Oh dear ... memories, indeed ...
Skybird
John M, last I spoke with him up in Gisborne, was (is ?) busily making a quid in the legal eagle game .. no idea if he still does any flying. An interesting chap if ever there was one.
Keith Hants
(and Ken Fenton - did my initial I/F training with Ken when he was at AN)
lovely fellas both of them - gentlemen with high motivation for their student folk.
unravel the mysteries of the ADF
once you gave the RMI the flick and did it fixed card it became too easy ..
Ipec's Argosies going back and forth across Bass Strait
BBA, IPF, IPC and I think, from the fading brain cells, that BBA came back from Asia as IPA ? Phil Petersen, Dick Creak. Some interesting folk amongst that pilot group ... Keith, Jack, Denis, Terry S and Terry H, Russ, Baz, and a bunch of others ... They even had a DC3 at the start.
The Disco at the Cockpit
.. many nights spent there in disgraceful disarray with the usual cadre of reprobates .. fond memories of the entertainment afternoons ... Chad Morgan comes to mind .. a thoroughly interesting and entertaining chap.
the old Penguin flights where the best
I still think Jack Mac's test flights in Bob Eastgate's Mustang were the best. Can remember standing with the boys at the IPEC hangars when Jack departed for a quick circuit ... held the beast down and then a tactical transition to downwind .. magic stuff. Memories of Maurice's city flights and being grabbed to replace one of his pilots at the usual short notice .. hadn't been in that Chieftain before and couldn't find whatever switch was important at the time .. asked Maurie if he knew where it was through the DV window ... the passenger in the other seat didn't seem to notice or care.
Jess Smith's Melbourne Aircraft Maintenance and Omni Aviation
Ernie Shipanis' InterAir
Ralph Caponi's avionics business (how many know that Ralph originally flew for some time as an F/O with ANA before qualifying in medicine and, subsequently, electrical engineering ?)
Jim Small's fish business when AN couldn't drag him to work on the Goose. The establishment replaced by the Air Ambulance after Jim wrote himself off in the Shrike .. lovely machine to fly. I think I saw in the paper recently that Phil Hogan stills heads up the Air Ambulance operation ?
The DCA Flying Unit (interesting memories of dear old George)
Mike Fall's operation
Notty's GAM
Can still picture the original Inspector at PAW but can't recall his name after a couple of wines (red hair and he then went off flying LearJets as I recall) .. followed up by Darryl Knight who, last time I ran into him, was at MB instructing. Both fine chaps.
Ansair with its seat manufacturing business
Noel Lamont's AAA (subsequently Pascoe da Gama's). Can recall one night .. no, no ... we won't go there .. and someone else won the lottery, anyway. Nimbus Coaching and the origins of Trevor Thom's ATC books hark back to those days and, for those now of senior vintage who think they know who I am .. "waffle, waffle, waffle".
Wally Bednar
Alan Baskett
The origins of Flight Data Systems
And, with a bit of effort, I could bring to mind many others.
However, that list should give others enough of a start to recall many, many anecdotes relating to tales of derry doing ....
Time now to retire to another glass of fine red with some Wagner in the background and rock gently in my rocking chair contemplating times now long gone .... a brief smile from time to time ....