Old Days at Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport

[Dick Smith]

Oh for the days when helicopters were treated like proper aircraft!

See HERE (http://youtu.be/AAKYZTm0NtQ).

Maybe we are returning to those days at places like Bankstown.

[GUARD]

Ah The good old days Dick.

I remember watching your solo around the world video with such fondness and enthusiasm for your great take on life and your wonderful achievement.(shame you never answered my letter)

I'd so love it if you could post more clips. I could watch them all day.:D:D:D

[Jenna Talia]

Dick,

What year was that video recorded?

Thanks

[Jack Ranga]

Dick I remember you landing on that patch of grass out the front of the AACC @ KSA, just finished a morning shift, you nearly took my head off :cool: (I didn't knick any DC's out of the helo while you were inside :ok: I may have sat in the RHS for about 10 mins though :ok:)

[Ex FSO GRIFFO]

Oh for the days when us of the 'great unwashed' were allowed to land at ASSY, at no charge, even it it was just for the experience, or whilst at work, as an instructor with students in 172's etc...getting CTA / CTZ time.

Or parking the bugsmasher there at Flight Facilities o/night so as to get an 'early start' for ferry flights to JT.....

Who remembers the 30 minute parking spot for GA aircraft outside of the old 'TAA' terminal...

C'ain't do that no more.....

Oh for the days when we could call 'Flight Service' and get all sorts of operational info / lodge details etc etc.

C'ain't
do
that
no
more......either!!!

[neville_nobody]

Back in the day when when we paid a fuel tax which then contributed to all the infrastructure we no longer have, until someone thought user pays was a good idea. So we now have access to nothing and no services and everything in aviation is ridiculously expensive

[Jack Ranga]

Griffo, I landed a C182 @ KSA once :E cost me 18 bucks, I was filthy :ugh: flew it out the next day! Landed 34L, took off on 25, held it low & put on a show for the boys at the Kye :E

[Long Bay Mauler]

Did anyone else notice the gear pins fitted to the Qantas B747?

I'm guessing it wasn't going anywhere.....:O

[Fantome]

Yep . . . so handy to park there , go through the never locked gate. Gaze nostalgically at the oldest hangar on the field, just there, as a freight shed in the 60s. Said to be the hangar of the original ANA (CKS and CTP Ulm) 1930 erection. Knocked down by the soulless.

When the old international terminal was close to the QF hangars in the early 60s you could wander through the, once again, never locked gate. A kid conducting himself cautiously and respectfully could pretty much go anywhere unsupervised. The first visit of a 727, the Boeing demonstrator on her world wide tour - open house. Ditto the first BOAC Comet to come through.

Today, signs of those days are not quite entirely wiped away. You can still see where the old tower building dating from the early 40s stood proud, now incorporated in one of the newer large terminal complexes. From the roadway side, if you walk the elevated footpath, you can see the original QEA crest, (Qantas Empire Airways),that was the escutcheon adorning that building.

Clive James, the boy from Kogarah, wrote of the excellent times he and his mate, both addicts, had there in the 50s (see
'Unreliable Memoirs' by CJ).

To try to envisage the place as it was when first selected as a landing ground by Nigel Love and Harry Broadsmith in 1919 (see 'Flying Matilda' by Norman Ellison) would be as nigh impossible as it is today for anyone in England poking round where Hounslow and Hendon and Croydon were once the bustling cradles of British aviation.

Then again, consider at Bankstown, Sid Marshall, (of blessed memory, with his open, warm heartedness), always welcoming youngsters into his Aladdin's Cave of a hangar. OK you can sit in the Mustang (the pillar box red one VH-AUB of Aubrey (Titus) Oates.). Move the stick around if you like, but don't touch anything else if you don't mind.)

Get G White of Moruya talking and he'll recall the inspirational times he had helping out, a spotty little shy boy, in the Marshall Airways hangar.

[AEROMEDIC]

Bug a Lugs,

Good pick up!

The LG pins were in on this aircraft and was probably towed there for the video shot.
Not that it takes anything away from the general sentiment of the video, but I guess not many people noticed the streamers or what they meant.

