NEWS Published by the Aviation Historical Society of Australia Inc. A0033653P, ARBN 092-671-773 Volume 33 Number 4 (Published September, 2017) Editor: Dion Makowski All images by editor unless otherwise credited email: [email protected] Website: www.ahsa.org.au (memberships available) facebook: look for us under Aviation Historical Society of Australia Obituary On Friday 30 June 2017 an era came to a close with the death at age 77, of Aviation Historian extraordinaire John Hopton. John was a foundation member of AHSA and its offshoot the Moorabbin Air Museum being a life member of both. His collection of data and images pertaining to Australian Aviation History was accumulated over a lifetime of photography and diligent archival research making him an expert second to none. He developed his own method of storing and retrieving this data well before computers whose value he recognised and embraced as soon as they were sufficiently developed. John maintained a vast network of fellow historians globally, exchanging information and images, first by mail then via computer. A pro‐ lific contributor to our Journal his name can be found in hundreds of aviation books and magazines as a valued author and contributor. John was always available to assist and mentor those persons showing a genuine desire for help in any aviation research or writing. He had a photographic memory for things Aviation and Books, a wicked sense of humour and a more than passing acquaintance with music, the arts and wood work. Those of us privileged to have him as a friend and work with him closely found him to be scathing of less than perfect work but always ready to teach and help us overcome our deficiencies. John, by Government default was the one stop, " Australian Aviation Archive". Sadly we have lost a great histo‐ rian, tutor and friend but, he will live on in the legacy of his work. Vale John . RJ. John is survived by his sister Helen. The attached image is of him in his office discussing aeronautics with Trevor Boughton, foundation member of AHSA on 16 September, 2009. President’s Column PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS Welcome to this issue of the AHSA Newsletter. Below are a few items that I feel will be of interest to members. As I have noted before both the editor of this newsletter, Dion, and the editor of the Journal, Aviation Heritage, would both like to hear from members with news or articles that they can run in their respective publications. The motto is your news should be the member’s news. PC Virus. A lot of us use computers for our recording and communication work. Now most will recall that in recent months there has been a lot of media pub‐ licity about computers in the commercial field having an attack by ransomeware. What is a ransomeware attack? To put it in simple terms it is an attack from persons unknown, from some unknown location around the world, who put a virus into a computer and demand a ransom to remove it. The attack locks the computers files and you cannot get access to them. The payment is to be made in Bitcoins so there is no known way to track the offending party. There is no gurantee that even if you paid the ransom that the virus would be released from the computer files. Now you ask how does one get a dose of this virus? The most common way is to open a file that then downloads the virus and locks your computer and its records. That file could be as simple as an email telling you that you have won a prize or asking to fill out a survey. The clue can often be to look at the senders address and if it does not match the subject matter then be very wary. Often the spelling is poor and there may not be good graphics to go with the email. I got a dose of this virus in 2016. It locked my files, but not my email, and demanded a Bitcoin ransom that equated to about A$820. I declined and got my computer geek in to look at the issue. He was able to get rid of the virus in the locked files but I lost two years of files. Imagine my thoughts. What is the lesson from all this? 1 The main thing is to be very wary of any incoming email that you are not expecting or looks a bit odd or strange. Be prepared to delete it to pre‐ vent an attack. Understand that greed is a human negative so do not believe that you have won a lottery that you have not entered. That survey that ask questions is the same. The promised free holiday with the enter here button could well be a virus about to be given the green light – by you. There are several ways to try and get around this issue. One is to have an external hard drive back up and every few days back up your records and files. Do isolate that external hard drive when not using you PC so that it cannot be accessed by a virus. For files that have less priority another way is to send them to yourself. If they get into the incoming emails they, in my case at least, were not affected by the virus that attacked the record files. The summary is, be wary of anything not expected or that looks a bit odd. Think before you open any incoming email. The wrong press of a button could end up with a lot of heartache. COLLECTIONS It is unfortunate to record the passing of members with the end result that their collections of photos, books and other records are left to whoever to dispose of. As we have seen sometimes those records are simply dumped and lost forever. A disaster in our minds. It is to be noted that a lot of our brethren in the aviation historical field are part of the baby boomers bubble passing through time. They were born in the period of 1945 to around 1960 and that massive bubble of people of a like age are now moving through the years. In the late 50s’ and 60s’ and onwards they were aviation enthusiasts as well as house buyers, car buyers and of course getting married. Some bought aircraft but that in‐ volvement has peaked with time and interest. Now we see that baby boomers bubble reaching an age where there is more interest in overseas holidays and river cruises and concern with how long their superannuation will last. This leads back to the issue of disposal of one’s collection. This subject has been in previous issues of this column and it will continue. In recent times an aviation friend dropped me a few words on how he plans to dispose of his collection. He is an avid aviation book collector and has a large collection in his man cave. I have seen his old man cave. It was impressive and included not only books but other aviation artifacts and ‘stuff’ that he had acquired over the years. Aware that he is closer to the end than the beginning he has chosen to move the majority of his collection to an acquired hangar. The hangar has become a warehouse. There he has batched his book collection into various groups. He has catalogued and pho‐ tographed the batches so that on his demise the executor will be very able to put the whole lot up for sale via an illustrated catalogue with a de‐ scription of the items in the various batches. VALE MEMBERS It is with much regret to advise the passing of members of the AHSA. Member John Hopton passed away on June 30 at Dandenong, Vic. He was aged 77. John was probably the best know aviation historian in Australia. He did not write bulk books but did write a series of monographs on various sub‐ jects. He also contributed to a number of author's books in Australia and overseas. The A.J.Jackson British Civil Aircraft books have numerous Aus‐ tralian details that came via John. John was a character in his own right and did not want a formal funeral or event to note his passing. In spite of that a gathering of friends and contacts was held at the Australian National Aviation Museum (Moorabbin Air Museum) on Saturday September 9. Some 40 people present heard a précis of John’s life from friend and MC, Roland Jahne. John was a founding member of the AHSA and the Austra‐ lian Aircraft Restoration Group. He may be gone but John’s legacy will be long felt. R.I.P. AHSA Inc ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING – 23rd August 2017 Treasurer's Report The year finished with an overall profit of $7100 compared with a prior year loss of $840. This turnaround in operating profit was mainly due to lower expenses in Journal production and distribution ($5084). This was achieved through the benefits of digital printing and the change to a bulk mailing system. There was also a small net increase in membership fees of $789 after de‐ ducting $648 received this year for fees due in the prior year 2015‐16, as referred to in last year’s treasurer’s report. The amount of pre‐paid memberships now stands at $280, compared to $2408 at 30th June 2017. The money in the PayPal account at 30th June was transferred to the Business Cheque account in July 2017.