Fraser Shannon Benefit Night.

[Rick W]

Friends of the late Fraser Shannon are holding a benefit night for the care of his wife and two young sons. Fraser was a fine pilot and a fabulous man. He never had a bad word for anybody and was a very hard worker. He was tragically killed in a helicopter accident in June 2003. All proceeds will be given to his family. Ticket sales have been slow so I hope that those that can come will make an effort to buy a ticket and come along, it will be a great night. Where and When?

Thursday 25th March 2004.
7.00pm to Midnight
"Starz" at Mounties
101 Meadows Road
Mt Prichard NSW 2170

Cost per person: $80.00

Featuring
"The Australian INXSiv Show" and Sydney's hottest dance band "Hip Central".
3 Course dinner, drinks at club prices with great auction items. Many helicopter pilots will be coming so please buy a ticket and catch up with some old friends or make new ones.
Tickets can be purchased from Telstra ChildFlight, call Domenic on 02-96338704 or Bankstown Helicopters call Dave on 02-97910500

Thanks to all,
Rick.

[trackdirect]

I trained under Fraser at BK helis quite a few years ago....

He was an excellent instructor and a genuinely great guy!!!
If anyone has contact with ex students of BK helis please pass the word on...
If you cant make it to the benefit please still buy a ticket..
all the proceeds are going to Frasers wife and kids to help with the kids education and upbringing.

[NickLappos]

Rick,

Any chance of someone having a Paypal account to make a donation easier?

Nick

[Rick W]

Nick,
Thank-you for your enquiry re Fraser Shannon's Benefit Night. I am sorry it has taken so long for a reply. I have spoken to the Telstra ChildFlight accountant, who is being good enough to help look after the money/accounting side of this night for us. I f you are to buy tickets for the night and pay by cheque the cheques should be made out to Telstra ChildFlight. This is soley to help fund the night, all proceeds, after paying a small fee for the meals and hire of some minor band amps/equipment etc, will be given to Mrs P Shannon. There are really alot of people to thank who have donated things, like the room at the club, the bands for the night, some great auction items, free advertising for the night, Thank-you PPRUNE-RotorHeads etc. If people wish to make a donation then cheques should be made out to Mrs. P. Shannon and sent to us at Telstra ChildFlight and our accountant or myself will make sure they are passed on to Mrs. Shannon. Donations by credit card can be made or tickets purchased by credit card by emailing your credit card details to dromeo @childflight.org.au or ring him on 02 9633 8700 if you would prefer. Our accountant will make sure that Mrs Shannon receives all donations. The address for Telstra ChildFlight is P.O.Box 563 Wentworthville NSW 2145. Thank-you all again for your interest.

[rotaryman]

Great to see that some thing as important as frazers wife and kids welfare is happenning..

Its a pitty that the Managment of Child Flight didn't do the right thing by frazers wife and kids 10 months ago, its seems that She had to argue and fight tooth and nail just to receive her dead husbands final pay!!!

Seems she had to borrow the money just to bury her poor husband,, I'm truely shocked when i learnt about how prissella has been treated, seems the moment the publicity dried up for child flight ! so did the support to her...!!

How would you feel about turning up in church to bury you husband to find that Child flight has its banners and posters plasted all over the Church!!!!

Like i said, great to be finnaly organising a benifit night! but who'benifiting....
I hope its not another Child Flight media circus?

I new fraser we had flown together as Student/instructor and as work colleges, a great bloke and a very competent pilot, sadley missed by all that had the good fortune to have known him.

Rest in Peace

[Rick W]

Reply to Rotaryman,

You are very much mistaken by blaming ChildFlight for not doing enough for Fraser's wife and children.

Fraser was not killed working for ChildFlight, he was doing a day's work for a helicopter training company not associated with ChildFlight. That is the truth of the matter. It was a sad and tragic day when this accident happened and all at ChildFlight still miss Fraser. As this accident happened on Fraser's day off, he was not covered by any ChildFlight insurance policy. Alot of people, both those that work for ChildFlight and other helicopter companies and people that Fraser trained have donated and are still donating as much as they can to Fraser's wife, Priscilla and his two boys.

I am not a lawyer and I do not pretend to know everything about the relevant laws etc. ChildFlight is a charity and is goverened by many laws and regulations. As Fraser was killed not working for ChildFlight, ChildFlight could not pay any compensation to his wife and children. All at ChildFlight regret this so much, and this is why, we as individuals, are trying to hold this benefit night for Priscilla, Cameron and Oliver. It has nothing to do with ChildFlight, I have just asked the accountant, who was a good friend of Fraser"s, of ChildFlight to help by letting us put cheques etc through the ChildFlight account and he will then, at the end of the benefit night sort it all out and send ALL profits to Priscilla.

