To clear up a nickname or two;
It was Fred Bassett, named after the newspaper cartoon hound and coined by the man himself ,as almost all names were.
Others I remember were: POD,Guy, hangar,Zap,Gumby,the Pin Head,the Trowl,the Rabbit,the Snake, Philistine and "Blood and Guts".
Guy also a lawyer and has his own flying school.
Many of his employees now at majors like: QF,CX,SQ and EK.
Some at smaller operators like KA and
VB.
Sheriff in Qld, Russ still around.
I think that Skybird was one of the best possible introductions to aviation.If it didn't happen to you , you would certainly hear about it happening.After Skybird virtually nothing would surprise you.
Best thing about JM was that everybody who went through there had a chance at a job.All you had to do was grab the bull by the horns,grow a skin thick enough to deflect he "incomming knives" and wait.You waited until all the pilots ahead of you ( for some reason or another) became ars-h-le of the day/week/month and then you became the golden boy.A form of seniority,so to speak.
Some people, for one reason or another, didn't stick it out long enough to get over the initial hump. School of hard knocks to a certain extent.
Of course the girls were always "golden" at Skybird, for "various" reasons.
Some hard times there but, there have harder times since.
Some really really funny times.Prefer to remember those.
Think JM started with just 2 planes and ended up with some 20+.
Who remembers?: " It's confirmed! Out there, on the line, Monday morning, 6 Kingairs/Falcons/ citations or whatever!
The demise, well, I have heard a version but, after typing out a fairly detailed piece from my fading memory, I decided that it is best to just let it lie and I deleted it.
I am sure that JM went down fighting and most likely his final insult would have included a big raspberry and a one finger salute.
Fond memories.
If you read this JM,all the best!