Some pics from the Ed Coates collection
VH-TBL always amused me whenever I heard her on the airwaves.
The TBL was also a lapel badge given to men who enlisted late in the First World War and who were not in fact called up. It was
designed to inform the public in the street that this fit looking young man did not qualify for the 'white feather treatment'.
Those who wore this little emblem called it the 'TOO BLOODY LATE'.
Speaking of memorable call signs , there was a gravelly voiced, with drawl, character who flew the 3- holers. I can hear him still -
"Ahh Sydney Tower . .. . . Romeo My Gecko . . . ."
And sandgropers of macky miller DC-3 vintage will remember one
Captain Mike Gent. Early one morning he got airborne from, it might have been Fitzroy Crossing. He calls up . .
Hedland . .. morning . . . Mike . . . Mike . . .. (you have to picture him peering out the window trying to read the rego.) . . . Mike .. Mike . . ahh . . damn it . .. Mike Mike Gent
VH-TJB Boeing 727-176 (c/n 18742)
The two color shots of this, the second of TAA's 727s are by Greg Banfield, whilst the B&W at
the foot of the page is via the CAHS archives. Greg's shot above was at Essendon in October
1966 where -TJB had arrived the previous November named
'John Forrest'. The 727 was
sold to International Air Lease in April 1980. It then had many leases and identities, mainly in
Latin and South America (but also including a stint in Turkey) and was withdrawn from service
and scrapped at Miami in September 1995.
