before he left the Royal Air Force in Britain and had them recommendation of the award of the Air Force Cross to converted to 504J standard before shipping them to Lieutenants Parer and McIntosh in recognition of their Australia. Brearley was looking towards setting up a flight. regular air service in the north-west of Australia, for which Back in February, the authorities had arranged a the Avros were not well suited, and he sold them to special reception on the 24th for race winners Ross and McIntosh on 21st January 1921. Although not a qualified Keith Smith, who reached Australia in 29 days, at pilot, McIntosh had had lessons from Parer on the trip out Melbourne's Flemington racecourse, Sixty thousand from England and he took further tuition from Brearley people flocked to the racecourse but engine trouble before buying the Avros from him delayed the Vickers Vimy at Henty, making it impossible to John McIntosh had the intention of conducting reach Melbourne as planned. The spectators waiting at commercial passenger and freight flights with the aircraft Flemington had contributed £1,760 and, after expenses, but in the meantime continued with the barnstorming that £1,680 remained to be distributed to a worthy cause in the Brearley had now abandoned. On 28th March 1921 John name of aviation. A popular decision resulted in the McIntosh died in the crash of one of these Avros at money being given some months later to the other airmen Pithara, 100 miles from Perth. McIntosh and one of his in the race, or their next of kin. Parer and McIntosh each passengers were killed instantly and the other was received £100 in this distribution, being the only other seriously injured. Norman Brearley commented that competitors to complete the course. Of the other entrants, McIntosh was a most capable pilot and that he had often two crew members were killed in England and two flown with him. He thought that a passenger must have drowned near Corfu, while others reached Crete and Java. interfered with the controls, the passengers having been On 14th September, Parer and McIntosh were seen drinking beer in the cockpit shortly before takeoff. honoured with a public testimonial at Melbourne Town One witness who had followed the flight with field glasses Hall. There was an enthusiastic demonstration from the reported seeing one of the passengers standing up in the large crowd present, and cheques for £550 each were cockpit, overbalancing the machine, while others said that presented to the two airmen in recognition of their McIntosh had been hit on the head with a champagne bottle. It was the first fatal aviation crash in Western Australia. It was a little over a year later that Ray Parer was formally presented with his award by the Governor-General, Lord Forster, at a ceremony at Meanwhile, at a meeting of its Committee on 17th the Federal Government House. Captain G. C. Matthews also received January 1921, the Australian War Museum had decided the Air Force Cross at the same ceremony.

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not to accept the offer of the D.H.9 at the price of £1,500 August, the Director wrote to Bennet stating that he had but authorised the Director to negotiate up to a sum of found that the wings had been stripped and recovered, and the fuselage stripped and partly recovered, and painted. He found that the machine was now substantially different from that which had made the flight to Australia and consequently the Museum could not increase its offer of £250. Having received approval by telegram from Norman Brearley, Bennet wrote on 18th August accepting the Museum's offer of £250. The Minister for Home and Territories approved the purchase on these terms on 29th August but then the Crown Solicitor became involved and legal considerations of the sale dragged on for some months, as McIntosh's estate was heavily indebted to Major Brearley. The Museum finally received title to the aircraft on 14th December 1922, took delivery of it on 4th January the following year and placed it in storage, the removal being G-EAQM, "P.D." at the Duntroon Store, Canberra nearing completion in handled by RAAF personnel. September 1988. Photo; Eric J. Counahan In the meantime, following his £250. However, the matter was not proceeded with, discharge from the Australian Flying Corps, Ray Parer following a request from the Returned Soldiers' wished to continue his career in flying, but opportunities Association, who contemplated acquiring the aircraft as a were extremely limited. Although badly in need of a rest memorial. The D.H.9 was still with Aviation Ltd, with following the arduous flight from England, he barnstormed repairs continuing at a snail's pace. On 10th February throughout Australia, flying a number of ex-World War 1 1922, Aviation Ltd (then in liquidation and anxious to settle aircraft. On 23rd November 1920 he flew with two Its outstanding accounts) wrote to the Minister for Home passengers (Messrs. J. Pierce and G. Howie) from and Territories asking that the Government further Glenroy, near Melbourne, to King Island, where he landed consider the purchase of the aircraft for the War Museum. after a flight of 2 hours 27 minutes in an F.E,2b aircraft Aviation Ltd had so far expended £300 in work and fitted with a 120 h.p. Beardmore engine and a four-bladed material on the D.H.9 but it was still not yet in flying propeller. This aircraft, formerly CFS-14 of the Central condition. The company suggested that the Executors of Flying School at Point Cook, belonged to Aviation Ltd, McIntosh's estate would consent to sell for £600. whose managing director Major G. A. C. Cowper had The Chairman of the Australian War Museum bought it from the Department of Defence a couple of Committee wrote to the Liquidator of Aviation Ltd, W. B. weeks earlier. Parer returned with his passengers on 29th Bennet, on 22nd February 1922 stating the Committee's November in a flight lasting two hours. A number of earlier decision that it could not offer more than £250. The photographs were taken of landmarks during this trip. Chairman also pointed out that the considerable repair On 27th December Parer took part in the first Victorian work carried out would have involved the replacement of a Aerial Derby, which was attended by an estimated 12,000 number of parts and would have the effect of making the spectators. This had been organised by the Larkin Aircraft machine substantially different from the one which Supply Company and the course was from the Epsom accomplished the famous journey and would therefore Racecourse at Melbourne to the Frankston Pier and have lessened Its value as an historical relic. Before a return, the race being flown over three laps for a total firm offer could be made, it would be necessary for the distance of 809 miles. The previous month Mildura dried- Director to inspect the machine with a view to deciding fruit magnate C. J. De Garis had imported two Airco whether the replacements and repairs which had been D.H.4S, F2682 and F2691, which he planned to use to effected were so extensive as to make it inadvisable for deliver by air a newspaper which he had formed, the the Committee to acquire the machine. Sunraysia Daily. Parer joined De Garis’ pilot. Lieutenant While the Department of Home and Territories Frank S. Briggs, in flying the 375 h.p. Rolls-Royce Eagle- continued to watch developments, Bennet wrote to the engined D.H.4S in the Derby, Parer winning by 5 seconds Chairman of the Australian War Museum Committee on at a speed averaging 142 mph and collecting a prize of the 27th July 1922 advising that Major Norman Brearley of Aero Club Trophy and £25. Parer's passenger in this race Western Australia held a Bill of Sale over the machine was J. M. Bennett, who had accompanied Ross Smith on (apparently as part of the deal for the purchase of the two his flight to Australia in the Vickers Vimy. De Garis later Avro 504s by McIntosh). After much correspondence, sold one of the D.H.4s, F2682, to Ray Parer. Brearley had agreed to drop his reserve price to £300. In February 1921, Ray Parer made a flight from The machine was now held at Moreland Stores in Tinning Melbourne to Tasmania, with two ladies and a gentleman Street, Brunswick. as passengers. He spent a few weeks' holiday in The Director of the Australian War Museum then wrote Tasmania before returning to Melbourne, accompanied by to Ray Parer on 3rd August 1922 asking if he would three passengers, one of whom was his mother. consent to accompany the Director on an inspection of the The Air Navigation Bill came into force on 11th D.H.9 and give his opinion on the originality of the aircraft, February 1921. The first batch of civil flying licences was to which Parer agreed. Following this Inspection on 10th issued on 28th June and Parer was issued Commercial

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Pilot Licence number 34. He was also issued Ground propeller's revolving blades and then to the ground. He Engineer Licence number 49. Also on 28th June, his had a remarkable escape. The propeller cut his thick D.H.4 aircraft was officially added to the Civil Register as flying boots below the knee and the clothing on his left leg G-AUBZ. was torn away, he was badly bruised and his collar-bone was fractured. Suffering from shock, he had to lie on the On 3rd May 1921, Ray Parer announced in Melbourne ground in the wind and rain for an hour until a motor car that he planned to make a flight around Australia to raise could be found to drive him to Gisborne railway station, £15,000 for the purchase of an aircraft to make an attempt from where he travelled to Melbourne by train and was on the prize of £10,000 which had been offered by an then admitted to Mount St. Evins Hospital He was American movie producer, Thomas Ince, for the first trans­ hospitalised for some weeks, during which time souvenir- pacific flight. Parer had by this stage formed Parer's hunters removed many parts of the aircraft and its fabric. Commercial Aviation Service in Melbourne, and planned to use his D.H.4, which was to be modified to have a On 17th September, however, the now-repaired F.E.2b "limousine body", for the round-Australia flight. He would was returned to Melbourne. Resuming his flight from Port take as his crew L. P. K. Morris (manager), J. Girauld Melbourne on 7th October, the party reached Captain (mechanic), and a cinematographic operator. The flight Harry Butler's aerodrome at Alberton, Adelaide, on 7th was due to commence in the D.H.4 on 30th May from November. Kane left the party here to pursue his own Glenhuntly, proceeding to South Australia and then to interests. Ray and Mark Parer next set off for Port Perth, Broome, Darwin, Bourketown, Cloncurry, Charters Augusta, then followed the Trans-Continental Railway line Towers, Winton, Rockhampton, Brisbane, Sydney and to Kalgoorlie, where they landed on the racecourse on 9th back to Melbourne. Parts of the route, such as from January 1922. They began conducting joyflights two days Broome to Darwin, involved crossing unexplored country later at £2-2-0 per head but operations from the and Parer was to survey these stages on behalf of the racecourse were unsatisfactory owing to the rough surface Civil Aviation Branch of the Defence Department. which resulted in a number of punctures and the lack of control of the crowds. In the midst of his preparations, he received an invitation from China to give exhibitions and joy-flights at Around this period, Ray was in contact with backers in Hong Kong, Shanghai and other centres, but he was too England to finance his trans-Pacific flight attempt, and he busy to accept. Unfortunately, soon after starting on his intended to abandon his Australian flight and sail for flight around Australia, he suffered a forced landing at England as soon as arrangements were complete. In the Gisborne, Victoria, and ended up In hospital. While he meantime, he and Mark moved to Boulder Racecourse on was incapacitated, souvenir hunters caused extensive 12th January and resumed the joyriding flights. By the damage to the aircraft, stripping instruments and carrying end of their visit to Boulder, they had carried 487 off pieces of the airframe. However, while convalescing in passengers. hospital, he took the opportunity to work on the proofs of But taking off from the Boulder racecourse early in the the book he had written of his flight from England to morning of 7th February to fly to Southern Cross, some Australia, Flight And Adventures Of Parer And McIntosh. 130 miles away, the engine once more gave trouble. Ray Parer next purchased, in mld-1921, an F.E.2b biplane Parer attempted to return to the racecourse but hit a from Captain F. G. Huxley of Aviation Ltd. This machine telegraph pole, which snapped off near the base, the was a composite of an aircraft imported by Mr Hunter Yule propeller became entangled in the wires and the aircraft of Mildura, which was subsequently damaged, and crashed to the ground. Ray finished up hanging out of the components from another damaged machine, CFS-14, F.E.2b with the engine squeezed against him, while Mark which had been used by the Central Flying School at Point was thrown out and ended up underneath the wreckage Cook. Huxley had been granted the registration marking with serious injuries. Onlookers rushed to help and both of G-AUCX for the aircraft at the end of June and delivered airmen were taken to hospital. The aircraft's engine was the machine to Parer at Glenhuntly Aerodrome on 22nd removed and placed in store, while the remaining July 1921. Parer had the F.E.2b registered in his name on wreckage, which was blocking the street, was taken away 2nd August and planned to use it in another attempt on and dumped. the 10,000 miles round-Australia flight to raise money for Mark and Ray Parer returned to Melbourne on the ss his hoped-for trans-Pacific flight. Katoomba on 18th March 1922. They announced their intention to seek another machine, possibly the D.H.9 Scheduled to start on 3rd August, the flight was to "P.D", to complete the journey around Australia. But these proceed to Adelaide via Birchip, Ouyen and Mildura and plans, and those for the consequent Pacific flight, quietly then follow the trans-continental railway to Perth. From faded away. there the route would be to Port Darwin via Geraldton and Broome and then proceed inland across Queensland to Ray continued operating his own business, Parer's Sydney and Melbourne before finishing in Launceston. Commercial Aviation Service, using the D.H.4 G-AUBZ. Parer, still far from fit, was to be accompanied by When the fledgling Q.A.N.T.A.S. tendered for the cinematograph operator and mechanic A. P. Kane and his Charleville to Cloncurry service in January 1922, Hudson cousin Mark Parer as manager. The party left Glenhuntly Fysh bought the aircraft from Parer through his agent, in atrocious weather and got only as far as Gisborne, Harry Shaw, for £1,500. Shaw arranged for the D.H.4 to about 40 miles north-east of Melbourne when the engine be shipped to Brisbane and then sent by rail to Longreach. began to misfire. Parer made a forced landing in gale- Parer next took a job as personal pilot to C. J. De Garis, force winds and driving rain near a farm close to Riddell. flying the businessman's second D.H.4, G-AUCM. This aircraft was later sold to Captain Herbert J. (Jimmy) Kane and Mark Parer set off for the farm house hoping Larkin. Parer then flew for a number of years between to borrow some ropes to lash down the aircraft, leaving King Island in Bass Strait and the mainland, picking up Ray stooping over the engine with the propeller just ticking and delivering produce from island farms. He also spent over, trying to determine the trouble. They had only gone time on King Island working in a garage and driving a a hundred metres when a sudden squall caught the truck. To be concluded in the next issue F.E.2b's wings and tilted it, throwing Ray Parer onto the

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MADANG MEMORIES By Jim Dunstan all photos by Doug Macdonald DCA OIC Madang 1969/71

