sixtiesrelic

Nick, I'll be out of the country for almost a month soon. I'll contact you when I get back. Sixties

Re: Sydney - Brisbane - Port Vila Hmm at this stage I'm rostered for an afternoon shift that day. I maybe able to get away and meet you and bring you up for a quick look at the ATC centre and ATC simulator which is a couple of minutes from both terminals. That'd be better than drinkin' coffee Sixties

Re: Sydney - Brisbane - Port Vila when do you do the 3 hour stop over in Bris Nick?

Got to Moresby in 1969 as a DC-3 F.O. Bill Vise, Roy Cullen, Frank Ward were Moresby based pilots with Stol. (the last had the record for running out of fuel and not killing himself... always somewhere between short final and the hangar, so they say) Knew Loopy Len a bit ... story goes, he carried a huge "Tam tam" alarm clock he'd bought at a trade store, with him in the aircraft, to remind him it was time for a position report. Pax got alarmed when Len sat back, and closed his eyes after setting it. He was the only bloke I knew of who passed all the ATPL subjects first go. Mac Drew was in Ansett with me and had been a F.O with my old man when he was in TAA. (the old man was with Guinea Airways 1940 -42 then Adelaide with Guinea Airways. Went to ANA for six months in 1946 then became Flt Captain DC-4 when TAA introduced them ... later became Chief Pilot/ Flight Superintendant. Visited Brian Mc Cook a couple of years ago with my uncle's 1940 -1942 colour 16 MM movies of Guinea Airways flying, to see if he could identify some of the country in them. The uncle started with Ray Parer in 1935 and flipped about to Stephenson, Carpenters then G.A. Flew Avro Avian, Gipsy Moths, Simmonds Spartan, Fox Moth, Dragon, Ford trimotors Avro 246 Junkers... single and trimotors. Got killed in a Lockheed 14 south of Darwin in 1942. Knew Steve Barnett to say hello to. I was in a flat with his brother Phil in Boroko for a while. The others.... knew some of their names. Didn't everybody get their first STOL basing at the Daru Hilton? I went to Madang in 1970 till 73 with Ansett PNG. My cousin followed me to PNG in 1975 till 77 mostly with Douglas. He was the fifth pilot in the family. Our Grandfather couldn't stand having two sons sitting, discussing a technical subject he knew nothing about in the late thirties, so went off to Mascot to learn to fly. Did his first solo and "knew all there was to know about flying" (Mortals get to that stage at about 300 hours) Gave it away then, but kept up studying the sons latest books they imported from the USA eg "Through the Overcast" by Assen Jordanoff which cost a weeks wages My cousin also followed me into Ansett Oz later. (He owns the DC-3 VHCWS that features here in The Aussie Aviator) ... { I refuse to use the initials... they belong only to the REAL TAA that we knew} Other names?? worked in Airservices Australia (ATC simulator) with Ian Maloney... I think he was with Airfast, risking his life in choppers as well as flogging around in Aztecs. He's retired and playing grey nomad. Ken Jarrold lives nearby... he also worked here in Bris in the controller's simulator. Was with Stol and became Patair Chief Pilot. He was the one who landed the Skyvan with his feet up on the windscreen after the crock got loose in the cabin and hid behind the rudder pedals... the sook!What year were yoiwith Stol... sounds like a few years before I got there. gotta go! Sixties

Hi Greg, I was with Patair at Moresby from 1969 till Ansett took over and remained in PNG till 1973. Haven't been visiting the Aussie Aviator much lately as I've been busy. Sixties.

DC9 waiting to line up on RW 04 old Brisbane airport pre 1982 post 1978 I'm in another DC9 taking the photo. The blob between the tailplane and the roof is a Cessna 336/7 landing.

The REAL VH-CZLczl.jpg[/attachment:3owh1vat] [ATTACH]17776[/ATTACH]

Daren and Nick! That emblem was the shortest lived and in the dying stages of the airline. Definitely not the most fondly remembered by many in the airline either.ansett .jpg[/attachment:iit7tuum] [ATTACH]17775[/ATTACH]

I could look through all your posts and possibly find the answer ... too lazy! What are you flying? Chopper or aircraft? And; where is kilcowera

I tricked 'em.... I wore a tie!

Nice way to fly where you are addressed by name when asked which of the meals and drinks you'd like. Can't quite kick the seat in front and plenty of room for obese people. [ATTACH]2[/ATTACH]seat controls.jpg[/attachment:22ib307h][ATTACH]1[/ATTACH]howgozit.jpg[/attachment:22ib307h]Entretain.jpg[/attachment:22ib307h] [ATTACH]17766[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]2[/ATTACH]waiting.jpg[/attachment:2hpyadsh][ATTACH]1[/ATTACH]side lockers.jpg[/attachment:2hpyadsh]neighbours.jpg[/attachment:2hpyadsh][ATTACH]17765[/ATTACH]

they are clips from a DVD called "Big rocks Long props" Of course CASA would never allow anything like those mods in an Aussie aircraft. Thr DVD is about two hours of pretty spectacular flying and aircraft.

