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Old 20th Nov 2006, 22:22
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22clipper
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Sydney
Age: 74
Posts: 292
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VH-GAS

Long before I got my chopper PPL, in fact long before I even dreamed of getting my licence I had the good fortune to fly the NSW AGL gas pipelines with Laurie McKiver in his drop dead gorgeous blue JetRanger.

VH-GAS had 5 radios, airband VHF, HF, company frequency, CB & one I can't remember. Laurie was a wireless magician. One day he asked for a clearance on VHF, let AGL know that some prawn with a backhoe was about to dig through the Sydney trunk feed, tried calling the tractor operator on CB then finally hovered in front of the digger & mustered the guy away from the pipe.

The other thing Laurie was really good at was the low slow orbit. He hated out-of-ground effect hovers and had mastered the art of inspecting valve stands at 200' in a 30 knot turn just nicely out of the dead mans curve.

Long before I knew how to fly I was learning airmanship from Laurie. We lost him one sad day in a car accident so he never knew that I finally learnt to fly.
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