General early morning apron scene. F27 era. Roger McDonald's interesting and obviously In 1947, Madang was officially recommended as the well-researched history of PATAIR is an indication of the airport to serve the Highlands and this began a long vital role played by air transport in the development of history of aircraft operations, with a wide variety of aircraft Papua New Guinea. types based there - Drovers, Dragons, Hudsons, Moths, While this development took place throughout the Ansons, DC3s, Otters, Islanders, Barons, Cessnas, (then) Territory, the more publicised activities occurred in Pipers, Skyvans, to name a few. Some operators boasted the Lae- Salamaua - Wau-Bulolo region. However, the several aircraft, some were single-pilot affairs. In 1960, main centre of air transport was arguably in Madang, that Mandated Air Lines took over Madang Air Services with 5 beautiful and historic town on the northern, or Rai, coast Cessnas and in their turn, MAL were taken over by Ansett of the island. in 1961 and the light aircraft division was formed, only to be abandoned later. It was from Madang that supplies and passengers were transported to the densely populated Highlands, not A very efficient little group operating out of Madang only to main towns of Goroka, Mount Hagen and Mendl, was the air arm of the Society of the Divine Word, flying but also the smaller but still important centres such as into remote areas to service their various mission Kundlawa, Bartz, Tarl and Wapenamunda. activities. Their pilots, the "flying priests" were very popular and it is sad to know that over the years all have In the 1960s more domestic freight was lifted out of been killed in air accidents. Father John Glover, Father Madang than out of any Australian port, including Sydney "Helm" Hoff, Father Joe Walachy and Father Joe and and Melbourne, while Madang's aircraft movements were Brother Ben were wonderful dedicated men. A handsome exceeded only by the four major Australian ports Sydney, memorial was erected outside the DCA building in Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane. While the Australian Madang in memory of Father Joe Walachy who was killed operators could use large aircraft - DC4s, DC6s, Convairs in 1965. Father Hoff left the church, married and flew for etc, Ansett and TAA in Papua New Guinea were operating Talair until his fatal crash in 1974 on a flight from Mount DC3s, Skyvans, Twin Otters, Cessnas - their largest Hagen. Aged in his late fifties, he had over 20,000 hours aircraft was the Bristol Freighter - while an attempt to in his log, plus whatever he didn't have in the log!!! utilise a Caribou was thwarted by DCA's restriction on load weights, forcing Ansett to abandon the idea. In the peak year, nearly 60,000 tonnes of freight was uplifted, plus what was carried by the "llghtles". Established by the Lutheran missionaries prior to 1900, Madang was declared a Government aerodrome around 1935 with a strip length of some 200 metres. Over the years the runway length has been extended to its present 1569 metres on a bearing of 071°- 25 1° (Incidentally this length was right on limits for the Fokker F28 jets used in later years.) During the Second World War, Madang was occupied by the Japanese as a major base and the airstrip was thoroughly bombed by the Allied Air Forces. This unfortunately rendered it useless for the Allies when Madang was re-captured In April 1944. Alexishafen airstrip, some 17kms further up the coast, suffered similar Father Joe's memorial. damage.

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"rode shot gun" on the flight, armed with a rifle in the event of any mid air "crisis". On one flight, the top "banis" gave way, and all the animals ended up in the tail of the fuselage. Luckily, the aircraft had enough runway left to stop - had it taken off, a disaster would have been inevitable. The Ansett establishment in Madang was possibly the major contributor to the area economy and to its social life. Crews lived in the town and were well known to the residents. Some of the senior pilots, such as Alan Mossman, John Kessey and Barry Rogers had many years of flying experience and very interesting and significant backgrounds. They had some wonderful stories to tell and were certainly fine airmen. However, with the arrival of self government in Early am, C4 7 charters line up. DCS era. 1973, all that changed. Air Niugini was formed Another one-pilot operator was John Perkins, ex Royal and Ansett left Madang and Papua New Guinea. All the Navy Fleet Air Arm, who flew into small upcountry strips properties were sold and Madang became just another such as Alome, servicing trade stores. port in the Air Niugini network. Ansett had developed Madang as its main operating Madang at one stage was being seriously considered base although head office was in Lae, and later Port as an international "gateway" airport and the Australian Moresby. A modem engineering workshop hangar was Government of the day build a new control tower and a built, reputedly the finest north of Brisbane at that time, magnificent new DCA complex with all mod cons. These and all operational facilities - pilots, cabin crew, supplies, were aligned with the proposed longer runway which never traffic and aircraft were based there. eventuated. The new building was used only by Flight A modern staff complex was built for single Services and its biggest event was as the Search and accommodation, and for married personnel, comfortable, Rescue Centre when the Ansett Skyvan VH-PNI crashed well equipped houses were built, and other houses and on Mount Giluwe en route to Mendi in September 1972. flats were rented. Indigenous unskilled staff -cargo bois, (This airport concept, I believe, was begun in the 1960s engineer bois, cleaners, drivers, catering staff - occupied a when Madang was at its peak, and once the ball began compound at the airport. Bus transport was provided for all rolling, it couldn't be stopped!! I feel the huge amount of staff from home to work, including carriage home for money would have been better spent on improving a few lunch! of the other ports.) Apart from the engineering complex, Ansett had two Another kind of air work was the "boi charter". This other hangars. One was originally the Light Aircraft involved flying groups of indigenous workers from their Division home, and this was sold to a local man who "place" to plantations where they were employed for moved it to his plantation for a copra shed. The other was anything up to two years, and then were flown home dismantled, transported to Port Moresby and re-erected. again. Generally they were Highlanders, and they travelled TAA's hangar and terminal building were taken over by to all parts of PNG -New Britain and New Ireland chiefly. Talair when Ansett and TAA "disappeared" into Air Nuigini. About 40 "bois" could be carried in the side-saddle DCS - they were of course weighed and had minimum "luggage". Life for expatriates in Madang was exceedingly Care had to be taken that no stowaways were aboard the comfortable in the sixties and early seventies. With its fine return flights - they were required to work out their deep harbour, picture book coral islands and beaches, contracts, but a few tried to get home early. colourful reefs of coral, lush forests, coconut plantations and spectacular mountain scenery, Madang is a really (If the weather turned nasty and severe turbulence was beautiful place. The local people in the picturesque experienced, the passengers, not unnaturally, became villages, are peaceable and live well on an abundance of extremely scared. The odours created by 40 terrified and fish, fruit and vegetables. An added feature is Kar Kar heavily sweating bois had to be experienced to be Island, an active volcano a few miles off the coast. The believed.) social life is well catered for with excellent hotels, golf club, One international flight operated out of Madang in the bowling club, wonderful fishing, boating and diving early 70s - the service to Djayapura in West Irian. This When construction of the Kassam. Pass section of the was an ex QANTAS, ex TAA service, taken over by Air Highlands Highway was completed in 1966, the road was Niugini and in the early stages, a DCS aircraft was used opened for heavy transport from Lae to Goroka and Mount with a side saddle (a la WWII and bol charter) Hagen. This of course, meant the end of the necessity for configuration. Passengers sat on the canvas seats along Highlands areas to be serviced by air from Madang, and the side of the cabin and the centre of the fuselage was traffic tapered off. However freight and passengers were usually filled with freight and/or baggage. A purser and still carried, albeit in smaller volume, and the dear old stewardess were carried, and lunch was served, often DCSs lifted cargo such as vegetables, meat and even a from the top of the freight/baggage. A good "international" few loads of cattle. lunch it was too - chicken, ham, salad, dessert, cheese, fruit, wine, coffee. On these cattle charters, the DCS would carry about 14 head, individually separated by a "banis" or fence, while Landing fees at Sentani, the airport for Djayapura., had the fuselage floor was covered with plastic sheeting and to be paid on the spot in American dollars, which meant straw. A staff man from Department of Primary Industries making sure the Madang bank had enough US dollars

58 AHSA Aviation Heritage

each week. On one occasion, the pilot forgot to take the helicopter based at Madang, was "folded up" and flown money, and in getting away from the airport before the over to Manus In the Hercules. There it was "unfolded" aircraft was seized (as threatened) the captain nearly and the crash crew were lifted in a well exercised started the third World War! Perhaps he was helped by operation, with a happy ending. being about 3 times the size of the Indonesian trying to get Interestingly, the Captain and First Officer of the F27 the money, although the well-armed security (read Army) involved were overnighting Madang, and I was a bit staff on the tarmac were a worry! concerned they may have "partaken of spirituous liquors" In the early 1970s the Highlands suffered a famine, the ruling them out under the "bottle to throttle" regulations. result of drought and heavy frosts, which destroyed the However, they had not touched a drop fortunately, which village gardens. Australia sent an RAAF Hercules to was a big relief Madang to help in lifting food and stores - mostly tinned in April 1972 we had an accident involving a DC3, VH- fish and rice - to the stricken area. Some problems arose PNB, flying under TAA colours, on charter from Ansett. when a few villagers complained that the tinned fish was The aircraft, with a full load of freight, was en route not their favourite brand, while a small number wanted to Madang to the Highlands, when the pilot called up to be paid for clearing landing pads for the helicopters advise a broken line had drained all his hydraulic fluid - so delivering aid. Some villagers borrowed kids from their no brakes, no flaps. He was directed to burn up fuel and "one talks" to get extra rations. However in the scheme of return to Madang. Options were perhaps Goroka with an things, these were minor problems. A lot of the rice was uphill runway, or Nadzab, with length. However not used and was stored in the hangar at Madang. It was engineering and ground safety equipment were available there for quite some time, and required regular at Madang, so Madang it was. "fumigation" It was eventually sold to Belgium as poultry food. Without flaps the aircraft touched down beautifully but of course very fast, and with no brakes, and a full load, it Traffic to the Highlands was always interesting. Betel was obvious it would not stop before the end of the nut was a popular item of luggage. It did not grow in the runway. The captain did a great job, and ground looped Highlands, so the mountain men flew down to the coast, just before the strip end, putting the aircraft in shallow bought a supply of the nuts and returned home to sell it at water beside the runway, instead of the harbour. a huge profit. We also carried bodies, although these had Unfortunately, although the aircraft was virtually to be carried in approved coffins. On occasions, however, undamaged, salt water entered the centre section and it the deceased was brought to the airport in a home-made had to be written off. coffin, a collection of cartons, or some fruit case timber nailed together. The coffins were always shown on the All of those DC3s which did such magnificent and manifest as NHS, or Natural History Specimen. The valuable service would be written off by now, I would reason for this was that most of the local people, including suppose. Most of them had fascinating histories, in war the cargo bols, had a sensitive attitude to death - part fear, and in peace and none of them led really pampered lives. There will never be another aircraft to equal them in part cultural, part apprehension, part wariness of the "spirits". performance, in reliability, in capability, in forgivingness, in service under difficulties and in the affection from those We also lifted "Muruks" or cassowaries - these were who flew them. often jammed into a cardboard carton to disguise the My own part in this story was as Ansett Manager, contents, but a crammed Muruk when frightened, soon made itself known to the nasal organ, giving the game Madang from the end of 1971 until the formation of Air away. Some of the meris would try to board with a cat, or a Niugini in 1973 when I was seconded to the National puppy, or even a small pig, hidden in their bodice!! They Airline. In 1975, I transferred to Lae, as Regional would also check in with one child, then walk out to board Manager, in charge of all domestic ports except Port the aircraft with three or four pikininis, the extras Moresby. I rejected the proposal to include Port Moresby unticketed of course. (a) because It was Head Office, and (b) it would have meant living there!! Life at the airport was never dull. A further interest was that In April 1944, my unit was At that time, a helicopter crashed in the Manus Island involved in the recapture of Madang/Alexishafen. Mililat area. Our airline F27 Friendships were equipped to locate Plantation just out of Madang, was our last camp before crash beacons, and as we had an aircraft overnighting returning to Australia after some two years in New Madang, it was sent to find the chopper. It did this with Guinea. little difficulty, and the next morning a mining company My years in Madang (and Lae) were wonderfully i challenging, sometimes frustrating, but always interesting I and rewarding. I consider myself very fortunate indeed to I have experienced those years, as part of aviation, and I perhaps part of history. My wife and I have only happy memories of our time there and it is sad to see a country with so much beauty, so much natural wealth, and so much potential, drifting Into what can only be described as 5 a pitiable condition. "Mi gat bikpella sori." j For more detailed reading on PNG aviation history, j nothing equals the books of James Sinclair -Wings of Gold, Seplk Pilot, Balus I, II, III and Golden Gateway. S These fascinating and thoroughly researched books are an asset to, and deserve a place in, any aviation, or Papua New Guinea library. James Is working on a new 34 Sqn. BAC 111 carrying PM Gorton, the new Ansett hangar in book covering the history of Madang.^ in the background.

