I have stayed out of this thread until now, and I don't recall if Billy used this in his book or it is one of the numerous stories that he didn't use.However, he did tell me one day many years ago that he was in the 185 coming back from Trefoil Island when he spotted, on one of the long flat straight roads to the west north west of Smithton, a quite distinctive sedan owned by one of his fishing mates who would have had the car filled with his crew. Deciding to give them the fright of their lives he quietly circled back, lined them up along the road and decided to sneak up behind them at low power, pop up over the top of their roof and drop down in front of them onto his main wheels, throttle up and soar away. As he got into position just behind them he found he was sinking and banged on the power. The sudden blast of engine noise inside the car certainly frightened them, but what really terrified them was the sudden shadow overhead and then the roof bending down following the impact of a 8.50 x 6 tyre. The car wandered of the road and ended up in a ditch, relatively undamaged, When Bill circled back over the vehicle he saw the full complement standing on the road dancing up and down, mouths opening and closing as they shook their fists at him. On the five minute flight to Smithton Billy decided he had only two options. He could land and get the truck and tow them out, but they were big burly fisherman who were very annoyed and he was quite small. The other option was to land at Smithton, fill up with fuel and head for Victoria until things cooled down. He chose the latter but it was at least a week and many phone calls before he could safely return.
Last edited by flywatcher; 1st Aug 2016 at 05:27.