:D

[the rim]

yes I remember in the 60's riding a push bike from mascot to the airport parking along side the hangers and just walking in asking if we could go onto the aircraft ....always yes son but dont touch anything ...great days and that smell of aeroshell 4 and dust stayed with me for ever,still think of thoes days and Sydney Tech College when I smell it.....Retired Rim

[Centaurus]

The Sydney Morning Herald operated a couple of Lockheed Hudsons and two DC3's from Camden when I was a 16 year old lad working in the hangar as a general hand. One of my tasks was to get up at 0300, lay a flare path of kerosene lamps on the Camden runway using a WW2 jeep, and then loading the newspapers on to the Hudson or DC3 depending on the load. That done, the pilots would arrive and I stood by with a big fire extinguisher for the engine starts and to put out the inevitable carby fires after loud back fires and flames shooting out from the carby intakes on the engines.

One day, one of the Hudsons was needed to re-position at Mascot and a Herald Flying Services pilot, Captain Dick Cruickshanks age 24, was to fly it single pilot Camden to Mascot. He invited me to come along for the ride and take the copilot seat for the flight. My proudest moment was when we were taxiing to the tarmac at Mascot after landing on 07. As we passed several airliners of the day, I opened the copilot's window and waved at the other aircraft, to be answered by waves from the airline pilots. For me, a 16 year old wannabe pilot, but in fact just a dogsbody teen-ager in dirty overalls, the waves from real pilots made my day at Mascot. A wonderful memory of the old days at Mascot in 1948

[tail wheel]

What year was that video recorded?

For a number of reasons I am going to suggest 1982 or 1983.

[Ascend Charlie]

You took the long way around to Botany Bay, Dick!

Remember meeting you on the tarmac at Port Macquarie in 1980, both waiting in the rain for fuel, you in DIK and me in a Huey. You had just climbed Ball's Pyramid one-way, and recounted how Old Mate picked you off the top in the 206 with you grappling for the skid 1000' above the oggin. Thems were the days. No grey hair.:8

[PLovett]

Geez, I remember flying into Mascot VFR in a PA24-260 in '70 or '71. We were directed to park on the grass between the runway and the taxiway to 25. After shutting down we spent the next hour just sitting on the wing watching a stream of jets and turboprops taxi past. No-one questioned us even when we walked from the aircraft across the taxiway to a gate.

A few days later when we had to move the aircraft for refuelling I remember not being able to raise ground on the radio. The only option was to shut down and walk over to the tower to find out what was happening. The door at the bottom was unlocked so a mate and I walked up to the cab. There were some startled looks when they saw us there.

Great days.

[Lancair70]

I flew into Mascot twice in a C210. Once from bankstown, after landing my mates decided it was too far to take a cab to the city, so I asked gnd for a clearance to YSSY. Took off and was told to call SY twr immediately, he cleared me at max speed direct to threshold of 16, fastest final I ever flew. I flew out to bathurst the next afternoon to catch up with an old flame. ;) Once there I had to work out how to be back in YSSY before the high landing costs hit. After a phone call I had a plan approved for YBTH direct YSSY A095 NVFR, landing YSSY at or before 0530 Local. I landed on 34 as the sky was just getting light and a QF 747 touched down as I was on downwind. Ill never forget that flight. (or the goodbye I received before I took off)

[VH-XXX]

What was the context of the video as in what was it made for? I'm a youngen so don't recall related tv shows or similar.

[Horatio Leafblower]

XXX I'm pretty sure you're older than me.... and I know Dicks daughters are a couple of years younger than me.

I have no recollection whatever of this wonderful TV experience.

...but I did meet Dick's cousin PEG over summer :E

[Dick Smith]

The video actually came from the Dick Smith Explorer first television show which went to air on Channel 7 in March 1980. This show was called, “The Early Years” basically following in the footsteps of Captain Arthur Phillip and the settlement of Sydney. I followed with another show called, “In the Footsteps of Sturt” about a year later. Unfortunately these are no longer available as they were on old 2” tapes. One day when I am very, very old (not long!) I might flog them off to cable TV and we will run some of them. There are some fantastic bits-and-pieces.

