DOC.400
6th Jan 2002, 18:16
For those that don't get Classic Cars magazine (Dec '01):
'... a Tasmanian who arrived in our Baron's Court flat asked if anyone wanted lift home for Christmas. I (Eoin Young) established that it was going to cost £25.(1960's) I accepted. Then I found out that we were going in a single engined, four seater Cessna 180 (G-APYJ)that (Sir Jack) Brabham had now sold to a farmer in Tasmania....Our route...Luton,Rome, Brindisi, Athens....Beirut, Damascus, Kuwait, Jiwani, Karachi, Nagpur, Calcutta, Rangoon, Phuket, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Kupang......Darwin, Alice Springs, Adelaide, Melbourne, Launceston.
The 'five day trip' took a month...the actual flying time was only 98 hours.......
My favourite memory...trying to raise the tower at Phuket.......then it was a grass field and the reason (the pilot)couldn't raise anyone was because nobody was there. (The pilot) thought perhaps he was mispronouncing the name and tried every variation over the radio until a very Australian voice boomed into our cockpit from nearby Butterworth airforce base in Burma. 'Whaddya want to do with it, mate? Pook-it? Fook-it? Or F**k it?'
DOC
'... a Tasmanian who arrived in our Baron's Court flat asked if anyone wanted lift home for Christmas. I (Eoin Young) established that it was going to cost £25.(1960's) I accepted. Then I found out that we were going in a single engined, four seater Cessna 180 (G-APYJ)that (Sir Jack) Brabham had now sold to a farmer in Tasmania....Our route...Luton,Rome, Brindisi, Athens....Beirut, Damascus, Kuwait, Jiwani, Karachi, Nagpur, Calcutta, Rangoon, Phuket, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Kupang......Darwin, Alice Springs, Adelaide, Melbourne, Launceston.
The 'five day trip' took a month...the actual flying time was only 98 hours.......
My favourite memory...trying to raise the tower at Phuket.......then it was a grass field and the reason (the pilot)couldn't raise anyone was because nobody was there. (The pilot) thought perhaps he was mispronouncing the name and tried every variation over the radio until a very Australian voice boomed into our cockpit from nearby Butterworth airforce base in Burma. 'Whaddya want to do with it, mate? Pook-it? Fook-it? Or F**k it?'
DOC