Ah Yes....Bankstown nostalgia........
Mid 1970's was my introduction to the place, having lived within the circuit area for over 15 years............watching all those aircraft fly overhead must of had an effect and following some advertising in the local newspaper (Bankstown Torch) I wandered out there one weekend and had a trial instructional flight at the Illawara Flying School. I was then hooked..........
Remember spending as much time out there as possible on weekends and eventually after a couple of months got a job washing and refuelling aircraft (in return for flying time)..........went solo before I even had my learners permit for a car.
Wandering through the back of the hangar at Illawara and musing over the Mustang there, along with the spare engines still in crates.........you could wander just about anywhere near the parking lines to admire any aircraft (and there were rows and rows of them, both on the hardstand and on the grass) and were not bothered by people checking out your motives.......you just wanted to absorb aviation as much as possible....those days have well and truly gone now........
I can still recall reporting inbound via 2FC...it wasn't known as 2RN at that time........I think it changed sometime in the late 80's................
The numbers of new aircraft arriving were spectacular............there was always a new aircraft somewhere on the field everytime I went out there..........as a brand new private pilot I can recall having 6 of the first 10 hours on a brand new PA-32 and a few more before the first 100 hourly was completed on a couple of C172's. Try doing that now..........
Still in the 1970's, the Royal Aero Club was the place to hang out, on Friday nights for a beer or three and catching up with friends and a meal......Sunday arvo was also a good time, with the Trap Club and its regular shooting events...........even won a competition shoot or two there in my time...........
The introduction of GAAP changed the place and I can still recall the commotion about the change....runway 29 left had left circuits......runway 29 right had right circuits.....what was going to happen with 29C - vertical circuits???? Always got a laugh at the time, but it was a change from what it had been and time shows that it worked.......and we had runway 18/36........short......but we still had it when needed.........
The 1980's really saw the place grow, with movements topping the 450,000 mark for the first time.......did my CPL training and Instructor Rating and was working as an instructor there by the mid 1980's and flew 886 hours in my first year........that was really working. There were some weekdays where you could count 7 or 8 aircraft in the southern circuit nearly all the time .......weekends were another matter with holding in the runup bays waiting for a light from the tower just so you could enter the circuit......nothing like that now I hear......
I remember a couple of spring weekends where ATC actually had to curtail circuit training and introduced geographic GAAP to handle the number of aircraft returning from flights around the state to Bankstown. 2FC arrivals to runway 29L and Prospect and Westmead inbound (yes there were 3 inbound points then) to runway 29R with 29C being used for any overflow......which there was. The school where I was working had no aircraft available to hire on a number of occasions.....they were either fully booked for training or had been hired to go away for the weekend........I think we had over 20 aircraft on line at that stage........
I was in the air when ATC staged a stop work in the 1980's....we managed to keep flying around the circuit, with I think 6 aircraft in the circuit without a problem...........
Airshows were a regular event, with Harriers one year and NZ Skyhawks conducting a simulated ground attack on the airfield at another airshow a couple of years later........and lots and lots of other aircraft, both as static displays and others conducting flying displays...........nothing like that now.....they drew large crowds to the place and the numbers of people taking up flying boomed following them.......which flowed on to the other aviation businesses and kept up employment. At one stage the local council stated that the airport was the largest employer in the area............oh well.......that's history.
Military aircraft coming and going.......I have a picture somewhere of a Mirage III conducting a go around from short final on runway 29C.........another of a C130 offloading pax into a bus.........and then there were the regular visitors such as the Caribou's, Blackhawks and PC-9's which were either being constructed or overhauled at HdH.........the formation departures and the final acceptance flights were always something to watch and enjoy.
Warbirds started to appear in the late 1980's and 1990's and I can still recall the time that the first Mig 15 conducted its engine ground runs on the pad behind HdH. The whole place shook........
Aviation was 'booming' around Bankstown and I was lucky enough to be in the "right place at the right time" on a number of occasions and was given employment (albeit casual) without the need for CV's and interviews...........these jobs came with an endorsement onto what ever aircraft the job used (I ended up with 5 different twin endorsements) ....for this I am thankful and forever grateful. Unfortunately these types of events are very few and far between these days, if they happen at all.........
There are probably lots and lots more memories that I have not recalled.....just yet......