How many travelling in the aircraft? What accommodation do you expect to use. When are you travelling (What season). Water and fuel is your major concern - always and these things govern those two quantities. Cape York is a long way and boring same country. Better to make Princess Charlott Bay the northen point on the East Coast. I have done plenty of holidaying in Queensland and out to the centre in C172 s and a Piper Tripacer. With just two of us camping VERY rough and light we were always scrounging for full fuel and a safe water quantity.

Sorry fellas. The rest follow the Boeing 247. It was the turning point from antique to modern. The DC-3 was the spinoff of the 247 and is the aeroplane that was "Just right". They're still flying and have not yet had an end of life deemed. The 747s have a life span that they ultimately get grounded because they're pressurised and are subjected to stresses that unpressurised DC-3s aren't. The only reason there aren't more 3s in service is, people regarded them as "past it" in the need for speed and stopped maintaining them. Right now there are 3s being rebuilt after years of neglect. That won't happen with any 747. Look at the photos of CWS... a thing of beauty.

I wonder if Number 6 is just some cutting an pasting.

Sounds like thart former Government Department that thinks it runs as a business doesn't it.

Same switch, same doors ... any sort of bombs I'd say.[ATTACH]4672.vB[/ATTACH]

Ihat's why I don't bother with them or most others ... Sixties

The worst cockpit I've seen is the Caravell's. Instruments for EVERYTHING. After that time, lights took over. You'd need a video camera to capture a Caravell cockpit. The Viscount's wasn't a thing of beauty either... pho The most complex I've seen is the B52 at Darwin. It's most disappointing feature was the bomb bay door control. A common toggle switch! I'd have thought it would be a beaut big handle. We couldn't take photos from the seats that could be stitched together satisfactorily because we couldn't get far enough away.

My! haven't they complicated matters. PPL in 1960 was a minimum of forty hours. Part of that was a three hour , dual cross country and a three hour solo cross country. You got examined on your flying ability in the training area and circuit. Mine was an hour and you were free to go off with passengers and get lost a bit. Commercial; was minimum of one hundred and sixty five hours, amongst that were five cross countries. No retractable U/C and C/S aeroplanes required. No VTCs, no electronic gizmos, just a WAC chart pencil, ruler and steam driven computer. I'll digest this info you've given me... yeah I could have waded through pprune etc but it was simpler to do what I did and you guys came to the fore to help. Thanks. Sixties

A cousin of mine wants to try his hand at commercial flying. He's in his thirties, but at this time of pilot shortages I think he has a chance of snagging a reasonable job. At present he's learning at Bankstown and I think he should combine RAA with Spam can flying to get the private and possibly commercial license. I've heard figures (hours) quoted but didn't bother saving them in my memory.... it's full enough of good stuff, so I'm particular about what I struggle to remember these days. Can someone give me the true facts so I can pass them onto him. The landing fees alone at BK shock me and I reckon he'd be getting many more hours for his buck and a better handle on flying in an ultra light which needs to be flown more than "travelling about" in the usual stable trainer. At this stage I'd say he's full of the discriminationary bull that "highly inexperienced" grade 3 or C (whatever they are called now) instructors have learned to say from the book. (I learned to fly in Tiger Moths, oozed around PNG for four years in DC-3s and have a fair bit of time plugging in autopilots and monitoring systems in sixty tons of jet powered, aluminium pipe. The best airborne fun I've had is, sitting in the plastic seat of a Skycraft Scout in the mid seventies when they were the only "Minimum aircraft flying. Learned to think theory of flight in them as you tried not to fall down).

There's a movie floating around called big rocks, long props or vice versa which is a coupke of hours of this stuff in rivers up in the Tundra. No one would ever be allowed to do that stuff in Oz.

I have a video of five of us going for a jaunt in a Dragon in 2006. The cheesy grins on three of our faces most of the trip never changed. Each had our reasons. Mine was the memory of sitting on my fathers lap as an eight year old flying a Dragon out near Birdsville. My cousin, because he'd always wanted to go in one and he still flies jets as well as his DC-3 and another pilot mate because it was the first aircraft he went in as a kid. Might be a dangerous old beast, but the chances of it's crashing that day were too remote to miss oiut on the fun.

There's them that do and them that think they do. Much more fun going out and getting uncomfortable because the stories are more exciting afterwards. Keep 'em coming xpat