As far as I am aware ChildFlight has never ripped anyone off and your comments are not helpful. I do not know if Priscilla had trouble getting Fraser"s last payment out of ChildFlight, if so then I am sure we at ChildFlight are all sorry for this. When someone dies suddenly in an accident, then their estate is normally put in limbo for awhile until the authorities sort it all out. Perhaps then this is why the delay was? I do not know. As for the ChildFlight posters at Fraser's funeral, Priscilla asked for photo's etc to be at the Camden Civic Centre and this is the best I could do on short notice, as well we got the photo's framed that were on his coffin, all had Priscilla's approval.

Rotaryman, you seem to have an axe to grind against ChildFlight. The aim for my orginal message was to try and get as many people to turn up to this benefit night as possible. If you want to slag ChildFlight well go ahead, you won't be the first and I am sure you won't be the last. Instead why not turn up on the 25th of March, join in the fun, give as much as you can to Priscilla, and then come have a talk to me, I'll try and answer some of your questions.


Rick Walden.

[GROSSER]

Rotaryman

As unfortunate an accident as this one was - it highlights the worst case senario for any pilot who 'moonlights' with another operator. Flying casual for someone else when you have a full-time job with good conditions and benefits (super, loss of lic, etc etc) has become a bit of an industry norm especially during fire-fighting seasons.
The flight and duty restrictions on SAR/EMS crews alone - even if you have 'fatigue manangement' I would have thought would put casual flying off limits. Besides I have always believed that unless you make casual flying your sole form of income you are doing another pilot out of a job and as this case shows the negatives far outway any positives.
If an operator has to rely on casual pilots flying cross-hired machines I believe they have to ask themselves how serious they are about being in the industry.

[rotaryman]

RICKW...

Thanks for your informative post, Although i beg to differ!!

Firstly let me say i have no axe to grind with ChildFlight, when i heard of the drama's involving ChilFlight I was Pissed off, Yes Prissilla did have to wait for Final Pay etc And regardless off the legal requirments of probate etc and in light of the amount of publicity that ChildFlight gleaned from this tragic situation, I would have thought they would done the right thing.!

As for pictures in frames on a coffin etc, that is a far cry from posters promoting ChildFlight decorating the entire Church.

ChildFlight has a reputation for ripping pilots off ( your words not mine) yes i know a few pilots who have worked for the organisation and left after empty promises made by your Chief Pilot (Terry) never come to fruition. promises promises....

I sent a email to your Chief Pilot quite some time ago and didnt even receive a required response..(very proffeshional)//

I think what ChildFlight is doing for the Family of Fraser is wonderful, But like i said lets not turn into a ChildFlight benifit night or publicity circus..


CROSSER...

I think you fail to understand that as Pilots we are all prostitutes. Yes we will go were the work is until such time as operators pay Pilots their true worth we will be forced to seek out additional flying..Funny i thought thats why we became Pilots!! silly me..

As for working casual as maybe a flight instructor in Frasers case, he like many pilots need to make ends meet and go with the money..
Seems your own Chief Pilot can work a second flying job so long as now one else does????TUT TUT..

MY POST SIMPLY SETS OUT TO SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT..!!

childflight ARE NOT AS SQUEEKY CLEAN as you would try to make out..and could have done more to assist the Grieving family than they did!!
Like i said! the moment the Publicity dried up so did the support to the family.

[The Nr Fairy]

I'm sorry, I seem to have wandered into either rec.aviation.rotorcraft or JustHelicopters by mistake.

If people can't have a reasonable discussion without resorting to petty name-calling, can't they at least do it elsewhere ?

[Heliport]

Guys
This thread is about trying to help the wife and children of a good man who lost his life.

I've binned Rick's mistaken ID, the response, his full apology, and the stupid name-calling posts by others.


Heliport

[trackdirect]

Just letting everyone know the night was a great success with over $20K raised for priscilla and the boys!!!! :ok:
The bands were excellent and the auction went off with many items getting over $1000 each....
Thank you to all that attended and were so generous.

By the way ROTARYMAN I did not see any childflight promotional material anywhere, I GUESS YOU GOT IT WRONG!!!!! :{
If you are man enough a few apologies would not go astray to the organisers of the benefit.

Just my view

[deeper]

That's a fantastic effort for his family.

Quite a few of our pilot and engineering friends have met an untimely end and have not been covered by insurance.

Young wives with children have a huge deficit to overcome.

It is so good to see our industry stand up and ease the burden that these families have had thrust upon them.

Good on you all.:ok: :ok:

[rotaryman]

Thank you for your informative post and well done for Prisilla and the boys.

I am Sure Fraser was there in Spirit,, A fantastic result!!

But i beg to differ as far as any appology!

The claims i made against ChildFlight were true regardless of wether you belive them or Not!
I guess the message was received by ChildFlight and didnt place any promotional material after receiving so much flack after the Funeral..

There is also another benifit night planned for later in the year arranged by close friends and pilots who new Fraser,, Reason being they want to support priscilla and the boys but didnt want to even be in the same room as the ChidFlight people!!
Make of that what you will.. i think it speaks volumes!!!!!!!


safe Flying..:ok: