Earlier talk here a few posts back about heater failure. Not related to photo survey but to cloud seeding, in 1968 the Masling C310 VH-AER was contracted to the Department of the Interior in Canberra for rain-making over the Cotter Dam catchments as the capitol was in the grip of a severe drought.
The cloud seeding officer from CSIRO seconded to the operation was the late Arthur Tapp, who had been a nav on Lancs during the war. A very droll soul.
He was training a new recruit from BOM in the fine art of rain dancing.
On his first op without being overseen, this bloke was violently ill on descent back into Canberra. Quite a relief to pull up, open the door and get some fresh air circulating. His first job on deplaning was to fetch a bucket of water and a cloth and clean up the right side of the panel. Also to carefully remove all trace of his bacon and egg breakfast, evidenced by little greasy scraps hanging off the instrument post lights.
The next morning the two of us went off again, three hours of silver iodide and acetone in the tank. After two hours of boring back and forth through thick stratus at 14,000 feet, minus 10 on the OAT, the Janitrol heater packed up, resulting in minutes in numb tootsies. When we could bear it no longer we gave it away and headed on down. As soon as we pulled up outside the aero club the trainee chappy hobbled off inside to warmer climes. Arto Tapp was standing by the wing root and the step saying to me "Well, aren't you going to get out?" "Can't yet" said I, "Just waiting for some feeling to come back in the feet."
Arto's response was more than curious, for he said "Mick has none at all and never will." It took a while to discover the meaning of this cryptic remark.
Arto in fact was in mild shock. He had just had a phone call from his head office. His fellow cloud seeder in CSIRO and life long friend, Mick Heffernan, in Hobart the evening before, had walked out of the Ocean Child Hotel in Argyle Sreet, most likely a little unsteady on his feet, right into the path of a passing car. There was driving rain and wind at the time. Mick died in the ambulance.
re VH-AAG, the aforementioned Dragon Rapide of Alpine Airways, in 1958 and 1959 she came to airshows in Canberra, there to drop on each occasion four white overalled parachutists as part of the display. The fate of this red and white liveried beauty is recorded in the DH89 data files.
12.12.52. Op 2.53-2.56 by [Airwork-owned] South Island Airways, Christchurch. Regn cld
24.1.57 and shipped to Sydney 1.57 on SS Kaitoke. Stored crated until late .58. Regd VH-AAG
19.8.58 to Alpine Airways Pty Ltd, Cooma, NSW (C/n quoted as 6684). Regd 16.8.60 to Robert
G [Bob] Carswell, t/a Carsair Air Service Pty Ltd, Archerfield (later Darwin). Badly damaged by
engine start-up fire Banyan Station Airstrip, NT 12.12.60. Repaired in the bush with replacement
mainplanes; reflown 16.2.61. Leased to Darwin Air Taxis wef 10.61. Collided with kangaroo at
Wolner Station, NT 27.2.63 which broke lower main spar; reportedly ferried by air back to Darwin
where repairs abandoned. Remains donated to RAAF Leanyeh Range, nr Darwin and used as
target by RAAF Sabres early .64. Regn cld 21.12.64.
Is there anyone who may be able to confirm that the repairs at Banyan Station were undertaken by Ivan Unwin, more recently of Emu Park, Queensland?
Pardon this massive digression, Mr FF. I suspect you will not be too cross. In the latest FLIGHTPATH the piece on the recently restored Beech 17, VH-UXP, says that this aircraft has camera hatches.
In the Big List there are five DH84 Dragons listed. Another was VH-APP, 'Auntie', of Brown and Dureau. This one is featured on page 178 of 'The South West Book', an ACF publication that came out in 1979. In the 1940s the company did work in Tasmania. In the book it states that Brown and Dureau had on strength a Dragon and a Dragonfly. There is a photograph of VH-APP on the beach at Cox's Bight in the far SW of the State. The Dragonfly is not identified. The DCA registers of civil aircraft held at the Airways Museum in Essendon are a good source of information as to who owned and operated what.
Last edited by Fantome; 12th May 2013 at 04:00.