59 AHSA Aviation Heritage

David Staig and the ’Young Australia’ by Keith Meggs heads. This developed 65 hp compared to the 60 of the Cirrus, and drove a 6-foot 4-inch propeller. The fuselage was similar in construction to the Gipsy Moth, with spruce longerons and formers, covered with ply from the firewall aft. Provision was made for dual controls, but the front cockpit could be faired off when not required. A luggage locker behind the rear cockpit had a 20-pound capacity. The first CAB inspection was made in mid-September 1929, and the Branch Inspector reported that Staig had had no previous experience in aircraft design and construction, but, besides his A-Pilofs David Staig Licence, had B and D-Ground-Engineers Licences for the Cirrus Mk 1 and II. The aircraft was being built for his A{ the Melbourne Motor Show in March 1928, the personal use and, although the fuselage was partially Avro Avian in which Bert Hinkler flew solo from England completed and the original engine was on test, wing to Australia was displayed. David Staig, a 31-year-old layout and design had not been settled, as noted above. automobile engineer from Surrey Hills, (Melbourne) By 22 January 1930, design had advanced to the stage decided to build his own aircraft after inspecting the where the wing layout was finalised with a five-foot Avian, but, after putting a month's work Into the chord, 42-foot span, and an area of 210 square feet. The fuselage, he packed it away. aerofoil section was developed by arbitrarily drawing a Subsequently, in June of 1928, he joined the Aero section around the two spars at two-foot six-inch Club, obtained his A-Licence in August; at that time only centres. In the centre section a 30-gallon tank was fitted, 10 hours of flying, including 3 hours solo, was required. and outboard of this the wings could be folded. He continued his training, with the intention of gaining By 22 January 1931, the wings were almost ready for his B. covering, and Staig hoped to have it completed in two Whilst undergoing flight training, Staig decided to months. However, it was not until about the first of June recommence his aircraft, which was a two-seat parasol that it was towed to Essendon and rigged. Early on the monoplane of wooden construction. His design method morning of 4 June 1931, it was given taxi trials by Staig, was somewhat unorthodox In that he first built up the who, encouraged by its handling, took off and completed fuselage, weighed it, calculated the required wing three circuits in a 10-minute flight. Initial flights showed loading, centre of pressure, and c of g positions, and that it was tail heavy, so weighing and balancing, then designed the wing to give the desired results. He followed by a number of flights, was carried out to worked without plans, drawings, or specifications, determine the correct c of g position, and this resulted in developing the design as he went along, and building the engine being repositioned six inches further forward. accordingly. Other modifications were the fitting of a smaller flush top Further construction was started in October 1928 at his engineering workshop and garage in Canterbury Road Surrey Hills, and his first task was to develop the engine from a four-cylinder water-cooled car engine which he had. This was converted to an air-cooled unit which weighed 290 pounds and delivered 74bhp at Staig and the "Young Australia". 1,70Orpm. He fuel tank of 17-gallons capacity, the lowering of the wing designed new cylinder barrels, heads, and pistons, and, tips by three degrees, an increase in rudder area, and after having the necessary castings made from his own an increase in track for the undercarriage, which used wooden patterns, machined them in his garage. rubber in compression for shock absorption. The Overheating occurred during trial runs, but this was eventual eight-foot track, together with nine inches of overcome by baffling, until finally a crankshaft failure oleo travel, bestowed excellent rough-ground caused the engine to be abandoned. A Cirrus Mk 1 was capabilities to the aircraft. The oleo legs utilised carbon then purchased and adapted to use the barrels and dioxide and oil as shock-absorbing mediums, and were pistons made for the original engine, together with Cirrus the subject of a patent taken out by Staig. A pair of

60 AHSA Aviation Heritage

these were made and fitted to Charlie Gatenby's C30A redoped. On the basis of one hour of dual experience Autogiro -USQ, and his stated opinion was that they with the RVAC, Peter Dunne was elected to test fly it in were the best which he had ever used. February 1939, but, after a circuit, he made a heavy landing which resulted in a smashed undercarriage and lower fuselage. It i: was repaired in time for another flight some time in April, and Fred Lauer, who had by that time had two hours dual instruction with the RVAC, carried it out uneventfully. He and Bill Dunne I subsequently flew it I whenever their finances permitted the purchase of petrol, and although no log was kept they estimate that they The "Young Australia" at Essendon. flew 60 or 70 hours each, without mishap, and Controversy occurred over registration and including a night circuit made by Fred Lauer with the aid certification, after application for registration was made of car lights. He continued his RVAC training and gained on 30 May 1932, but it was withheld, pending the receipt his A-Licence, while Peter Dunne took no further part in of further drawings which Staig was preparing for flying. checking. New regulations made it necessary for further data than originally stipulated to be made available, and The only modification required was carried out after it was not until July 1933 that this was received, the second flight, when tailplane incidence was whereupon the checking was carried out by Sqn Ldr increased to correct a tail-heavy tendency. No action H.C. Harrison RAAF, who listed 21 points which required was ever taken to register or gain a Cof A for it. amplification. Although 15 further drawings were When Lauer and Bill Dunne received their call-ups submitted in November, they were considered for entry into the RAAF in August and September inadequate. (probably 1940 - the year is not quite certain), it was By August 1933, 'Young Australia', as it had been decided that the aircraft should not be left around, and it named, had flown 85 hours, and a large portion of this accordingly ended its days on a fire. The engine was was while Staig carried out a private search for the ANA sold for £8 to a fruit grower who tried to use it in his Avro 10 airliner 'Southern Cloud', lost en-route Sydney to orchard for frost prevention, but it was not a practical Melbourne on 21 March 1931. This search was centred proposition, and its eventual fate is not known. Dunne in the Warburton-Healesville area, and extended over became a pilot and served in wartime England, but three years and 100 flying hours which included a short Lauer's subsequent career is unknown. search of Wilsons Promentory. David Staig still held a private licence as an RVAC A number of accidents with the DH86 Express in that member, at October 1966, with a total of about 800 hours period caused a hold-up in checking of Staig's design, of flying time, had a DCA-approved instrument repair, and the matter lapsed for some time. Eventually, after overhaul, and manufacturing, business at his home about 200 flying hours, Staig decided to store the aircraft address in Ascot Vale, and handled a considerable at Surrey Hills and to fly Club aircraft at 30/- (shillings) amount of work for the airlines, private owners, and per hour, pending finalisation of certification details. The aircraft operators. He died on 2 June 1967. ^ total cost of 'Young Australia' had been of the order of £500, covering materials, engine, and a number of propellers made by de Havilland. young JAustraCia Dimensions, weights, and performance In 1937 he shifted the fuselage to his new address in Ascot Vale, where it was under cover in the yard, until Span 42ft. the aircraft was inspected and bought by three young Wing area 210 sq. feet men from Nyah West (Vic), around November 1938. Weights 896 lbs empty They were Fred Lauer and brothers Bill and Peter 1,366 lbs AUW (approx) Dunne, none of whom had any previous aircraft Speed 70-80 mph (max) experience. After paying £22.10.0 for it, they transported it to Nyah West on a semi-trailer, and set about 40 mph (stall) rebuilding It. Ceiling 11,000 ft (achieved on test, The fuselage top-decking plywood was replaced, the with a barograph on board engine was top-overhauled, and fabric surfaces were

61 AHSA Aviation Heritage

SECRET MISSION "X” of Mr. L. J. HARTNETT. The article below came to me as a photocopy of a couple of unsourced typewritten pages. The writing style Indicates to me that It was produced for the company magazine. In his autobiography, ‘Big Wheels, Little Wheels’ (Gold Star Publications (Aust) Pty. Ltd.,1973), Lawrence Hartnett also describes this event. Harnett came to Australia in 1934 as Managing Director of GMH. He was responsible for the construction of the Company’s new facility at Fishermens Bend, Vic. He later joined GMH to the consortium that founded the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation, and became a Director of CAC. In 1940 he also became Director General of Ordinance Production under Essington Lewis. Ed.

"On the 27th January, 1942, Mr. L. J. Hartnett had a a Mr. Jackson, who many years before had lived in Commonwealth Minister call on him with a sealed Singapore at the same time as Mr. Hartnett, knew the envelope. When opened, it summoned Mr. Hartnett to a Island well, and spoke fluent Malay", as did Mr. Hartnett. War Cabinet Meeting promptly at the Victoria Barracks, St. These names were immediately agreed upon, but Mr. Kilda Road, Melbourne. Mr. Hartnett responded Hartnett was entrusted to immediately locate them and immediately, arrived in the Cabinet Room, and was invited have their pledge of secrecy. to take a chair. Mr. Ford the Deputy Prime Minister was in the Chair and all other members of the War Cabinet were The Commonwealth Government certainly did all In its present. power, providing Mr. Hartnett with a flying boat, R.A.A.F. personnel to accompany him and his colleagues to Passed to Mr. Hartnett were the two letters, both Darwin, and placing in Mr. Hartnett's hands an open credit addressed to Mr. Makin, Minister of Munitions, which he for £500,000, together with bags of currency, including had written. In one he had pointed out that 2-pounder guilders, gold coin, U.S. dollars, sterling pounds, etc. etc. guns had been urgently requested by General Bennett, Mr. Hartnett left on 30th January, 1942, in the early hours and they had been packed, ready for shipment, had been of the morning. lying on the Adelaide wharf for two weeks. This surely warranted, according to Mr. Hartnett's suggestion, very An interesting sidelight was that the Heads of the immediate dispatch, even If this entailed the use of a Services were advised and the secrecy of the mission destroyer or special aircraft. stressed. The Navy advised that there was a boom protecting the Straits of Johor, under the strict control of The other letter pointed out that at the Naval Base, the Royal Navy, England. Signals were exchanged and Seletar, Singapore Island, there was installed a very large England forthwith agreed to the plan and offered full co­ number of the very latest machine tools, having recently operation by the Royal Navy and flying services. been installed; Australia had been requested to supply certain raw materials for use in the Naval Base, but these The aircraft carrying Mr. Hartnett had minor trouble and could not be transported; the Japanese had landed in the landed at Groote Eyiandt, where a signal was received by north of Malaya and were making rapid progress towards him asking that the aircraft standing by at Darwin be Singapore Island. Mr. Hartnett submitted that the machine released for immediate departure and that other aircraft tools should be placed on the floating dock and the would be available the following morning. This aircraft floating dock forthwith towed away from Seletar and which should have carried Mr. Hartnett and his colleagues brought down to Australia. was shot down by the Japanese off Indonesia, which resulted in Mr. Ford, Deputy Prime Minister, calling on War Cabinet stated that they were very impressed with Mrs. Hartnett at her home In Toorak to advise that, this desperate move of bringing out valuable machine unfortunately, her husband had fallen Into enemy hands. tools from the Naval Base, together with the floating dock, Fortunately the next day this was corrected when it was if possible, as it would deny to the Japanese, if they ever discovered that the aircraft which had been set aside to reached Singapore Island, the use of this equipment, and carry Mr. Hartnett was not In fact carrying him. by the same token would provide Australia with critically important equipment. Mr. Hartnett received an urgent signal from Cabinet asking him to proceed no further, as the Japanese were It was then that Dr. Evatt, as External Affairs Minister, moving down faster than expected and the fall of asked the following question, “As this is your idea, and Singapore was imminent. Accordingly, the mission was obviously you believe in it, would you go and do It ! "; Mr. not fully carried out Hartnett replied, "Yes! ".Mr. Ford (Minister for the Army) Inquired," When would you go!”, and Mr. Hartnett replied, Subsequently, whilst in Darwin, Mr. Hartnett was asked "Now!". by Cabinet to make a full survey of Darwin’s defences. Army, Navy and Air, which he did in much detail, and Much excited discussion followed, which terminated by promptly on return to Melbourne a few days later Mr. Hartnett being advised that the Government would do submitted his report and amplified it verbally. Most of Mr. all In Its power to ensure every possible facility was placed Hartnett’ s findings of weaknesses in defence were well at the disposal of Mr. Hartnett in this special Secret borne out subsequently when Darwin was raided. Mission. It was obvious that secrecy was of critical importance and Mr. Hartnett was requested to pledge that Later Mr. Evatt advised Mr. Hartnett that the he would In no way make comment to anyone concerning documents placed in his hands were probably never it, but that all actions that would follow would be under equalled by any Government anywhere, as it authorised strict secrecy. him personally to enter into any form of contract, to expend £500,000, and to have such an amount It was asked of Mr. Hartnett if he would care to have replenished in any amount requested and being a secret anyone accompany him and he promptly replied, "Captain mission it did not involve any normal audit or Williams, who recently salvaged gold from the Niagra, and accounting." 4-

62 AHSA Aviation Heritage

On a ring & a prayer by Neville Hayes When Frederick Arthur George Hayes married Mary Levinia Fabry on March 17th 1920, he did so in style, and created a "first" in Australia. Born at Wedderburn (V) on 10th August 1901 as one of 17 children of Mr & Mrs Frank Hayes, he was just 19 when he and his bride, daughter of Wrn.Fabry of Wedderburn Junction, were married 2,OOOft above Inglewood in an Armstrong -Whitworth FK 8 in the charge of Capts. Leggett and Snook.^ The airmen were in the area conducting joy rides and wishing to promote their business, whilst the bridal couple wanted merely to be married. They pooled their interests and arranged for the wedding to take place In the air. With the Rev. F. Aswell Apted of the Methodist Church, Inglewood officiating, part of the ceremony was conducted on the ground, and completed when airborne.

Armstrong -Whitworth FK 8, photographed at Warracknabeal, 1920. Most likely the same machine.

'Entering into the cabin the bridal pair went through portion of the ceremony with a strong, gusty wind rocking the boat at its moorings and tossing the voices about so that at times they were unintelligible to the large crowd assembled. " Then the cabin was closed in order that the remainder of the ceremony might be completed in mid-air " In a gracefull gradual ascent the machine mounted into space, the last glimpse of the group revealing the clergyman sitting with an open book upon his knees, facing the bride and groom. 'After circling for some time the aeroplane flew over the outlying districts, and turning with the wind raced back over the heads of those assembled, the rays of the sun playing on it and transforming it into a spectacle of great beauty. After a flight of just ten minutes, with slow, easy glides the machine returned to earth and restored the bride to her relatives and friends. —The bridegroom, wearing his characteristic broad smile, stepped from the machine evidently having enjoyed the jaunt, but the bride heaved an unconscious sigh of relief on touching terra firma again. They were heartily congratulated on all sides. " ^

Fred Hayes spent his early life at Wedderburn, and after leaving school worked at the Wedderburn Flour Mill. In 1920 he moved to Merbein where he conducted a successful carrying business. After selling this, he moved to Melbourne and for 10 years worked at the Standard Motor Company. He retired to Boort, spending his time fishing the Murray river from Echuca to Swan Hill. He died at Boort on Feb. Sth, 1965, and was buried at Wedderburn , survived by two sons and a daughter. ^

'The company is shown in various newspapers as; The Australian Aerial Transport Ltd; Australasian Aircraft Pty Ltd; Australian Aircraft Ltd; and Australasian Aerial Transport Ltd. ^ Composed from Wedderburn Express, Argus, and Weekly Times reports.

63 AHSA Aviation Heritage

ASPECTS OF THE FLYING DOCTOR SERVICE Via Mike Flanagan

FLYING DOCTOR SERVICE == OF AUSTRALIA -

TRAEGER TRANSCEIVER TYPE 45a 3.

