Vale Captain Tony Lucas

[barleyhi]

LUCAS. - Ulysses Anthony "Tony/Uly" 13.05.1930 -13.12.2011 The Lucas Family: Liz, Bronwyn, Paul, Andrea, Anna, Josh, Ben, Lara and Isabella, sadly advise of the death of their husband, father and grandfather: The Son of Homer and Henrietta, Tony had a lifelong attachment to aviation, firstly as a pilot with the Royal Victorian Aero Club and from 1954 to 1988 with TAA/ Australian Airlines. For 10 years he had been undergoing dialysis at the Peter James Centre in Burwood East. Extremely fond of the great PJ staff, their care meant so much to him. Thank you. Specific about having no funeral service, Tony simply wanted to place a newspaper notice (following). However, he was keen to pass on his thanks to those who have extended their thoughtfulness to him over the years, Firstly: his sister Mary - always there to provide unquestioning support. Also: Ron Austin, Mary Caldis, John Chew, Mac Job, George Belessis, Frank Tate, Ray Vuillermin and all his wonderful TAA colleagues. In keeping with his wishes, any donations to the Peter James Dialysis Centre Burwood East would be appreciated. Categorically not one for cliched obituary notices, the following is one that may nonetheless have appealed to Tony: "So long you ancient pelican... As he turned for a last look at the sky, he heard the distant sound of a man whistling. He found it very satisfying" - Ernest K. Gann: The High & the Mighty. (written by Tony 04.12.2011) 34 years with TAA and Australian Airlines; 1954-1988 I wish to thank all my friends and associates for all the help they gave me. Will get even next time! A special tribute to the Dialysis Team at Peter James. Special thanks to Frank Tate for all the years of friendship. Love - Uly.

[Keg]

Many of our more senior Flight Attendants often ask me if I'm related to the 'other Tony'. I'm not related and never met him but he has always been spoken of with fondness by those that flew with him and still fly today.

[Jabawocky]

Was he also round as a keg?

Heck we could be brothers keg:eek:

Funny thing is we all grow older.......eventually. I have some flying friends who would have flown alongside, I see Ray V mentioned there. Keg guys like Reg D and Chris M.... All getting older, and such great gentlemen of aviation.

.......and such great gentlemen of aviation..........I aspire to be at least 10% of these guys.

Like yourself, often with only knowing their legend you feel a loss.

[Paul Lucas]

Barleyhi, thank you for your post: it was kind of you to do that.

Now, a few days after the event, the Melbourne Herald Sun, still retain that post in their “Spotlight” section (I’m not sure why) under Steve Jobs and V8 Supercar Driver Jason Richards who has just passed away far too young.

Forgive me if I use this forum as a pulpit (this post will disappear into cyberspace-ether shortly anyhow)! Dad didn’t want a Funeral so there wasn’t a chance to mention this stuff.

Foolishly, and perhaps we are all guilty of this to a degree, it has taken his death to make me sit and contemplate segments of his life and more importantly, those of all of us as Professional Pilots.

Firstly, what is has done is prove that.

1) That Pilots do not invariably retire at sixty and keel-over within 2 years (he was 81)!
2) You can give up smoking overnight and not think of having another one (he did that 12 years ago when he started kidney dialysis)
3) Professional Pilots need to drink lots of water when they’re flying.

I flew north along A461 towards Darwin yesterday and looked down on all of the places he talked about flying into on TAA F27 hops through the Centre in the 60’s (Leigh Creek, Oodnadatta, Finke, Daley Waters etc) and more importantly the people he talked about as having had an influence on him over during his time in aviation.

He had a great career and to him (and me) TAA was his family. He was very fortunate to join 8 years after the airline started and left in 1988, eight years before it, then known as Australian Airlines, officially ceased operations. He had a career that most of us would kill for these days - not just for the stability of employment but also the variety of aircraft types he flew. If I am capable, I’ll post a sequence of pictures of these below.

Whilst he and his peers certainly benefited from the protection the Two Airline Policy afforded, he was also aware that by the 1980’s, the system probably needed a kick in the bum. At the time, having just joined TAA myself, I thought the ‘new wave’ of management (the James Strongs and Geoff Dixons) could only be a good thing and dismissed Dad’s reservations. I believe he actually expressed his concerns as to aspects of the corporate restructuring to Strong on a couple of occasions, for what that was worth!

Looking back on it now however, I do have to wonder who has actually benefitted from that shake-up other than the corporate high-flyers and their bonuses. TAA is gone, Ansett is gone, Qantas and Jetstar seem to be at war with their employees and Tiger is a mess. Maybe they should have left the airline business to Arthur Coles and Reg Ansett. But that’s another story well covered elsewhere!

Thinking about it now, it’s not the corporate entity we work for that ends up mattering, but the people you work with who stick in your mind - the people who have influenced you in some small or large way. And we rarely say thanks to them.

Too often, the people are just forgotten but in my reckoning, these people have a far greater influence on our aviation community than any revered corporate hotshots.

For example Dad was indebted to George Campbell at the Royal Victorian Aero Club for helping the academically challenged Melbourne High Year 10 evictee on his way in aviation. People like Gertrude McKenzie and Roy Goon were memorable to him (Gertie was written about recently in Classic Wings and Roy was a Chinese-Australian squadron leader who had commanded the 83rd Squadron in the RAAF and flew later with the Royal Vic). There were other aviation people he remembered there who were just plain nice folks - like Pat Bourke and Rick Tate and his brother and Dads' great Qantas mate Frank.

I was also privileged to work professionally later in GA with pilots Dad knew. Great people like Laurie McPherson (a thorough gentleman) and one of the nicest and keenest aviators of them all; John Lindsay.

