derek.............
I remember the blonde, now that you mention her!
I thyink Bush started his flying lessons at the RVAC in about 1968, and that he bought a Chipmunk before he bought the Mustang. I may be wrong on that...........getting a bit old, and CRAFT's setting in!
But you're right about Ron Flockhart's accident. I can remember hearing about it when it happened, as it was a 'big-ticket' news item at the time. Flockhart was a British racing car driver, and he'd bought an ex-RAAF Mustang that he was going to try to break the Oz-England single-engine aircraft speed record with. The accident happened in early April 1962 as Flockhart was flying from Moorabbin to Bankstown. It was a crappy day weatherwise, and Flockhart flew into the ground near Kallista not long after he departed from Moorabbin.
The accident was still being discussed when I started my PPL in 1966, and it was used as an exemplar of the adage:
Never, ever, ever, do anything unplanned in or with an aeroplane at low level.