CJ-HIS new equipment, made specially for the Flying Doctor Service, provides a Voice Oper­ ated Carrier Transmitter with associate receiver, together with a standard variable receiver with loudspeaker. The Transceiver is also fitted with a calling device. The Transceiver contains twelve valves, four for the transmitter and five for the receiver as before, v/ith three additional valves for the voice operation of the carrier. Whilst twelve valves are used, there are only six different types, i.e., 1L5, 1K7, iC7, IMS, 1J6, iH4. The panel on the front of the cabinet has been strengthened and is held by six screws as against sixteen in earlier types. These screws are fixed in the panel and when unscrewed cannot fall out. All the aerial terminals, battery plug, and connections to the handset are at the back of the cabinet. The Voice Operated Carrier is a system by which the receiver functions between the spoken words. It can be illustrated in this way:—If the person at the outpost counts, the receiver automatically operates during the intervals between the spoken words, therefore speaking can be interrupted and an ordinary conversation carried on. The transmitter and receiver wavelength switch is inter-connected, so that, if the transmitter is placed on any one of the three wave-lengths, the receiver will be on the same wavelength. The Transceiver receiver is pretuned, crystal locked and fixed on each of the three frequencies, but there is in addition a standard receiver, which tunes from 19 to 550 metres. The change from the fixed wavelength operation to the ordinary receiver is done by a switch. The Voice Operated Carrier circuits can be disconnected, and the Transceiver used similar to the previous sets, but with external loudspeaker. Communication is carried out by means of an ordinary handset telephone, and is so arranged that as soon as the handset is lifted from the support, the Transceiver is in operation and ready for conversation with the Base if the Operator is in attendance. If the Operator is not at his equipment, a switch is provided on the panel, which, when turned to "CALL," works the alarm bell at the Base. The operation of the Tranrceiver is extremely simple, and installation can be done by anyone without special knowledge. The instructions supplied with the Transceiver are sufficient to ensure correct installation and working. The aerial with lead-in wires designed for this equipment is supplied already constructed, and it only remains to arrange it on suitable masts and, after fixing the lead-in wires, attach them to the respective terminals of the Transceiver. The power supply is from a 6-volt accumulator (not included in the Transceiver). Any make and capacity would work the set. The types used in cars or trucks are suitable. The efficiency of the transmitter is increased by the raving of power through the Voice Operated Carrier System. A set of twelve spare valves and a vibrator is included in the standard 45a3 Transceiver. The cabinet measures 24in. long, IHin. high, 14in. front to back, and the weight is approximately 861b., including speaker and handset. Unpacked. September, 1945.

o

• V The type 45A3 Transceiver as described on this leaflet '^will cost £125 Brisbane* An allowance of 155^ per year . depending on the Model of the existing Transceiver, will be Made if a purchase of one of the type 45A3 Seta is made* In addition to tiiQ type 45A^ sets, a much larger and approx­ imately five times the power output of the 45A3 type is being marketed. This type known as 45Y25, works from 12 vclts of batteries, the current drain being 5 Amps, Apart from having no variable receiver ( Receiver is pretuned and fixed on the three working frequencies 34-58-148 Metres) its function is the same as the type 45A3, Price of this set £175 FOB Adelaide. 64 AHSA Aviation Heritage - f < r '\ ..I COimK&JJHE OF ATJ5TRALIA

Department of Civil Aviation, ’’Almora House”, 522-556 Little Collins Street, CIRCULi'iR NO. 95/1947. IJELDOUimE, C.l. . 15th July, 1947. : 1

Li’iNDING GROUM^ FOR FLYING DOCTOR SERVICE : ST.U^IUTO •

The question of standards for landing grounds required for use by Flying Doctor Services throughout Australia has been under review by this Depeortment, and it has been decided that the follo’.vlng should be adopted as a standard to which such grounds should be established

Available Desirable 2,500 ft. plus an additional 25 ft. Length; for every 100 ft. by which the aerodrome is above sea level. A minimum length of 2,000 ft. at sea level would be acceptable but v/ould necessitate weight or wind restrictions on operation by such aircraft as Dfl. 84*s and Ansons. Required length to be in direction of prevailing "^vlnd. ’

______Runway and The run giving the length as above should be Strip V/idths; smooth-surfaced and at least 100 ft. wide and ^ should be bordered on either side by further strips, at least 100 ft. vTide, of relatively sm.ooth ground free of all obstructions such as scrub, stumps, hummoclcs, etc.

^.pproaches: Cleared to 1 in 40.

2. The above lengths have been computed on the basis of "distance to clear 50 ft.” for DK.84 and .\nson t3^e aircruft under Suimmer Density Altitude conditions and assuming a D'^nsity Altitude of 5,400 ft. as being an average for the areas concerned.

5. Under these conditions the sea level runs required aire DH. 84 - 2,562 ft., ..nson at 8,200 lb. - 2,756 ft. and ..nson at 7,600 lb. - 2,450 ft. A 10 m.p.h. head-vrind component would reduce these requirements b^^ about one fifth.

4. The overall longitudinal grade of the landing strip should not exceed Ifo, and the longitudinal grade at any place should not exceed 1.5^. The transverse grade should not exceed 1.5^o on the central 100’ of the landing strip and 2.5^^ on the outer edges of the landing strip, The transverse grade should be such that water will not collect on the surface. . The surface should be prepared so that when a light car is driven over it at 40 m.p.h. no discomfort is caused to the qpassengers.

5. It should be appreciated that the above method of calculating lengths of run required applies only to plying Doctor Services and not to aircraft operating on other services. pietribution; Flying Doctor Service Organizations.

Northern Territory Archives Service COMMISSIONER OF POLICE F77 Correspondence file 1935-1958 File 1/47 "Landing Grounds for Flying Doctor Service: Standards" dated 15 th July 1947

Northern Territory Archives Serx'ice COMMISSIONER OF POLICE F77 Correspondence files 1935-1958 File 8/45. "Eying Doctor Service of Australia: Traeger Transceiver Type 45a.3" dated September 1945 65 AHSA Aviation Heritage

CLOUDY TOE IS NOT DEAD! From Ken McDonald I am disappointed, depressed and deflated - especially my ego - and Keith Meggs is at least partly to blame! Let me explain. I have to go back 60 odd years to 1940 when I was a mere small cog in the wheels that turned the RAAF in those days. On completion of my normal training through Somers, Western Junction and Point Cook, I, with all those other bods who graduated from No.4 Course, EATS, thought we were suitably qualified to go off to the war and fight for dear old England against those dreadful Germans. Japan had not entered the war at that stage. Yes, our training on Tiger Moths, Avro Ansons. and Hawker Demons undoubtedly made us experts in all things aeronautical. But the Authorities had other ideas. We were all posted to Central Flying School, Camden, NSW, to do an instructors course. Clearly we were not going to the war for at least some considerable time. A blunder is the result of acting before thinking— Four months later, on completion of our training on Avro Cadets, WIrraways and Airspeed Oxfords, were not only in flying. despatched to various flying training schools to pass on The main impression I have about "Through The our somewhat expanded expertise to new recruits. I was Overcast" is that although written back in I936, it is indeed posted back to Point Cook, where many of the instructors a very valuable text, covering in considerable detail such were Sergeant Pilots, originally tradesmen such as engine subjects as Meteorology and the effect of weather on the fitters, riggers etc. who, pre-war, had been given pilot almost half of the contents - navigation,airman training with the rank of Sergeant, never to become instruments, engines, propellers, airframes, radio and commissioned officers. Only graduates who had radio navigation, and celestial or astro navigation. It completed the full cadet course were commissioned. contains a valuable collection of essential information for (Some time later this rule was reversed and they were all the civil pilot, both private and airline, even given that given commissions). pressurised aircraft, radar and GPS had not been invented One of these was W/0 Bob Ogden who later served in then. For even today's student pilots it could still serve as 31 Squadron on Beaufighters. He was in some ways my a very valuable text book. mentor, and helped me raise my instructing standards. The crunch for me of course is that Cloudy Joe, far With the usual vagaries of Melbourne weather it was quite from being a hero, is the character who is always getting common when conditions became unsuitable, for flying to into trouble for cutting corners. For instance taking off into be "scrubbed" until such time as the weather improved. the wide blue yonder without filing a flight plan, not Somehow I gained the reputation for being last back to checking the weather conditions, failing to check that he base when bad weather set in, with the result that Oggie has sufficient fuel for the trip and so on. And his coined a nickname for me. Cloudy Joe. This stuck with me instrument flying ability is almost zero! But I am convinced for the whole time I was at Point Cook, but I thought it was that Cloudy Joe still survives. In fact there seems to be too something of a compliment as he told me Cloudy Joe was many of his ilk still cluttering our skies if the regular a character In a book on flying that the Sergeant pilots accident reports are anything to go on. used as a text during their flying course. I thought Cloudy was a good guy who, although somewhat intrepid, always Hence my despair after all these years. It's a sad blow for an old, not so bold pilot! Thank you Keith. Here is an did the right thing and got himself safely home after his worst experiences. I had the idea the book was written by extract from Jordanoffs Introduction that sums up Cloudy's character. Sikorsky, and have asked a number of people about it without any result. "Before we get into the book itself, I must introduce A few months ago I asked Keith Meggs if he knew the you to Cloudy Joe, who appears throughout the volume book and he told me it might be one of two that he could (for the very simple reason that he could not be kept out), recall, "Victory Through Air Power" by De Serversky, or and whose counterpart exists In every field of endeavour. "Through The Overcast" by Assen Jordanoff, but he did His physical appearance is an exaggerated picture of his not have a copy of either book. So next time in the City I state of mind. He is enthusiastic and eager to learn, but I fronted up to the State Library, and presto! they produced am afraid he will never be anything but a blunderer. Yet I both of them. Seversky's book was clearly not the one, but am grateful to him, for he has taught me how a number of Jordanoff, In his Introduction states that Cloudy Joe is things ought NOT to be done. I remember following his Indeed one of his main characters. Unfortunately I was not example once, and spinning in from about 700 feet to hit able to borrow it, so could only glance through it whilst at the earth straight on the nose. It was not the speed with the Library. which I struck the ground, but the suddenness with which I stopped, that made everything go to pieces. I climbed out Next problem, where could I find one to borrow? Local of what was left, but as I walked away from the wreckage libraries could not help, but I mentioned it to Graham there was no discernible difference between Cloudy Joe Malcolm, President of Moorabbin Air Museum and Bingo! and me. Then, and many times since, I am afraid, we he found a copy in their library and lent it to me. could have been taken for twins." 4-

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An Old Contagion by Macarthur Job

Reproduction of the painting "Short Finals" by Mac Cameron, published in the CAA 's 1990-91 calendar. It is an almost exact depiction of the mental image the author still has of Canberra's forced landing, witnessed as a child at Cumnock in about 1930. "It's a disease - they never get over it!" (17 shillings and sixpence a week, plus keep!), my mother held formal afternoon tea parties, and my father's position So declares my beloved whenever an acquaintance was one of respect. I recall a gala Bridge evening at our evinces interest or surprise at her now "elderly" spouse's ongoing fascination with all things aeronautical! But if the home when, greatly privileged, I was permitted out of bed disease is indeed contagious, then I caught the complaint to join the adults for supper (meringues and cream puffs a long time ago. among other delights!), the men Immaculate in black ties, the women elegant in evening dress. So much for Ocker The year would have been about 1930. Certainly it was Australia! before I started school and that was in 1932. Come to think of it, history records that Canberra and its pilot left for In country New South Wales in the early 1930s, New Guinea in May 1931, so it would have to have been aeroplanes were a rarity. The mere sound of one before that. (invariably a single-engined biplane) droning somewhere In the distance was enough to bring the populace out of It happened in Cumnock, a tiny seat of local doors to scan the sky. And when one actually landed in government in the central west of NSW where my someone's paddock on the outskirts of the town, it returned-soldier father was one of the two bank managers. unfailingly drew a hastily assembled crowd. Ocasionally a Like most little Australian townships in those far-off days, "barnstormer" would arrive, usually in a DH-60 Cirrus its facilities were primitive, if not its social mores. Moth, and proceed to earn pocket money by taking the Cumnock (pop. 500), had no water laid on, no more adventurous for joy rides at ten shillings a head. electricity supply and no milkman. Domestic water came One particularly exciting day, Australian National from rain water tanks, lighting for the most part was from Airways Ltd's Avro 10 tri-motor VH-UMI, Southern Moon, kerosene lamps, and if you wanted fresh milk regularly, sister ship to the yet to be ill-fated Southern Cloud, flew you kept a cow. Its streets were gravel, the nearest "big low overhead to drop newspapers, a trial run for a daily town" Orange, 40 miles away, where we would go from delivery scheme that for some reason never materialised. time to time for shopping or, much less desirably, to the To the disappointment of all. Southern Moon did not land. dentist, in any case a full day's adventure in my father's Instead, the local newsagent, a Mr Forrester, mounted 1928 Austin Seven "Chummy". astride his Indian motor cycle with box sidecar, collected Despite its relative isolation, the ways of the little the bundled papers from where they fell in the open field township reflected the conventions of the day. Its pecking between the township and the railway line. order was clearly defined, and for my parents, life there But the occasion to which I first allude was an even was civilised and probably pleasant enough. The gracious more notable event, one that had been advertised well in bank residence where they lived in modest style boasted advance. This particular Saturday, the township was to be its own acetylene gas plant for lighting, complete with honoured with a visit by Captain L.H. Holden, MC, AFC, miniature gasometer, they had a live-in housemaid wartime SE-5A fighter pilot and instructor, flying the DH-61

