Danny
well all we have to do is keep stirring the pot and if Oliver asks for more
dish up the best we can a lad will not put on any condition on thin gruel .
While thinking of the DC-3 hey days of MacRobertson Miller Airways
(whose co-founder Horrie Miller, a veteran of the RFC and assistant from before the first war to Harry Hawker and Tommy Sopwith, told a marvellous story of a full life in EARLY BIRDS.) I was reminded of a few trivial little incidents relating to the Daks. The late Les Jaycock was one of those skippers who came over from 'the East' to take up an instant command. Such imports as Les usually encountered a sense of being an alien so askance did your average sand-groper regard Eastern Staters . One blazing hot day at the airstrip at Marble Bar I was killing time waiting for my boss to turn up, sitting in the shade on the main wheel of our Cessna 182, when the Perth flight came into the circuit. MMAs aircraft were always polished to a high natural finish. . no point in adding to your empty weight with a hundred pounds of paint.
The sun flashing off the gleaming Doug was a sight to behold. After landing taxying in and disgorging a few passengers the pilots came off. The skipper was in no hurry as he strolled over for a yarn. That was my first encounter in the flesh with Les. I say in the flesh because four years prior to that when he was flying Bristol Frighteners on freight runs to Tasmania he had happened to overhear me asking any aircraft for an actual on the NSW south coast.
So brief as that exchange was it was memorable in that the skipper of the Bristol was so affable and so helpful. I found out his name later and stored that bit of info away in my once reasonable memory bank. So that warm morning at Marble Bar it was almost like encountering an old friend.
The airline also operated the Fokker Friendship. A senior pilot was Jack Murray. One day I was going with MMA Kalgourlie- Albany-Perth. I wandered over before boarding to say good-day to the F27 skipper (Jack Murray) of that flight and hint that if he offered the jump seat I'd well jump at that. And so it transpired.
He told me a story once airborne of an F/O who went light on deodorants in the pits. He was balling the young man out in a raised voice to the extent that the hostie came up and asked Jack what was the trouble. "I'm telling this stinking young animal I'm cooped up with here to stop waving his hands over my head when he reaches up to the overhead panel .. Can you spray him with a bit if your eau de cologne?" (or words to that effect).
The place I had rented when living in Perth was close to the threshold of the main runway. It was not uncommon to hear the first flight in of a morning from MMA's northern services. So just after daybreak on a dead still morning you could be lying in bed listening . You'd hear the distinct sound of the mains touching down. You could then count to five and within a second of that count hear the tiny squeak of the tailwheel. (It was around that time I heard someone in the airport bar say "Before I die . . I want to fly . . . a Douglas Dee Cee Three." My turn did come later back East with two outfits based in Sydney . . the CSIRO cloud-physics research aircraft VH-RRA. . . and then Rebel Air's VH-MIN '.)
As a final aside Donald Campbell came in one day to Perth in a rented Aero Commander. He was after the world water speed record on Lake Dumbleyung. I was working at the time for the firm that had the avgas agency on Perth Airport so it was a treat and an honour to fuel his plane. Just before he was ready to start engines I'd asked him if I could take a picture. It is of him smiling through the little side window with his stuffed toy mascot propped up in front of him on the dash. I must look for it and post it here.