During his time with TAA he learnt much from great Captains such as “Darkie” Duffield and Eric Krieg and enjoyed flying with F/O’s with names like Poletto, Newnham Chomley, Belcher (dad would like you to know it was kidney failure he died from not liver) - they all added a lot to his life. Even after TAA he was very honoured to mix with and learn from pilots of the ilk of John Chew.

So in a nutshell, companies and corporate wizards come and go but it was the people who meant so much to Dad.

In his mind, and I have to agree, there could be nothing better than an overnight in some hotel telling BS aviation stories with a bunch of work colleagues. He reckoned if it wasn’t for the management and the bloody simulators, it would have been the perfect existence.

Not much has changed (except for the pay and the standard of the hotels and the hours flown)!

Anyhow, apologies for the lack of funeral and on behalf of dad - many happy hours of flying.

This embodies the spirit of TAA:
TAA 1975 Up Up and away with TAA, the friendly, friendly way..mp4 - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0pjq3ZzHUs)

http://www.edcoatescollection.com/ac1/austb/vhboh.jpg

[Paul Lucas]

Just trying to get the hang of posting pics. Hopefully I've got the liveries correct for the period. aussieairliners.net is worth a visit.

1952: DH82
http://www.edcoatescollection.com/ac1/austb/vhboh.jpg

TAA F/O
1954-55: Douglas DC3
http://www.edcoatescollection.com/ac1/austa/TAAFleet/VH-AEQ2.jpg

1955-56: Douglas DC4
http://www.aussieairliners.org/dc-4/vh-taa/1125.122l.jpg

1956-58: Vickers Viscount 700 series
http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-photos/photos/6/3/4/0481436.jpg

1959-61:
Lockheed L188 Electra:
http://www.aussieairliners.org/electras/vh-tla/1808.508l.jpg

TAA Captain
1961-63: Douglas DC3
http://aussieairliners.org/dc-3/vh-taj/0250.248l.jpg

1964-68: Fokker 27
http://aussieairliners.org/f-27/vh-tqn/1993.298l.jpg
He ferried that particular aircraft from Amsterdam to Melbourne in 1968.

1968-1971: Lockheed L188 Electra
http://aussieairliners.org/electras/vh-tla/1808.880l.jpg

1971-1980: McDonnell Douglas DC9
http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-photos/photos/9/8/6/0190689.jpg

1980-1986: Boeing 727-200
http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-photos/photos/2/4/2/1107242.jpg
http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-photos/photos/5/7/7/1237775.jpg

1986-1988: Airbus A300B4
http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-photos/photos/4/5/5/1355554.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fa/TAA_A300B4_VH-TAD_Eagle_Farm_1988.JPG

Apologies if the pics didn't post correctly..

[Al E. Vator]

Apologies for the slight thread drift. That You Tube video "Up Up and Away with TAA" from a few posts earlier has at the very end, initial views of the great TAA 727 Ad with a camera mounted in the tail.

Is anybody aware of where the full version of this might be found?

[Fliegenmong]

I feel the poorer for having never met the man. However, respects to you Paul and your family at this time.

Mr Vator, I have posted several times asking about that ad. I rarely watch TV or listen to commercial radio because I loathe ads. so much, but the tail footage was a superb ad. It must be out there somewhere....has to be......

[Fliegenmong]

actually just now googled it and teh first thing up was a thread where I asked about that ad

[Exaviator]

Paul, I flew with your dad back in the early sixties when I was just a young F/O on the F27 and he had just earned his command.

There were some captains that you preferred to fly with for a variety of reasons - he was one of them.

Sorry to hear of his passing. Ex

[Paul Lucas]

Keg: Thanks for your post. Take good care of that name eh!

Also Exaviator thank you too for your thoughts. The emails I have received have all been very similar. Hope I can illicit at least half of the flight-deck goodwill he seemed to.

PS: Sorry about my long post up above; probably should wait a few days before posting that sort of stuff!

[Paul Lucas]

Sorry to drag this post to the top as I'm sure it scares people who know Keg!

Keg is still with us I believe.....

Had been meaning for some time to edit and place on YouTube edited footage of 2 sectors in a typical duty day for a TAA A300B4 crew (BNE-SYD and MEL-SYD).

It's from January 1988. Great if you need to know how to start an A300! Interesting to see how long the checklist challenge and response items were compared to current aircraft. The non-readback ATC also seems weird now.

Also interesting to see old liveries and some now non-existent airlines (East West etc).

MEL-SYD Pt 1: TAA A300-B4 MEL-SYD Part 1 - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0H4tGxCAzwg)
MEL-SYD Pt 2: TAA A300-B4 MEL-SYD Part 2 - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0D-xBvI17Z8)

BNE-SYD Pt 1: TAA A300-B4 BNE-SYD Part 1 - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USCgJd0oZEU)
BNE-SYD Pt 2: TAA A300-B4 BNE-SYD Part 2 - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4CPvnIGJio)

BNE-SYD Pt 1 is interesting in that it shows the old Brisbane Eagle Farm Airport.

Apologies for the fairly lousy video skills and editing!

[Mr.Buzzy]

Thank-you so much Paul. That is great footage. You should be very proud.

[Aye Ess]

Great,Paul.....historic now. There is a whole generation of pilots not familiar with the clunky old instruments and the antiquated boarding by walking across the apron.

Alan Spears

[Marvin Martian]

Thanks for the thread...
A great career of aviation through the 'Golden Years'
I didn't know Capt Lucas but know/knew a number of the names mentioned.
Young ones would be well advised to find out more about those fine aircraft.

[Al E. Vator]

Hi Fliegenmong, you may already have seen this in another post. Previously you asked about that marvellous TAA 727 tail-camera ad.

Here it is:

YouTube - TAA 727 tail camera.