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mother, to quote her own words, "hated aeroplanes" and my less passionate father mistrusted barnstormers, probably not without good reason, considering the reputation many of them had gained for themselves in the "pre-control era" immediately following the war years. Not that my parents had always practised what they now preached - both of them had "been up" in their younger days, my father in the gunner's seat of an Australian Flying Corps Bristol Fighter in France during World War 1, my mother in an Avro 504K flown by F.H. (Frank) Roberts from a Queensland cattle station property where he was demonstrating it in 1920 - before the birth of the infant Qantas. The DH-61 Giant Moth, "Canberra”, flown by L.H. Holden in the late "I'd let you go up with Kingsford Smith," my mother told 1920s and early 1930s. The enclosed cabin seated eight passengers, but the me by way of concession. This was by no means as pilot's cockpit behind it was open to the elements. The photograph was probably taken at Geelong, Vic. Holden, in flying overalls and holding his fantastic as it now seems, for at that stage the legendary helmet and goggles, is standing in the group of three with his back partly to Smithy was himself still barnstorming from time to time in the camera. Photo John Hopton his Southern Cross. (To my life-long regret, her promise Canberra, VH-UHW - until a few months previously, never had the opportunity of fulfilment). G-AUHW. A "huge aeroplane". It could carry no less than As it happened, my parent's caution was vindicated eight passengers aloft in an enclosed cabin! before the day was out. Late in the afternoon, during one Not only that - Canberra was to be accompanied by a of Canberra's many flights with capacity loads of new sideby-side two-seater Blackburn Bluebird, VH-UOC. passengers, its Jupiter XI engine gave trouble and Holden Though the fact escaped my tender age, both aeroplanes had to make a forced landing back into the stubble were from Australian Aerial Services, the operational wing paddock from which the aircraft were operating. of the Larkin Aircraft Supply Company at Coode Island in The moment remains vivid in my mind. Watching Melbourne. Flights would be available in both aircraft. Canberra touching down to a smooth tail-down wheeler in Called the Giant Moth by the De Havilland Company, the yellowing afternoon sunlight, I did not of course realise the DH-61 was designed in the late 1920s "for colonial it marked the end of the day's flying for the big biplane - use", as C.G. Grey's, The Aeroplane magazine described and the end of my childhood experience of this historic it. Intended as a replacement for the DH-50s then aircraft. The painting "Short Finals" by Mac Cameron, of operated by WA Airways, Qantas and Larkins', its design Canberra approaching to land in a country paddock, followed the same general arrangement - a two-bay published in a 1990-91 Civil Aviation Authority calendar single-engined biplane with the pilot seated in an open (reproduced here), almost exactly encapsulates the cockpit behind the fully enclosed cabin. But it was a good mental image I still have of Canberra's forced landing at deal bigger, with seats for up to eight as against only four Cumnock all those years ago. in the DH-50, and powered by a substantial Bristol Jupiter Just what the problem was, I cannot say for certain. XI, a geared radial engine developing 500 hp. There was local talk at the time that the engine had Without doubt it was the biggest aeroplane most "seized", though this is probably questionable. I also people in the district had ever seen. So much so that remember my father remarking that the problem was Captain Holden was able to command the princely sum of going to cost Captain Holden "a lot of money". What I do £1 a head (a lot of money in 1930!) for rides in the luxury know now is that geared Jupiter XI engines, unlike their of Canberra's cabin, as against the going rate often bob in lower powered predecessors, were notoriously unreliable, the open cockpit of the more spartan Bluebird. I know, as Norman Brearley's West Australian Airways discovered because Gladys, my mother's housemaid with whom I was to their cost when they replaced their DH-66 Hercules quite matey, smartly attired for the occasion in two piece tri-motors with twin-engined Vickers Viastras on the tweed costume and matching cloche hat with feather, was AdelaidePerth service in the early 1930s. pleased to cough up that amount (more than her week's wage) for the privilege! Whatever the engineering truths of Canberra's failure on this occasion however, the whole episode did nothing The weather smiled, what seemed to me great crowd to dispel my parents' perceived wisdom that aviation was of people turned up, and the gleaming silver aeroplanes an uncertain and often dangerous business. Despite the proceeded to do their stuff. Childhood memories remain dear - the vast bulk of the DH-61; my father lifting me up to show me "where the man sat" in the high-set open cockpit on the humped back of the fuselage, seemingly far above our heads; passengers stepping up into the cabin through the open port side door; the Jupiter's huge and fearsome-looking four-bladed propeller; the engines of both aircraft revving momentarily as they were shut down after each flight. So taken was I with the glories of the Giant Moth that I paid the Genet Major-engined Bluebird scant attention. I begged my parents to let me "go up", as the idiom of the day had it, but they were not to be persuaded. Though I was disappointed of course, their refusal came as no digging the folding wings of the Larkin Aircraft Supply Company's surprise. I did not really expect such indulgence, for my Blackburn Bluebird IV, VH-UOC in 1930. This particular example of the type was powered by an Armstrong Siddeley Genet Major engine. Photo John Hopton 68 AHSA Aviation Heritage successful inter-capital services that Kingsford Smith and Valley, Brisbane. (It was said the purpose of the trip was a Charles Ulm's ANA Ltd were now operating daily between weekend's fishing. But it probably also involved financial Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, the view persisted negotiations, because Eager later formed Holden's Air strongly in our household that aeroplanes, as a means of Transport Service Ltd with Les Holden's son, W.H. travel, were best avoided. Yet my own personal Holden, the company continuing to operate in New Guinea fascination for flight remained undiminished—as did my until finally absorbed into Guinea Airways in 1937). secret adulation of the likes of Captain Holden! The weather this day was poor, and when almost A few months later in March, 1931, fate further abeam Byron Bay, flying low in rain and poor visibility, the decreed this adult view of aviation not unreasonable when Puss was seen to crash on the slopes of the nearby ANA Ltd's Southern Cloud disappeared without trace after Coorabel Range. There was no fire, but all on board were departing from Sydney for Melbourne in bad weather. The killed instantly. Predictably, the Air Accidents Investigation mystery was first announced to our township via its one Committee ascribed a cause all too usual in such and only "wireless set", an early broadcast receiver in the circumstances -- pilot error in pressing on too far into public bar of the small, two storied Royal Hotel, just up the deteriorating weather, resulting in disorientation when all road from where we lived. visual reference was lost. Oddly, considering the ultimate significance of this first But a panel of Australian aeronautical engineers, major Australian airline accident, the news did not seem to including the late John Watkins, later Director of have enormous impact, at least in our little community. Engineering for TAA (see Australian Heritage Vol. 34, No The simple explanation was that people regarded fatal 1, March 2003) had second thoughts. Reviewing a number accidents in aviation as inevitable—those whose lives and of Puss Moths disasters in various parts of the world, they work was bound up with aeroplanes had to expect tragedy insisted that the whole circumstances of the accident be from time to time. In any case, the exalted affairs of ANA re-examined. It was then found that the Byron Bay Ltd seemed light years distant -none of those affected by accident was but one of at least eight involving structural the disaster were known to anyone in the township failure of Puss Moth wings as a result of flutter in personally. turbulence. For me, the real crunch was to come 18 months later On this occasion, it was evident that wind gusts, again. In September 1932, 1 was shocked to be told that encountered while crossing the Coorabel Range at low my now legendary childhood hero. Captain Holden, had level in the limited visibility that day, were sufficient to "lost his life" in a flying accident. He and "two.other men" trigger flutter and the resulting wing failure. Airworthiness had been killed when they flew into a hillside. Their certificates for the 12 Puss Moths operating in Australia at aeroplane "just came out of a cloud and went straight into the time were promptly suspended and they were a hill," my mother explained. "They all get killed if they prohibited from flying pending further notice. Modifications keep at it long enough." she concluded. subsequently developed by De Havilland, necessitating an additional wing strut, corrected the problem for the aircraft This event, far more than the loss of Southern Cloud, type. gave me cause to think furiously. If the gallant Captain Holden whom I had seen flying Canberra with such calm Of all this I knew nothing at the time of course, and it aplomb could be killed so easily too,was there perhaps would have been beyond the ken of a small boy in any something in what my mother and father avowed? case. But if my family imagined the untimely demise of the acclaimed Captain Holden would permanently dampen As is often the way with lay versions of flying their elder son's fascination with flight, they reckoned accidents, the truth of the matter was somewhat more without the possibility of further inspiration. involved. In fact, the unfortunate Holden had been killed through no fault of his own. One fine morning not long afterwards, another aeroplane unexpectedly came over our township, bringing In May 1931, evidently having bought Canberra from out the inevitable crowd of interested and curious. A single Larkin's, Holden shipped himself and the aircraft to New engined biplane, though not the usual little Moth, it circled, Guinea, where he secured a contract with the NG dropping lower and lower, until it was evident to those Administration for air freighting operations between watching with mounting anticipation it was about to land. Salamaua and the goldfields at Wau. The following year in Finally making an approach into the north on the eastern August, pilot T. O'Dea, who had joined Holden at side of the town, it disappeared behind the low hill beyond Salamaua, damaged Canberra in a take-off accident. the cow yard at the rear of our back garden. Holden promptly returned to Australia to obtain a new set of DH-61 wings, as well to buy. another aircraft (the DH- Excited people set off in hot pursuit, climbing through 50, VH-UGD, which he acquired from Burnett Air fences and running over the brow of the hill. Casting aside Navigation Ltd), for his expanding business. all childish caution, I promptly followed, my friend Erny Walder, the boy from next door whose father was the During his stay, on 18 September 1932, he had Postmaster, running with me. occasion to be travelling as a passenger aboard New England Airways' Puss Moth, VH-UPM, with Dr G. R. Puffing hard, we reached the top of the hill well behind Hamilton. The latter had been a member of Holden's the others, daunted to find the aeroplane nowhere in sight Canberra crew when they located the downed Southern - it had landed beyond the next low hill, a good deal Cross in northwest Australia at the conclusion of the further away. Boldly, we kept on, finally reaching the notorious Coffee Royal affair in March 1929, and they machine, now surrounded by the small crowd, quite out of were firm friends. breath. Flown by Ralph Virtue, younger brother of New Its engine was still ticking over and its three England's well known chief pilot, Keith Virtue, the Puss leather-helmeted occupants were still in their seats, one of Moth was en route to Brisbane from Sydney, where the them holding his goggles in one hand and supporting his two passengers were to meet with Fred Eager of E.G. head with the other. "One of the men was sick," a helpful Eager & Son, the major General Motors dealer in Fortitude bystander informed us.

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Even to my young eyes then, the aeroplane looked "anti-crashing" bit!. rather old fashioned. Certainly bigger than a Moth, it had In all those years that thankfully did follow much later, I the usual two open cockpits, but the front one seated two often wondered what type of aeroplane it was that had so passengers side by side, with the pilot on his own behind inspired me that fateful morning so long ago. By default I them. However, its wing arrangement was what seemed concluded it must have been a Genairco, this being the unusual, the upper mainplane having a shorter span than only biplane design I knew of with the cockpit layout I the lower, so that the interplane struts canted outwards remembered. But photographs I had seen of Genaircos, from top to bottom. The resulting overall impression of and indeed an actual example of the type in the Drage Air drooping wings was accentuated by the triangular World Museum at Wangaratta, did not sit squarely with the structure supporting the centre section above the image from my childhood memory - what I can only fuselage. Angular tail surfaces and large diameter, describe as a distinctive "daring young men in their flying wire-spoked landing wheels, with small-section tyres, machines" look. It was not in fact until I was researching completed the machine's venerable appearance. I also for photographs to illustrate A\r Crash, Volume 1, that I noticed with astonishment that the pilot wore horn-rimmed happened upon a picture taken at Sydney's Mascot spectacles beneath his flying goggles, a thing I could aerodrome in about 1930. There, standing on the apron in never have imagined upon so heroic a figure! front of Air Travel Ltd's hangar, was the very aeroplane I As we all stood gawking, he leant forward and shouted remembered so well! a few words to his passengers above the noise of the The caption told me that it was an Alexander engine. With that he waved the people vigorously out of Eaglerock, VH-UGK, an aircraft of US manufacture (rare in the way, opened the throttle enough to get the machine Australia in those days), the only one of its type on our moving, and taxied away to our right towards the southern register, and that it was normally flown by one Rupert corner of the paddock. Here the aeroplane turned around, King. This information later triggered another thought: paused for a moment, then began its takeoff diagonally somewhere, sometime, I had seen a photograph of this across the field into the northeast. Finally, its engine noise Rupert King. The picture had shown the head and now muted by distance, and its tail almost directly towards shoulders of an elderly man wearing heavy horn-rimmed us, it lifted steadily into the calm morning air. glasses, its caption explaining that despite poor eyesight, For me, watching the ungainly looking machine Rupert King had been a well known Mascot-based transformed into a thing of grace as it rose, defying commercial pilot in the years between the wars. gravity, against the background of the distant hills, it was a A hunt for further information finally bore fruit in the magic moment. For good and all, I was hooked! Aviation Historical Society's Journal, Volume 26, No 2. In But as I made my way back home with lightness of an excellent piece by Sydney historian, Greg Banfield, it heart, I encountered my mother, driving the back streets in told me Rupert King was an Australian who learnt to fly at the family Baby Austin. Her face as black as thunder. She Hendon in 1917 and served with the Royal Flying Corps in was looking for me, and obviously far from pleased. Palestine. After the war, he instructed with the NSW Where had I been? (as if she didn't know!) How dare I run Section of the Australian Aero Club, before founding Air away without permission? I was to get into the car Travel Ltd at Mascot In 1928. immediately; I would be driven straight home where I In addition to the OX-5 powered Alexander Eaglerock, would be punished for my disobedience. his company had a DH-60X Moth, VH-UHB, doing flying I was Indignant and thought my mother's attitude highly instruction, charter work and aerial photography. The unreasonable in the circumstances. But the threatened Eaglerock, according to King,was very slow, but safe and punishment didn't seem to matter. I had experienced - easy to handle ... a good reliable aeroplane". tasted would be a better word - something I would never King and his company did much to Increase public forget. Subtly that morning, I had caught what my wife still understanding of the capability of aircraft in charter calls "the disease". Notwithstanding the fate of Captain operations. But like so many pioneering enterprises In that Holden and so many others, this was surely for me! difficult era, it finally became a casualty of the Great Whatever the obstacles, to fly (preferably without Depression. Banfield's story concluded with the note that crashing!), was what I had to do. King suffered from myopia, hence his requirement for Indeed, in years yet undreamed of, it would become a thick-lensed spectacles while flying. profession as well as a passion -- not least the The jigsaw puzzle was coming together— after a lifetime of wondering, I at last knew the Identity and background of the man responsible for my "old captivity"*, as Nevil Shute might have called it - and all that it had begun as a result. Little could King have realised what he was setting In train when he put his Alexander Eaglerock down in the paddock at Cumnock that morning to provide a few minutes respite for an airsick passenger! Incidentally, contrary to my parents' early prognostications to the effect that "they all get killed if they keep at it long enough", Rupert King's life did not end in an aeroplane disaster. He died of natural causes in Sydney as recently as 1987 - at the ripe old age of 92! ^ *An Old Captivity was the title of an imaginative novel by author, aeronautical engineer and pilot, Nevil Air Travel Ltd's Alexander Eaglerock (right) at Sydney's Mascot aerodrome in about 1932. Photo Len Dobbin Shute.

