Good Old James. I know he decked a Rig Pig from the Tanami Mine one day. The bloke was getting a bit lippy on the Conquest so George thumped him when he disembarked – not very grandfatherly like behavior.
I heard that GW vanished two or three years ago – Hank, Gundy, JLH don’t know where he is. He would be about 85 now.
George had a very colorful history. I think it included, flying Corsairs in the battle of Midway, Spreading trials using Avengers in NZ, he flew Meteors, was a Sandringham (or was it Sunderland?) navigator and a DC3 navigator. George was a Qantas Super Connie Captain and Chief Pilot of Connair and AirNorth.
George had over 10 000 DC3 command hours.
Once I told George I’m reading this great book, Fate is the hunter…
“Ah Ernie Gann", said George, "I gave him a job once.”
Years later, I found a short story in one of Gann’s books. It tells how he (Gann) was hired by a Kiwi to ferry a Super DC3 from LA to Fiji in the late 1960s. This would be many hours over the water using DR & Celestial Nav. There was no F/O available so they convinced a local secretary with a Private Pilots License to fly in the right seat. Gann eventually married the secretary and he describes the Kiwi as a great navigator with the unlikely name of George Washington.