In the start of the 70s my father was a Policeman in the NT Police Force, we had the Police Station at Timber Creek for a while, we had our airstrip there, it served for the mail man, a fella named Dick Bradshaw flying a small Cessna who was quiet courageous, the Royal Flying Doctors who used to visit regularly in the little DH Doves or the Herron, the odd Dakota was seen, my father had to do alot of things, everytime a plane was coming we had to rip out the airtstrip open the plates to signal the strip was open, do a quick roo shoo off and make sure the wind sock was doing its buisness, rain or not the craft would come in,
My father had to partake in prisoner searches from the air, the odd villian used to make a dash for it and for some reason they would end up in dads area, sometimes a loaned Iroquois would come out for the searches, I remember going with dad in a Dakka on a search he spent hours up in the astrodome with binos, the water resources fella would come out regularly in a Bell47, think his name was Snowy? he would take us kids up for a fly over the Victoria River and the big water falls there, they always scared the hell out of me having no doors and when he turned to go down ah I wished I wasnt there,
There was a Caribou there one day, some reservists came out for a bivvy and something to do with boats and the Victoria River, my dad was a Sergeant in the CMF at the time, his unit was disbanded after Cyclone Tracy though he didnt discharge until 1979 having served in the Army since 62, dad is a survival specialist and his skills were used by the Police in training at times, my dad was also the founding member of the Duke Of Edinburgh Awards Scheme in Darwin.
We were stationed in Darwin at the time of Tracy in 74, we lost our house and everything in it, I remember driving around the Air Port and RAAF Base with dad, I remember the Base Commanders own C47 ended up in his own front yard, what can i say it wanted to go home!, seeing Cessna mangled around poles and other planes, the old B25 that was at East Point Museum went swimming, we were there when the TAA and Ansett 727s were evacuating Darwin, will never forget them hosties in them Orange uniforms with very short skirts,
In the later years of my life there I seen the Concorde which made a stop in Darwin I think it damaged the runway as it came in and was stuck there for a bit, the RAF Vulcan Bombers made a stop there one day, my best mate at schools dad was a RAAF Doggie Handler he tooks us down the flight line of the Vulcans I remember thinking how enormous they were as a kid.
My sister was in the RAAF at the time and based in Darwin on EDP duties, she was going out with a B52 crewman, these big buggers and the KC135s would come in regularly from Guam, I got to sit in a B52 drivers seat and looked over the 135,
as a RAAF Cadet and being based on the Base itself we often got to see aircraft, in those the days the old Mirages were still getting about as were the odd Canberra (my fav machine), my sisters best mates boyfriend was a ground crew on the Mirages he later went to become FE on the Orions and later before his poaching by Qantas a FE on the 707 flight,
As a cadet one night we were given the chance to look at a Pig (F111), we marched down to the field through the gate and he was this F111, I was gobsmacked at its bueaty and how mean it looked, the Adgies on guard said we have 5 mins to look at it, the dogs have just been released and you dont want to be here when they arrive, so we had our 5 mins of fame with the Pig and then left, at an Airshow on the base there one year there was a Nomad doing it STOL thing but the show stealer was when a Caribou came in for a landing, the pilot flicked the tail up in the air and was running along on the nose gear with her bum pointing upwards, he then gunned it (yes he gunned a Bou, go figure!) of he went come around again and pulled of the shortest landing I have ever seen in my life,
My interest with Aircraft continued for years and still does, I was fortunate enough a long time ago to go up in the C47 owned by the AWM when she was still being flown by the RAAF as a flying memorial plus meant she had access to RAAF spares, the Pilot was a volunteer RAAFY who flew her on his own time out of love for the old girl, I was sitting in the Nav station with the headset on, by geez the language coming from these guys was incredible, they must be pigs to fly. I will never forget that flight or the amount of oil spewing out the back of the P&W engine, these days the only flying I do is once in a while a trip to Darwin to see family members, I love the old technology machines and always will.
PS A 767 in the hands of an ex RAAF F18 jock on a rainy day is an experience I dont enjoy!