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"TAIL SKID FREDDIE" The elementary antics of LAC (Later to become) Flying Officer Fred Parnell at No. 9 Elemnetary Flying Training School - Cunderdin, WA Via Reg Adkins It was a beautiful spring day on 6 November 1941, the signifying, "stop, await further instructions", this kept sort of day when you feel that it is almost good enough to interminably flashing. be alive. By this time a long line of blue overalled figures had We had spent the morning at lessons on principles of gathered by the four flight boxes, which were the size of flying etc. After lunch I was walking down to the flying field old type dunnies at the end of the yard. and met my flying instructor on his way to lunch. He told me to take his plane and practice circuits and bumps for I had achieved a fair amount of control of my circular half an hour until he came back. approach to the thin blue line of would-be saviours. My hopes plummeted to zero, when at the last moment the I took the plane and was out to take off, when the thin blue line opened up and like the Red Sea parting and engine stopped. I realised that I'd forgotten to turn on the letting Moses and his mob escape from Egypt. They left fuel tap. Contrary to strict rules, I jumped out of the me bearing down on flight boxes C and D with barely cockpit to swing the propeller and restart the engine room for my machine's wing tips to go through the instead of waiting for someone to come out and do the opening. It took great skill on my part to kick and guide it job. safely through the gap.

I swung the propeller, the engine coughed, but did not The thin blue line turned around and witnessed my start. My enthusiasm rising, I discarded my parachute effort, seconds later, my circular course found me in line which was hindering my activities. I swung the propeller, to re-emerge through the gap between flights A and B. the engine roared to life, and the plane advanced on me The thin blue line obligingly parted once again to enable at speed. me to continue my journey to a less confined space.

Unfortunately, I had left the fuel control on about three Despite all the hubbub, my perception of events were quarters throttle. I dashed around the main plane to get to razor sharp. The arrival of the ambulance with siren the cockpit to shut off the engine, however by this time the blaring, plus the fire engine bells clanging did not escape cockpit had bypassed me. The prospect of the my attention. ' By this time the whole of the Air Force unoccupied plane careering off on its own rather appalled station had come to a halt, except the planes that were me. Realising what had happened. I decided to still be of airborne and were kept aloft. The intermittent red signal the action. As the plane whizzed by, my former rugby from the control tower kept inexorably flashing. experience stood me in good stead. Without hesitation I dived and applied a rugby tackle to the fuselage near the Rescue at last, in the form of Alan Pilkington. a fellow tailplane. pilot trainee. He ventured forth to grab one wingtip of the plane and hang on. I took heart from this long awaited As the machine gathered speed with me firmly intercession on my behalf, however my appreciation was attached to its rear end the theory of flight lessons flashed short-lived. into my mind. At speed the air flow over the main plane combined with the angle of lift would eventually result in Alan's effort in holding the wingtip in an almost the machine becoming airborne, a prospect that did not stationary position resulted in a centrifugal force on the really appeal, from my precarious viewpoint. tailplane which instead of me moving, say at 10 miles per hour. His presence projected me around at the alarming I had visions of heading off to South Africa a country rate of almost double the speed. I was almost airborne. A that I had no immediate desire to visit, besides which I did few minutes of this activity made my position untenable. I not possess an entry visa. evacuated and left Pilk In sole possession with the machine whizzing around at a rate of knots. Concluding that the only way to prevent the plane taking off at speed in a straight line was to make it slow After a few minutes rest to regain my breath and down by going in circles. Through experimenting with a compose myself I felt a bit guilty at having transferred my kick here and push there I found that the circle theory was problem to Pilk. No one rushed to assist him and the practicable. My first thought was to steer the machine intermittent red light still kept flashing. The weight of guilt back from the landing area where some sprog pilot might resting heavily on my shoulders. I felt morally obliged to land on top of me. I manoeuvred the machine back In stop what I had started and not leave Pilk holding the circles towards the flight control boxes where numerous baby. ground staff and astonished aircrew had gathered. My hope being that some helpful character would grab the It was not possible to resume my position on the main plane and release me from my predicament. Pigs tailplane. because it was going too fast. I decided to meet might fly! it from the approaching side. I dived in and applied my headlock to the tailplane, and dug my heels into the Surprising the little details one can observe from the ground. This had the desired effect and stopped the plane vantage point In which I found myself. Glancing over to dead in its tracks, long enough for Pilk to act quickly to get the control tower. I was bemused to see an intermittent to the cockpit and cut the throttle. Peace at last but not for red signal being flashed to me from an Aldus lamp. long. The fat lady had sung but the show was not over.

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My instructor, Flight Lieutenant Alan Cridland, to his feet and said he had authorised the flight (I believe emerged from the throng and af ter hearing ray story, told that he had signed the authorisation long after the me to report to the control tower. I was met there, head offence.). He then hailed my action in stopping the plane on, by the red , haired, red faced officer whose finger was as one of the greatest acts of sheer guts and no doubt numb from flashing the intermittent red signal. determination he had ever witnessed etc etc. What a performance! It was the closest I have ever been to being I Identified myself and he roared at me, "Did you see awarded an immediate decoration of the Air Force Cross the intermittent red light signals and did you know what for devotion to duty. they meant? I replied in the affirmative and he bellowed. "Well why didn't you stop?" My humility had run out by His outburst no doubt saved my career. The outcome then and my terse reply that, "I was too bloody busy" took was that I was sentenced to two weeks confined to some of the wind out of his sails. He muttered that I was barracks, to report to the Service Police every two hours, being impertinent and told me to report back to him after after end of lessons until 10.00 pm each night. I was having my right hand attended to as it had been rather allotted two hours duty each night at the hospital, mainly bloodied from my pushing it on the ground in steering the to polish bedpans, a task at which I became quite aircraft through its contortions. proficient.

The ambulance transported me to the hospital for The Service Police were a force to be respected. The treatment, the fire engine retreated to its base, and I head sherang was Tiny Nichols, a punch drunk presume the whole station returned to its normal function. ex-heavyweight boxer. He ran the Station vegetable garden in which offenders were sent to work. My injured The following morning I reported to a building where a hand saved me from contact with dirt. Then another SP court of Enquiry was to be held in respect to the aircraft was Snowy Clark, a triple Australian boxing champion, incident. I arrived just before the appointed hour of 8.00 and Jack Poat, a professional boxer from Perth. As an am. Two service policemen were waiting outside the door. amateur, I had sparred with him at the P&O Hotel gym in We enjoyed a cigarette each (mine if I remember alright), Fremantle. Trouble is he mistook me for a punching bag. one SP was called 2359, meaning one minute to midnight. As for 2359, I am sure I had hurt his feelings. He was of quite dark complexion. The day after my trial the Chief Flying Instructor, At a pre-arranged signal we were advised that all was Squadron Leader Strickland, took me up for an air test; a in readiness. 2359 barked, "The prisoner will stand to rather hairy experience. He put me through all tests, and attention and remove his cap.". Such a change of attitude to this day I am amazed that it was the most and only took me by surprise, a prisoner indeed! perfect slow roll that I had ever performed. I still think that subconsciously he must have had his hands on the dual 2359 chanted lep-right, as we marched down a long controls and guided me through. If he'd asked me to corridor which opened onto a large room. To the tune of repeat it, I am sure he'd have had a rude shock. Because lep-right, lep-right, right-incline then lep-incline, we of a misjudged forced landing when I went close to presented a picture.of military precision. I realised that landing on the cook-house chimney (he averted disaster this was real parade ground stuff, our manoeuvring had by turning on the power). He must have decided not to positioned us parallel to a long line of Air Force brass risk his hide any further and gave me a pass. seated behind a row of tables. I fell in with the spirit of things, quite resigned to a least going down with the ship In retrospect, there is a certain amount of humour in of my aircraft career with ail guns blazing. the whole incident, but at the time it didn't seem to warrant much mirth. The Air Force kept a book called P/0 PRUNE Misunderstanding is apparently the root of all in which every stupid mistake was recorded, names and disasters. As we lep-right-lepped along, 2359 called "right all, for anyone to read to avoid any repeats. My episode I turn" as I was on a lep. They both right turned, but the believe had a special mention. prisoner did a smart lep-turn and ended up eyeball to eyeball with a grey metal cupboard on the wall. Meanwhile Years later I was in Gibraltar and during the course of 2359 and his mate halted right in front of the prosecuting talking to a young pilot who had trained at Cunderdin officer with a gap between them which was supposed to sometime after me, his ears pricked up at the mention of contain the prisoner. my name. He said it reminded him of a galah who had a mention in the P/0 PRUNE book for wrestling with a Tiger Realising that the best laid plans of mice and men had Moth. gone astray in this case, I felt inwardly amused at the I slunk back to my own room situation, and decided to stay put pending further instructions. It was soon forthcoming. 2359 in a rather Flight Lieutenant Cridland was killed on active service dazed voice, after a sideways glance had confirmed that in New Guinea a couple of years later. Alan Pilkington, something was missing, albeit the star performer, the along with four other pilots in single engine planes, flew prisoner had defected, called "about turn - lep-right, into a mountain in Japan in bad weather during the lep-halt"! As I turned around, smiles were just fading from occupation after the war. There were no survivors. all faces. Eds Note: This accident happened on 19 March 1945 The CO was most unfriendly. He threw the book at me when three Mustangs and one Mosquito that were being after confirming that the lowest form of like in front of him ferried from Naha, Okinawa to Bofu in Japan crashed in was the miscreant of yesterdays dilemma. After listening bad weather at Shono, Japan. They were part of a large to all the rules that had been broken, including minor flight of aircraft being ferried to become part of the BCOF damage to a strut on the aircraft tail where I had been commitment. resident, he referred to me taking unauthorised charge of the aircraft. At this point Flight Lieutenant Cridland jumped

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AN EASTER SATURDAY TRAGEDY By John Laming Additional Editorial Research by Bill Baker

Forty eight years ago on Good Friday 1955, at the At 4.05 am Brisbane air traffic control was advised by Townsville General hospital, a baby girl with a severe the RAAF pilots that they were in cloud and estimating respiratory condition was causing grave concerns. A Brisbane in ten minutes Brisbane air traffic control then complex blood transfusion was necessary within a few cleared the aircraft to descend from 6,000 feet to 5,000 hours to save her life. The duty doctor decided that she feet or as low as 4,000feet, the latter being the safety needed specialist treatment as soon as possible. height for approaching Brisbane's Eagle Farm airport from Brisbane, several hundred miles to the south, had the north. hospitals which could provide this treatment and it was Nine minutes later an explosion lit up the night as the decided to ask the RAAF for an emergency medical Lincoln flew into the summit of Mount Superbus situated evacuation flight. It was late at night when the RAAF 50 miles south-west of Brisbane at an altitude of 4,000 switchboard operator put the incoming call from the feet - 200 feet below the summit.. All aboard died instantly. hospital directly through to the residence of the It seemed that the crew had mistaken the lights of a small Commanding Officer, Wing Commander John Costello. town for the city lights of Brisbane. The CO was entertaining a group of senior officers at his married quarters at the time. Among these were the The subsequent RAAF Court of Inquiry was unable to squadron senior navigation officer, senior signaler, and the squadron engineer officer. The engineer officer was once a pilot although he was not qualified on the Lincoln. The CO realized the urgency of the situation and rather than delay further by calling out the duty SAR crew, he decided to command the emergency evacuation flight himself. The others at the party were to constitute his crew. Meanwhile, I was at home as the duty SAR pilot, sleeping peacefully under my mosquito net and unaware of the unfolding tragic events. The Licoln had a number of minor unserviceabilites, but none affected the general airworthiness of the aircraft. In view of the urgent humanitarian nature of the request, it was decided to proceed. At midnight the ground crew had readied the Lincoln, while an ambulance was on its way to the RAAF base with the baby girl accompanied by a nurse. An oxygen crib was arranged in the nose section while at the same time Squadron Leader John Findlay who was the navigator, studied the weather reports and prepared his charts. Forecast weather over the route was generally good, although the weather experienced deteriorated to loud and light rain in the latter stages of the flight. The CO took the left seat while the senior engineering officer. Squadron Leader Charles Mason acted as second pilot. Flight Lieutenant Cater was the senior radio operator. The Lincoln lifted off some time after midnight on April 9 for the four hour flight to Eagle Farm airport pin point the cause of the navigational error that placed (Brisbane). The aircraft passed half-hourly position the aircraft so far off the direct track from Townsville to reports, which coincided with its original flight plan. Brisbane's Eagle Farm airport. One theory was that the The crew reported en-route that ground navigation aids navigator had failed to allow for the difference between the could not be received because of poor atmospheric true course and the magnetic variation of 10 degrees east conditions and the necessity to fly at relatively low altitude longitude. It was discovered that the estimated track to the for oxygen and warmth requirements for the baby. crash site agreed with this theory. On the other hand, the During the flight the aircraft was in cloud for much of navigator was a highly experienced airman who had the time which meant that the navigator would have had served with the elite Pathfinder squadrons over Europe difficulty in maintaining regular astro-navigation by use of during the war. These wartime operations required the star fixes. Map reading at night would have been highest of navigational skills. Perhaps in hindsight, the impossible in cloud. Whatever the reasons, the Lincoln pilot should have not let down below the minimum safe drifted inexorably off course from the time it left Townsville. altitude until he had a positively identified ground fix. Perhaps it was the urgency of the flight that led the captain

