Great thread guys. Can't believe I hadn't seen it before. Only stumbled across it because of the Cyclone Tracy one.
Tinpis, that pic of SAO certainly did make me misty-eyed. What eventually happened to her?
Grew up as a teen in Darwin in the 70's and used to work for Ossie during school holidays to pay for flying lessons-helping (maybe not, more like hindering) the engineers with any crap jobs around the hangar- spark plug cleaning, wheel bearing greasing, general gofer, plus polishing his Pitts (Any idea how many cans of Repo it took to polish a Pitts!!! VH-KIT wasn't it?)
As many have said, amazing to see how often Ossie woud sack his pilots/engineers on a Friday and take them back on Monday.
Back a little earlier than the 80's, Ozzie or SAATAS were the top end fixtures to be see at. TOV, SAO, DVY, AON (Barron, Navaho, C-337 and G.m's C-182) all shiney and new (not) . Great flying, interupted only by the odd sacking and the shiney QANTAS cadet's, who would arrive un-anounced do it all for "the experience" before they 'P....d o.f" to fly the 707's. Wouldn't have missed it for quids....
The xmas hangar piss ups were monumental in the week leading to the same event. They would lock you up and throw the key away today!!
All the aircraft I recall
donderwolkje.
Plus he bought the original ECO, PA32 just before Tracy and that ended up in the port engine of the F227 from recollection.
I recall one young hopeful turning up for a test ride with Ossie and landing it with the handbrake on, taking the brand new tyres down to the canvas. You could hear Ossie coming all the way down the apron telling the guy he'd never get a job with him as long as his ass pointed towards the ground.
PKY C310 spent over a year stuck in the back of the hangar being stripped and repainted. How many layers of paint were on that thing???
Between cleaning spark plugs etc I was lucky enough to go on a few flights with some of the guys.
Racking my brain to think of some of the pilots' names- nearly 40 years ago!!
Max L- (Ironically I later flew the Heron with him for Airlines of Tassie)
Pat ? - He flew TOV mostly. Remember him flying 6 Baron's full of beer to Bathurst Is one Xmas. Went on one of the runs with him in formation with the 337 DVY flown by Peter ?. Went with Peter once and he showed me how half the instrument panel would come out in your lap if given a bit of a nudge. Bit like your sun visor Tinpis.
Geoff (Jeff?) - Flew SAO but went on to fly the Freeport 227 later. Recall going up with him when he was trying to prove the gear was taking 2 minutes to come down. None of the engineers wanted to go up in it it seemed!
A very young Phil G (changed his surname later?) flew the Cherokee 6. Saw him on DC9s at TAA some years later.
Wally was the Chief engineer?
And I remember engineer Richard was a really great guy but heard he was a terrible victim of the cyclone. Anyone know for sure?
Was Liz the female refueller? She was definitely one of the boys. Was Liz Wally's daughter??
Yes, Xmas eve hangar pissups were memorable, although '74 was a pretty quiet affair with everyone wanting to get home due to the approaching wx. Never seen the sky so black in Darwin in the middle of the day when we knocked off work. A few beers around the pool table in the hangar was all I can recall that year.
Great memories guys.