By the way, the main point of putting the segment on was that at that date helicopters had to operate as if they were fixed wing aircraft. In the case of Sydney Airport, you actually had to depart or approach from the active runway. Of course, we managed to change that a few years later but not without great resistance.

[Jack Ranga]

By the way Dick, thanks for 'user pays' workin' a treat :ok:

[Ascend Charlie]

The helicopter community owes Dick a huge "THANK YOU" for opening up Sydney airspace, with R405/409, the Chopper routes, and Victor 1.

Made life a lot easier to get around without interfering with the heavy metal.

Thanks also for getting rid of VFR full reporting!

[Fantome]

Re the Sydney historical bit and those memorable docos, the man who supplied the early insights was Philip Geeves. As the ABC’s `resident historian’ he broadcast, with Caroline Jones, a regular radio program from 1978, answering queries from the scores of letters he received each week, especially about family history. From 1980 he also responded to them through his weekly column in the Sydney Morning Herald. He often brought a droll touch to his commentaries. Entering the GG's Sydney residence, Admiralty House, on the harbourside at Kirribilli, he nodded at the large white bust of Sir Henry Parkes, just inside the front door, then took off the imposing black Homburg he always wore and plonked it on the head of the bust, saying -

'This must be where you parks your hat.'

He died of a stroke in 1983, aged 66.

As Dick collaborated with Philip, it'd be good to hear a few reminiscences
of those occasions. Even better if they could be revisited via those tapes sometime soon.

[LeadSled]

Folks,
Let's get one fact right, "user pays" came from the Bosch Report, adopted by the first Hawke Government.

Dick's (AOPA's) slogan was: "User pays, user says", a demand to have a say in the services provided, if we were going to have to pay for services, we didn't want to pay for service not wanted and not needed.

As for the fuel taxes, the major one, finally about 13.8 cents a litre, was a subsidy to secondary airport towers, not aviation infrastructure in general. The remainder, about 2 cents, went to CAA, later CASA.

Nobody could ever convince me (in those days in the bush) or an Ag. operator, or the schools at Hoxton Park (as just one example) why we should all pay 13.8 cents for Avgas (but nil for Jet A) per litre to subsidize Bankstown operators,(or anybody with a kero burner, like all Dick's aircraft) so they could have a "free" tower.

As I recall the figures, about 8% of avgas sales in early1990s was from secondary and other non-primary towered airports, so very roughly, 92% were subsidizing the 8%.

Tootle pip!!

[601]

I remember having an argument with a airport "grounds person" who was adamant that I could not park a Citation I in the "below 12500 lb bay" outside FF.

Another occasion we flew a certain "gentleman," who later resided in Spain, into SY. As he was running late for an international flight, we requested and received approval to park and off load at the International Terminal.

After off loading said "gentleman" we were having lunch before departing for warmer climes when we were visited by a very officious Customs person who demanded our GenDec and associated paperwork.

She could not figure out how an aircraft from BN could be parked at the International Terminal to off load paxs.

Tower persons were very flexible in those days.

[Brian Abraham]

you actually had to depart or approach from the active runwayUsed to fly helos into/out of the place quite regularly 69 to 74 and was always given approach and departure direct to/from Flight Facilities. Ditto in a S-76 approx 84.

The only ever hiccup was when ferrying a pair of civil Hueys for delivery to QANTAS to be loaded on a 747 freighter. Thought we would fly in formation to expedite handling but the question arose "do you have (CASA) authority to be in formation?". So we were split up and handled separately. A DC-9 skipper was somewhat unhappy that a pair of helos held up his pushback as they taxied behind him. Not sure whether he was upset at GA using his airport, or was in the usual rush to beat the opposition to the starting line.

[tea & bikkies]

Here is one from the late seventies, landing 16 (no L/R in those days) in a Senica. Did plenty of VFR in PA28 into KSA during same period. Check the empty space both sides of the runway...ah the good old days!

http://i726.photobucket.com/albums/ww269/greg2217/20-09-200924748PM.jpg