One car back then I had was a 1948 Hillman with those troublesome cable brakes. The shockers were shot too. The old road between Perth city and Jandakot Airport was sealed but in poor condition with humps and holes all along for miles. The poor old car with its massive front beam axle the lowest portion of the front end would smash into the high spots of the bitumen causing great shocks to the hand clutching the steering wheel. The old Tiger Moth at Jandakot I had a share in , an ex-croppy, was not much better than the Hillman in terms of general condition. One day out at Cunderdin the rudder's lowest rib with the two lugs that caught the tail skid, collapsed. Fortunately the chief engineer of Bob Couper Aviation there , a friendly bloke full of old yarns, name of Ken Weaver, lent me a replacement to get me home.
That Tiger had a wind driven generator. Often the battery needed the generator putting out a few amps to get the radio to work to call the tower. The long taxiway that ran from the more distant hangars was out of sight of the tower , so to get enough charge through the battery to work the radio, I'd run back and forth on the taxiway a few times, a fast taxi with the tale up.
One day when flying past a paddock near the village of Rocky Gully. There was an Auster and a black Tiger parked in that paddock. So curious , I turned around and landed. It was only mid morning but already there were four blokes there sucking on cans of 'black duck soup' (i.e. Swan Lager). One held out a can to me but I politely declined as I wanted to fly on quite a distance that day. One bloke was standing up on the black Tiger with a big green jerry can fuelling her up. The next thing I saw was money change hands for the purchase of the Tiger. A man from Albany bought her. As is. Unregistered. Just on a hand shake.
What did he pay? A whole hundred pounds !