73 AHSA Aviation Heritage to lower his guard and break well known tenets of safe It ripped into trees on the steep rocky south-western airmanship. Either way it was a major tragedy resulting in side of the mountain for a distance of about 200 yards, the deaths of an experienced crew and two trusting and crumpled wreckage was strewn over a strip about 25 passengers. yards wide and 50 yards long. Wings were torn from the big bomber's fuselage, a heavy Rolls Royce Merlin The site of the crash at Mt. Superbus approximately on engine was shot about 10Oft ahead of the main the Queensland-New South Wales border, could not have wreckage, and a scattered mess of other parts seemed been worse, although only about 30 miles from the Rural to have crumpled like tinfoil in the impact. The explosions City of Warwick, it was remote from any roads, and even which followed the crash burnt the plane, and probably today, only experienced bushwalkers can make the trip to scattered parts which had not been torn off when the the wreck-site. It is interesting to contemplate that the Lincoln nosed into the treetops. local people from the nearest town of Emu Vale reacted in the same positive way that the locals of another era Only two bodies seemed to have been thrown from reacted to the crash of Stinson airliner in the Mt. the fuselage in the crash, but all were mutilated Lamington area which is not that far away. practically beyond identification.. The first people to realise that an aircraft had crashed A Canberra jet bomber from Amberley identified the. were members opf the Brisbane Bushwalkers Club who wreckage at 9.20 a.m. Lincoln bombers then maintained were camped in the area near Myers’ Timber Mill. Leader a constant vigil over the area until nightfall. of the group was Club Vice Resident Bob Hart who said; First reports of the crash came from Myers' Timber "Sometime before dawn we heard an aircraft roar low Mill, near the head of Emu Creek, and from members of overhead. We listened until the motors died away, and the Brisbane Bushwallkers' Club, who were camped then we heard a crashing noise. About 15 or 20 minutes about 300 yards south-east of the mill. later, we heard a series of loud explosions. As soon as daylight came, we split up into three parties and set out to Timbermill workers notified Warwick police they had find the crash. My party skirted the southern side of The heard an aircraft fly over the area about 4.00 am. Steamers, and then we decided to cut across for Mt. Immediately these reports were received at Warwick Superbus, about 12 miles away. When we got closer, we police station, all available policemen were called on saw the wreckage lying on the side of the peak. We duty. Two policemen from Toowoomba in a utility truck reached it about 2.30 pm, and shortly afterwards joined up picked up the Warwick police search party, and later with a party of timber workers from a sawmill in the valley, joined up with police from Killarney, Tannymorel and who had walked from a different direction." Yangan. THE WARWICK DAILY NEWS MONDAY, BODIES BROUGHT OUT APRIL 11,1955 Five exhausted Warwick policemen, their clothes in "The aircraft was rushing from Townsville to Brisbane tatters, and, their hands and legs scratched and a day-old baby girl who was to have been given a blood scarred, returned to the city about 5.30 p.m. yesterday transfusion to save her life. Sister Mafalda Gray, of after having helped 15 R.A.A.F. men from Amberley Townsville General Hospital, who volunteered to carry the victims' bodies by stretcher down six miles of accompany the baby on the bomber's mercy flight, the near-impenetrable bush to the head of Em Creek. The baby - Robyn Huxley, of Townsville - and the bomber's policemen had not slept since leaving Warwick at 9.30 four crew members were killed. on Saturday morning'. Cloud and heavy mist shrouded the mountain when The bodies were transported to Amberley last night." the bomber hurtled into it before dawn on Friday morning. The bomber is believed to have been off course THE VICTIMS when it hit the mountainside. According to R.A.A.F. Baby Robyn Huxley, Townsville. officials it crashed into the mountain while in level flight. Sister Mafalda Gray, Townsville. How the bomber came to be so far off course is still a Wing Commander John Peter Costello, Pilot, Townsville. mystery. An inquiry will be held into the disaster. Top Squadron Leader Charles Mason, Second Pilot, Ipswitch. R.A.A.F. officers said the aircraft crew may have Squadron Leader John Finlay, Navigator, Townsville. mistaken the lights Warwick for Ipswich through low Flight Lieutenant William Cater, Wireless Operator, Townsville. cloud.

Postscript - MYSTERY AT EAGLE FARM by John Laming Two days after the accident I flew Lincoln A73-68 to coffin of the little baby girl really got to me, and I was Eagle Farm. Our instructions were to bring the coffins of moved to tears. the nurse and the baby girl back to Townsville. There they We carried out the cockpit checks and prepared to were to be burled with full military honours. We landed at start the engines. The second pilot switched on all four Brisbane at 1610 hours on April and while waiting for electric fuel pumps and we received the all clear to start the hearse to arrive, the navigator flight planned for the No 3 engine first. To my surprise I could see raw petrol return leg. The funeral was scheduled for the following running out of the overflow lines of each engine. This was mid-morning. potentially dangerous as flames from the engine exhaust When the coffins arrived I helped with the sad task of pipes (twelve for each engine) could easily ignite the petrol loading them into the back of the Lincoln. Lifting the tiny fumes with disastrous consequences.

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We carried a RAAF engine fitter on away from home coffins were reverently lifted from the Lincoln and trips. He was puzzled as to the cause of the fuel overflow transported to the waiting DCS. and decided to open the engine cowls to investigate With less than 7 hours to go for the funeral, the DCS further. First we had to locate a portable stand, tall taxied on to the long runway at Eagle Farm and prepared enough for the engineer to gain access to the engines. for take off. It was 0200 Tuesday 12^^ of April, and we had This, coupled with four engines to check, took an hour or been on duty since lunch time the previous day. A RAAF so. Finally the petrol flow mysteriously stopped on two of truck arrived to take us to the RAAF base at Archerfield to the engines. But the other two remained a problem. It was get a meal and some sleep before returning later to sort now growing dark with less than twelve hours left before out our Lincoln troubles. We were about to climb aboard the funeral. By 2100 hours the engineer not solved the when I heard the sounds of backfiring from one of the problem. I decided to start the engines without the electric engines of the DCS and a few minutes later we saw it fuel pumps - which normally will never be successful. To slowly taxying back to the tarmac area. The propellers our delight (and the relief of the sweating engineer), all creaked to a stop and the captain emerged. He told us four engines started at first attempt. that one of the engines had not developed the proper power during its test before takeoff and that in all Part of the checklist included switching on the probability one of the engine's two magnetos was out of electrically operated gyro - compass. This I did - only to tolerance, or the spark plugs were faulty. Either way, the find in disbelief that the compass was spinning crazily and DCS was going nowhere tonight. quite useless for navigation purposes. Then the crew intercommunication system failed. That meant that the Spec Taylor contacted air traffic control who advised crew would have to resort to shouting at each other in that another DCS freighter this time from Australian order to carry out our respective duties. The unserviceable National Airways, was scheduled to depart shortly for gyro-compass was now a real problem. To the left side of Mackay and Townsville. We made a hurried visit to that the Instrument panel was a standby compass known as aircraft which was still loading freight and newspapers. the P8. It looked like one of those old fashioned ship's The captain agreed to take the coffins and we soon had compass and was only used as a last resort. The parallex these loaded aboard. With great relief we watched the error was significant and the magnetic needle bounced DCS takeoff and slowly turn northwards. An hour later we around in turbulence, making it very difficult to steer an arrived at the Archerfield RAAF base for a shower and accurate course in the air. sleep. By our estimate the DCS should arrive in Townsville with less than one hour to spare for the funeral service. We had experienced a bumpy trip from Townsville with poor weather most of the way. It was this weather system My diary shows that I was in bed by OSSO that morning, which had made night navigation difficult for Wing only to be woken up again less than three hours later. A Commander Costello, and was a contributory factor in the message from Townsville had arrived stating that our accident. I had no intention of flying back to Townsville in Lincoln was needed back at Townsville as soon as the middle of the night with an unserviceable gyro­ possible. At least it was going to be a daylight flight with compass. It would have been impossible to steer an the probability of visual conditions for map reading. While accurate course on the ancient standby P8 compass. The the navigator drew up his flight plan I talked to the civilian inoperative intercomm system was the last straw as far as briefing officer. He told me that half way through the flight I was concerned, so I rang the acting CO at Townsville to Townsville, the ANA DC3 with the coffins on board had and asked his advice. a total radio failure and was out of contact. Early fears that the aircraft may have gone missing turned to relief when it It was late at night with only eight hours to go for the was seen coming over the mountains to the south of funeral and an unserviceable Lincoln sitting on the tarmac. Townsville. The RAAF controller In the tower had been In the dark reaches of the fuselage lay the two coffins alerted to the radio failure, and shortly afterwards, as the waiting to be taken home for the final time. We had been DCS turned on to final approach, he flashed a green light on duty for over 13 hours and were weary and I was not at the crew signifying clear to land. A hearse was waiting looking forward to the prospect of flying through the night and the funeral was held on time with just thirty minutes to in bad weather. Yet it was going to be an embarrassment spare. to the RAAF if the funeral party was in place but no bodies to bury. The acting CO at Townsville, Squadron Leader Back at Eagle Farm, I climbed into the captain's seat of Geoffrey Hughes, asked me to contact the RAAF base at A73-68 and carried out the before start checks. All four Amberley, 25 miles from Brisbane, to see if they could engines started first time and the intercomm worked quickly get a Canberra bomber across to Eagle Farm to perfectly. Initially the gyro compass would not operate and pick up the coffins. I got through to the CO of the bomber we used the old P8 compass. We flew the coastal route squadron at midnight and asked for his help. His name back to Townsville relying on our radar and map reading was Wing Commander Leo Britt. He was most apologetic for position fixes. As we made the final position fix at Cape but said that all of his Canberra's were in Darwin on war Bowling Green, some 20 miles from Townsville, the sun exercises and that there was no other suitable aircraft shone brightly and the gyro compass came back to life. available. While this conversation was taking place, the When we touched down on runway 02 a few minutes later, local RAAF Air Traffic Control officer. Flight Lieutenant Lincoln A73-68 was fully serviceable with no sign of any of "Spec" Taylor, had made inquiries with the airlines at the previous problems. It was hard to explain that away. Eagle Farm to see If there were any freight aircraft going Years later, I still wonder if there is any plausible to Townsville in the early hours of the morning. He struck explanation of those mysterious happenings - or if those gold on that one. A Douglas DC3 freighter with two young souls had decided that one flight In a Lincoln newspapers and general cargo was about to depart. Spec was one flight too many... ^ Taylor contacted the captain of the Butler's Air transport aircraft who agreed to take the coffins on his aircraft. The

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TOILETS!! By Roger McDonald

Modern day air travelers expect the latest in terminal facilities and when they pass through them during their travels, no doubt they give little thought to what early day air travelers endured, especially in outback Australia. The provision of such a vital facility as a toilet in two areas of Australia back in the early days of air travel did cause some problems for one airline company while the other tackled the problem very simply in an Australian way!

in Western Australia, the Roebourne Roads Board in places of small population in a sparsely populated area), the north-west of Western Australia wrote on 15th the whole operation is impossible unless the Stations January, 1936 to the Civil Aviation Board’s Maylands Perth served provide the Company with certain specified office drawing their attention to the fact there was no assistance free of charge: sanitary facilities at the local aerodrome for the For example, under the abridged conditions: convenience of passengers on the Nor’ West Air Route. Condition 7: Brings fresh drinking water to the aircraft. The letter was passed to the highest authority, the Condition 8: Provides a toilet facility at the aerodrome - Controller of Civil Aviation, E.C. Johnston in Melbourne the minimum being a single wall (solid or brush) behind who replied to the Road’s Board in part: which people can go and not be seen . “In regard to the above matter, i.e., Roebourne Condition 9: Provides all the above facilities without cost Aerodrome - Sanitary Conveniences, I desire to inform to the company. you that this Department is unable to accept responsibility Condition 7 is expanded later in the Manual under for providing sanitary conveniences and other TOILET FACILITIES: arrangements for the comfort of air services passengers. “It is obvious that we cannot give a Station service The Aircraft Company operating the air service via without carrying passengers through that Station becc'.use Roebourne is subsidized by the Commonwealth and the if we did not have this revenue, the service would not Company is responsible for the provision of any necessary operate. It is therefore a necessary condition that Stations facilities for the convenience of it’s passengers” “ It is provide the minimum facility for the convenience of understood that the Company operating the air service passengers traveling through, bearing in mind that some has provided sanitary conveniences at other aerodrome of them will be women. on the Nod West air route, and a copy of your letter and this reply has been forwarded to the MacRobertson-Miller The absolute minimum is a brush wail about 6ft. Aviation Co. Limited, Perth.” high and 8 - 10ft. long which cannot be seen Following a letter from MacRobertson-Miller to the Civil through. Of course, if something better can be Aviation Board requesting the Board re-consider their provided it will be very much appreciated, but once attitude to providing sanitary facilities at Roebourne, a again, if the Company had to bear the cost of compromise was reached between the Civil Aviation providing this essential facility at many Stations the Board and the Roebourne Roads Board. The Secretary, whole operation would become economically Civil Aviation Board, S.H. Crawford wrote to impossible.” MacRobertson-Miller Aviation Co. Ltd. on May 4, 1936: “Roebourne Aerodrome Sanitary Conveniences. Referring to your letter of 19^^ February, 1936, on the above subject, the following is a copy of a letter dated 6.4.36 from the Secretary, Roebourne Road Board, which has been referred to this office by Inspector Collopy, Maylands Aerodrome:- “My Board have received advice from Mr. Rodoreda, M.L.A., that your Department will erect Sanitary arrangements at the Roebourne Aerodrome conditionally that removals are made by my Board. I have been directed to inform you that pans will be provided by the Board and the necessary removals carried out as required. I have also to state that my Board appreciates your action in having this required convenience made available” “As this Department has no information regarding this proposal, it is presumed the arrangements mentioned by the Secretary to the Road Board have been made by your Company." No doubt passengers were soon to enjoy the new facilities being provided after much written discussion as No brush fence here! A Connellan Airways Cessna to whose responsibility it was! 180 is watched over by a typical early Australian toilet In Central Australia, the provision of Sanitary at the lonely Granites airstrip in the Tanami Desert, Conveniences was solved much easier and without too Northern Territory. (Walkabout Magazine - 1959) much correspondence. The provision of toilets at landing grounds used by Alice Springs based Connellan AinA/ays References: Various letters and items in the author’s Pty Ltd. on their mail flights was explicitly covered In an Connellan Airways and MacRobertson-Miller collection.4- early version of their Station Manual. This set out the strict conditions to be met if the Station was to receive a regular service with certain facilities being mandatory. The Manual was prefaced: “Because of the very nature of the services operated by this company (serving many

