REK in the west in the late 60s? Probably not Dora
We had REK at Cobar 1967-68 when Masling owned and
operated her for cloud-seeding for the NSW Dept of Agriculture
on drought relief.
First saw REK and REL at Canberra in 1959. They
were in company with an RAAF Dakota fitted out for
cloud physics research . Fris B F. would know whether that Dak became
VH-RRA that the CSIRO had on strength for a number of years.
In 1977 the late Ian Walker and I had a month in Mildura with
RRA doing CSIRO flights sampling the insides of clouds.
The late Arto Tapp was with the boffins. Arto was a nav on Lancs
in the war. He navigated REK and REL across the pacific
on the delivery flight, doing a bit of astro on the way. In Mildura, we spent more time on the golf course and in the pub than in the air.
The late George Martin, who had many a tale of train-busting
in Typhoons, was a memorable character, still reliving his war in the air. In the 310 heading west over Katoomba, he spied an aero club 172 up ahead.
On board was an instructor who had been in the air force too in the war.
Anyway George closes on the 172 , dives a bit then pulls up and around in a barrel roll while going tat a tat tat into his mic.
George had a good mate, Keith Fitton, I think. Keith wanted to write
the biography of George, but it probably never got past chapter one.
Last job George had was a beach inspector at Cronulla. One day he
was remonstrating with a young woman who persisted in riding
her horse where she should not have. George came up too close
to the animal which reared up, coming down with the result George was
badly hurt. He did not recover from his injuries. RIP came not long after the incident on the beach.
p.s. Arto Tapp also crewed Masling's C310 VH-AER on drought relief for the A.C.T. Department of the Interior in February-March 1968, based Canberra. We had a number of memorable sorties seeding in stratus at minus 10 OAT. Heater failure was not unknown for us either. Arto was training up a young fella from BOM . We had a pretty rough descent the day Arto sent this bloke off on his first go unsupervised. Can still see the shreds of his breakfast hanging off the post lights .
Thinking of which savoury topic . . . also unforgettable was the young German sitting in the right seat of the Chieftain VH-TAS on a very rough descent into Launie. He held onto it and held onto to it. But.. .. as we rolled out on 32 after touch down, from the corners of his mouth, still closed clam like, there trickled what had to escape.
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I keep hearing my old rego's on the radio but on investigating, they are all on new aeroplanes now
By George , you're right there. One though that has been retained for many a year is VH-REM . Heard it over the air
gliding round Boonah not long ago, a real blast from the past. It was a Mooney for sure that joined the circuit. I noted from overhead the hangar it disappeared into. AN hour later went over for a sticky beak. Through the hangar door cracked a foot open, there she was. . . . with her name still neatly painted on the cowling in flowing cursive script. . . . .. .
SUGARBIRD LADY.
Those who may be wondering . . .. . . check out the two books of Robyn Miller. . . .. 'Flying Nurse' and 'Sugarbird Lady'.
Needless to say. . . this one on a pole at Jandakot was not Robyn's
