Originally Posted by
tail wheel
So I've heard. And after the Bandit bon fire Junior exclaimed "
Can't drown the B******. Can't burn the B******. Time to sack the B******"!
Think he then went to Solair.
If he did
then he didn't stay long.... Remember him more as ferrying in and exchanging Queenairs.
Blackjack also passed through with ferrys to and from Tonga and Vanuatu
Jasper stayed a bit longer, Dennis put him on the Metro and demoted Bruce from CP for a while to make room for him to "sort us out".
I did a ferry from Honiara in an Aztec to Goroka, picked up Junior's son and his friend who were going back to school in Australia, loaded some seats for a 206 for Daru into the noselocker and headed off.
In a rush at Daru, refuelled, had the Gen Dec stamped and off to Cairns. Landed there, opened the nose locker, and ...oops!! ..there still were the seats.Think the agent later put them on an Air Nuigini flight back to Moresby.
Headed south inland in the VFR only Aztec as there was a cyclone on the coast about Bowen, ran out of daylight and stopped overnight in Roma. Didn't mind the extra night as I had my girlfriend along on the trip too.
Taxying out next morning for Archerfield, decided on a long taxy back to take off into the east. Did the checks on the way, selected fullest tanks by feel, and lined up. Went to open up power and the engines cut. ...ooops..
Had selected the nearly empty tanks as it turned out, (hadn't wanted to arrive in Brisbane in an aircraft with too much fuel in the auxs for maintenance) , and also been confused by the positioning of the similarly feeling cowl flaps for the ground warmup. Wasn't too familiar with Aztecs then as we operated Barons. Learnt a bit in a hurry though.
Lucky I hadn't decided on a short taxy.