Charter Flying in WA in 1964.

[PH Pommy 1964]

Hi Anyone out there interested in charter flying in the NW of WA in the mid sixties? I flew for Lou Kent of KWK Air Transport, Derby. I took over from Dave Scanlon at Port Hedland in 1964 flying Cessna 205 VH RLN and Cessna205 VH KXK. I was the only charter aircraft based at PH at that time. The RFDS had a Baron there flown by Jim Smith. Are you still around Jim? I am almost 80 so you would be going on 90 by now. Jan Beers flew in sometimes in the Bell Bros Cessna182. Sometimes we met at Swindle Field out on the Canning Stock Route in the Great Sandy Desert. Wish we had GPS in those days!!

[AmarokGTI]

Hi Anyone out there interested in charter flying in the NW of WA in the mid sixties? I flew for Lou Kent of KWK Air Transport, Derby. I took over from Dave Scanlon at Port Hedland in 1964 flying Cessna 205 VH RLN and Cessna205 VH KXK. I was the only charter aircraft based at PH at that time. The RFDS had a Baron there flown by Jim Smith. Are you still around Jim? I am almost 80 so you would be going on 90 by now. Jan Beers flew in sometimes in the Bell Bros Cessna182. Sometimes we met at Swindle Field out on the Canning Stock Route in the Great Sandy Desert. Wish we had GPS in those days!!

Bet you'd have some great stories!

[emeritus]

I was instructing/ charter flying for Arthur Schutt at Moorabbin when Lou bought a 182 ( VH_KWK ) from him. I was sent up to Derby mid 61 to teach Lou and Kevin to fly and to do charter/ company flying as well. Enjoyed 4-5 months up there. Spent a fair bit of time commuting between Derby- Wyndham/Kunnunurra.

Dick Roberton was the only other charter operator between Port H and Katherine as I recall.

Robin McMillan took over when I returned to Vic. Great days ! Great part of OZ

Emeritus.

[ANCIENT]

Hi PH, I flew for Doug Muir out of Darwin in 1964 then moved to Perth with Doug and spent 1965 to Feb 1967 there. Flew Aztec DMA, Barons DME and DMD, Travelair DMF and QueenAir DHQ all over WA.

[Dora-9]

Hi Ancient:

I flew for CFS (plus a secondment to the RFDS in Derby) from 1964-1969, so flew most of the Muir aircraft when he sold out to them. I never flew the Aztec or that Queen Air (which became the Swan Brewery's SLB), my log book has the Barons as DME (became CFO) and DMG (became CFG), while the delightful D95A (DMF) became CFQ. Out of a fleet of 6 C55's, DMG was by far the fastest!

[ANCIENT]

Hi Dora-9
I actually did a short stint with CFS after they bought Muir Aviation.
DMG was not one of Dougs' aircraft. DMD was and yes it was fast, I believe it was the first C55 imported to Australia. DME was the first B55 to go on charter in Australia when Doug bought it in late 1964.
When overflying now in a jet I look down on the places we used to fly to in the desert and reminisce on how different things were then without GPS, just compass and map.

[Dora-9]

Ancient: OK, I thought it was DMG first but never flew it as such so can't check my logbook. You're correct in that it was the first C55 here, absolutely the fastest, not sure about DME being the first B55, the first A55 was DHA which became CFT.

PM sent!

[ANCIENT]

Hi Dora,
Once again a connection, I did my B55 endorsement on DHA in August 64 with Ted? Shaw then flew it to Darwin with Ted Shaw and Barry Soutter so that the CP (Ossie Osgood) could be endorsed before we took delivery of DME.
The Baron proved to be a very capable charter aircraft. Had a deja vu moment last week, as I was coming back to my home base I heard "Baron DMD" give an inbound call. Had to check it out and discovered that DMD is a B58 tricked up with 4 bladed props and operated by Air Frontier.
As for DHQ/SLB I was responsible for Swan Brewery getting that Aircraft. Geoffrey Cohen the boss of Swan Brewery used to charter either DMD or DHQ for regular trips around WA and once he knew Doug was selling he decided to get his own aircraft. The first choice was a Baron and he offered me the job of flying it, I suggested the QueenAir would be better and that is what he bought. I didn't take the job as I already had an interesting job lined up overseas.

[Dora-9]

Hi Ancient:
Lots of deja vu moments - coming back from the AAAA event at Echuca and I heard a "CFD", immediate thoughts of an immaculate maroon/gold/white B65, but of course it wasn't that aircraft (broken up at Parafield in the 1990's I believe).
I think Phil Reese (of AOPA fame) ended up flying SLB and their replacement A90 (DYN?). I'd heard that SLB ended up being burnt out a few years later after a botched/over-primed hot start, you'll recall that the IGSO-480 was a bit tricky in this situation.
Funny you mention being offered that job - in late 1969 I was offered a job flying Tom Wardle's ("Tom the Cheap Grocer") HS125, I'd also been accepted by Ansett and on the advice of Cliff Brown (WA HdeH manager) I took the latter, a decision I never regretted.
Now if only I could get Photobucket to work I could post some photos...