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CIVIL AIRCRAFT HISTORIES 1 Douglas DC-3-387 / C-49B-DO Ain-4094 (NC28386) / 41-7691 / VHC-DD / VH-ANO / (PK-PIB) / VH-ANO / XU-FAI By Peter Kelly and John Hopton®

Photographed on the tarmac at Essendon

Airframe 4094 was the sixth of a group of eight model the radio call-sign VHC-DD, and named as "Eager Elaine". DC-3-201 F aircraft [ains 4089 to 4096] ordered by Eastern On 02 Dec 42, it was received by the Commonwealth Airlines in 1940, and built by the Douglas Aircraft Co., Inc. Aircraft Corporation [C.A.C.] at Fishermen's Bend, Vic. for at Santa Monica, California. These were laid out for 21 modifications, which may have included at this time the re­ passengers, with the cabin door on the starboard side, installation of the door to the port side and of a design and were fitted with the Wright SGR-1820-71 Cyclone of more suited for cargo work. This work was completed on:. . 1,200 h.p. The first five aircraft were delivered to Eastern 08 Jan 43, and the aircraft was handed back to the Air as -201F, but the remaining three were impressed on the Force on the 9th. By February, it is recorded as being in production line and re-designated as model DC-3-387 for use with the 46th T.C.S. the U.S.A.A.C. As type C-49B-DO, these machines retained the civil engines, and were limited to 25,200 lb To supplement the few transport aircraft available to a.u.w. Intended to carry registration NC28386, ain 4094 the Royal Australian Air Force [R.A.A.F.], several of these became 41-7691 on the U.S.A.A.C. roll. impressed machines were leased to the Australian Government for use with the R.A.A.F. transport Handed over to the Air Corps on 22 Feb 41, the history squadrons; 41-7691 was so transferred on 24 May 43 and of this aircraft is unknown for the next 18 months, added to the strength of No. 36 Sqn. It saw use along the eastern seaboard, throughout northern Australia and up into the islands to the north, in support of the advancing Allied forces until 20 Apr 44, when the A.D.A.T. advised the Department of Civil Aviation [D C.A.] that the aircraft would be transferred to Australian National Airways Pty., Ltd. [A.N.A.], continuing to operate under contract to the A.D.A.T. and replacing older aircraft in their fleet then being operated on the same basis. By this time, the C-49B had changes made to its engines; those installed now being designated as "R- 1820-65 (without turbo super- charger)". Whether these were the original {R-1820-71) engines modified by the removal of the super-chargers, ’Skyliner' VH-ANO of Ansett-ANA at Essendon on December 27 1966. or engines of a completely different However, in mid-1942 it - and a number of other assorted known, impressed and older transport types - were ear-marked for 41-7691 was returned to the A.D.A.T. on 26 April, then delivery to Australia for use with the much over-worked formally leased to A.N.A. on the 29th; it was handed over fleet then being operated by the Allied Directorate of Air Archerfield, Old. After overhaul to Transport Services [A.D.A.T.]. Actual date of delivery to Australian C. of A. standards, the C-49B received the Australia is unknown, and whether it was flown across the special Australian C. of A. no. X-21, valid from 21 August Pacific or shipped is still unclear, but it was allotted on continued work under charter to A.N.A. but still under delivery to the 21st Troop Carrier Squadron [T.C.S.], given operational control of the A.D.A.T. The several aircraft leased to A.N.A. (also Guinea Airways, Ltd. and

77 AHSA Aviation Heritage

Qantas Empire Airways, Ltd.) under these contract loosely based on the old Braniff scheme Ansett had arrangements were generally flown by chief pilots from the adopted for his Convair 340/440 fleet, and the fleet-name respective airlines, supported by R.A.A.F. second-pilots was removed. The wings (with black registration lettering), and radio-operators. 41-7691 continued to carry out work tailplane and the lower fuselage remained natural metal - similar to that it had been undertaking when under the cabin-top was white; centre-band on fin and window- R.A.A.F. control, but in this period seems to have been level-band were in a medium blue and the roof-line titling used primarily along the eastern seaboard of Australia. and all other colour areas were a carmine-red colour. Passenger and freighter DC-3s were painted identically, On 03 Oct 44, the A.D.A.T. was disbanded and re­ only the inscription "Skyliner" or "Cargoliner" across the fin formed as the 5298th Troop Carrier Wing [T.C.W.] as from indicating the different use to which the individual that date, this change in no way affecting the charter machines were put. VH-ANO was repainted in the arrangements in place with A.N.A., and the aircraft "Skyliner" scheme early in the 1960s, and continued in continued in use as previously noted. By December, it use from Cairns with a brief stint based at Essendon, Vic. was operating as far north as Finschafen and Hollandia, during mid-/late-1966. and continued to do so without event until March, 1946. In the meanwhile, other events which were to affect the life of VH-ANO returned to be permanently based at this aircraft had taken place. Essendon for short-haul work in April, 1968, but only for a With the U.S. forces rapidly moving northward and short period as it was withdrawn from use there on 30 Sep aware of the Air Force wishing to dispose of older 68, and stored in the graveyard. However, due to a equipment, A.N.A. struck a deal to acquire several of shortage of Fokker Friendship aircraft, it re-entered these older aircraft, which included 41-7691. Exactly service on 01 Jan 69 and remained in occasional use until when the sale of this aircraft to A.N.A. took place is not its final retirement at Essendon on 28 Sep 69. It was known, but it was by 25 Aug 45, by which date it had also cancelled from the civil register on the 29th. been allotted registration VH-ANO in expectation of post- Early in 1970, VH-ANO was sold to an organization 'War civil use. On or about 02 Jan 46 the charter identified as Pan Indonesian Airways, and early in March arrangements with the U.S. authorities were terminated. It did, however, continue to operate under the same conditions for some time (last record 14 Mar 46 - but later flights may have been made), and, although it is unknown under what authority-arrangement these flights were made, it is thought that some sort of reverse-charter agreement between the U.S.A.A.F and A.N.A. was established for this period.

Ain 4094 went to the A.N.A. workshops at Archerfield, and after overhaul and modification to passenger configuration was named Tinana ("feather") and added to the civil register as VH-ANO on 22 May 46 (C. of R. no. 982). It is believed that at this time (or shortly after), the existing engines were replaced with a Pan-Indonesian Airways VH-ANO at Essendon 06-09-70 pair of R-1820-97 (G202A) Cyclones, as this change is indicated on the C. of A. no. X-21, by was hangared for overhaul and repaint. By the end of the now re-numbered as no. 969 and valid from 12 Jul 46. month it had been rolled out in full Pan Indonesian paint scheme, less titling and registration (PK-PIB had been Illustration of the aircraft in the early 1950's shows it to allotted) and parked in the graveyard. By mid-June it was be fitted with a standard passenger-type door, but when still in these markings and still in the graveyard, but on 19 this change was made in not known for certain {see earlier July was test-flown - as VH-ANO - to West Beach, S.A. text, above). Over the next ten years, VH-ANO served and return, and on the next day was re-registered as VH- with the A.N.A. fleet, primarily based at Cairns, Old., and ANO under ownership of Consolidated Aircraft Holdings. accumulated considerable flying hours during this period. Attempts to sell the aircraft finally came to fruition by By c. 1955, the all-over polished-metal scheme had been February, 1971, when it was purchased by United Khmer modified to the extent that the entire roof had been painted Airlines. Whilst having been allotted Khmer registration a gloss white from a line above the top of the cabin XU-FAI, it flew out of Essendon as VH-ANO on delivery to windows, with a thin red line as separator; the titling Cambodia accompanied by VH-ANV (intended as XU- "Australian National Airways" was then added in black EAH) on 04 Mar 71, being cancelled from the civil register (capitals and underline in red) immediately above the on the 30th. window line. Registration date for this aircraft on to the Cambodian 04 Oct 57 saw A.N.A. amalgamate with Ansett register is not known, nor is any history of use of the Airways, Ltd. to form Ansett-A.N.A., but as with most of the aircraft in Cambodian ownership. Such references that do now-combined fleet, VH-ANO continued to operate in its mention its fate usually indicate it as being cancelled from A.N.A. markings for some time, and to be based at Cairns. the Cambodian civil register in 1975, without additional Evenually, the remnants of the A.N.A. scheme was detail. 4- removed and replaced with a red-white-blue scheme

78 AHSA Aviation Heritage

The Fijian 'Belle Richard Hourigan Additional information from Neville Hayes

In May 1928 Charles Kingsford-Smith with the The wreckage, of Major Harkness's craft and a second Southern Cross became the first international flight to land Dornier were shipped to Suva. But Alf s problems weren't in Fiji. However they were not the first aeroplane to be over. The Dornier was more a flying fish than a flying boat, seen there, as there were other air pioneers who made and its slow, low and uncertain leaps over the water were their mark on Fiji - in big and little ways. usually shorter than planned. One was a Mr Fleming, who in 1922 built an aeroplane The log book for VQ-FAB, still in Alf Marlow's and tried to fly it on Laucala beach. He kept his maiden possession, reads like a Pilot's nightmare: flight a secret, saying he was not offering a "bob-a-head "Feb. 27 (1931) - performance poor, take off bad. show" to let people see him break his neck. His neck Feb. 28 -Forced landing owing to bad performance remained intact, but the plane didn't: it buckled when the wheels caught in the soft sand and the machine nosed March 3 - Forced landing after 5 minutes in air. into the mud. Revs dropped suddenly to 200 March 6 - Engine failure, forced landing. Captain Gordon Fenton was probably the first true Fiji March 18 -forced landing owing to failure of tail aviator. He assembled his British-built Simmonds Spartan plane through corrosion. Machine laid up indefinitely-". bi-plane in front of the Metropole Hotel (Initially with the wings on backwards, until the mistake was discovered) The Dornier remained in the Suva back sheds until and registered it as a commercial aircraft, VQ-FAA. 1978. when it was shipped back to the parent company in Between 1930 and 32, VQ-FAA made frequent hops to Germany, the only one of its kind left in the world. Levuka, Lautoka and Savusavu. Captain Fenton set up Searching through old boxes of slides, I found an the first Fiji Ain^/ays only to be wiped out by the interesting one amongst a lot of non-aviator slides from a depression, and he later offered himself and his plane to holiday in Fiji nearly 40 years ago. During my stay in Fiji's government, at a salary of £300 a year. On his first flight capital Suva, my host, an engineer with Fiji Airways as part of the new, government- subsidised Fiji Air mentioned that there were the remains of an old aeroplane Services, Captain Fenton covered the 112 miles between stored in a timber yard belonging to "Fiji Builders" in town. Lautoka and Suva in a breathtaking one hour 35 minutes. So even on holidays, I had to track this report down, which He followed it up the next day with the first scheduled flight eventuated to be the hull of a small flying boat lying on the to Labasa via Levuka, Makogal and Nabouwalu. on roof of a timber rack. The condition was very poor, as the alloy exhibited advanced corrosion and the steel Then there was Alf Marlow's flying boat. The flying boat fittings were rusted to the stage of the metal flaking. No was a Dornier Libelle, built in Germany in 1922. Alf used internal equipment was left inside the cockpit. to spend "two and a half days on my bloody feet" getting between Suva and Lautoka, not counting a possible lift on The wings were stored in the rafters of a nearby timber the CSR cane train on the Sigatoka side and a launch trip rack in somewhat better state, they yielded the aircraft's between Navua and Suva. So when he was on leave in identity VQ-FAB. My Memory fails me as to whether the New Zealand and heard about two Dornier Libelle flying enpanage was also there. I think the reason for the aircraft boats, one wrecked for sale, he bought them. Probably he for being there was that the engine had been utilised to assumed It would be an end to his long cross-country operate timber cutting equipment, but as mentioned it was treks. a long time ago, 15 July 1966 to be precise! He was wrong. The aircraft had belonged to a veteran Assuming that there was only ever one Dornier Libelle World War 1 fighter pilot. Major Donald Harkness who had registered In Fiji VQ-FAB, and that it is the ex Australian been killed when one of the flying boat he was flying apparently Imported ex NZ aircraft that was operated by plunged into Auckland harbour on Its first New Zealand Stanley Masterman. Any confirmation as to tying up these test flight. It was later learned that the Major had crammed identities and any further information on this aircraft a large rock into the tail section of the aircraft because the continued existence would be welcomed. flying boat had a tendency to be nose-heavy. The rock Further information is that VQ-FAB was returned to broke loose and rolled, forward. Dornier in Germany in 1978 for restoration. ^

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