It was all better back then...

[das Uber Soldat]

Thats fine mate. And I'm more than happy to read the stories from the older guys, often going out of my way to hear them. Aviation was a different beast back then and in some senses I'm sad to have missed the 'golden age'.

But I will always defend the ability of my peers.

Happy flying.

[Old Fella]

In Paradise

Sixtiesrelic, I think you have mistaken me and our aircraft for another. I was a F/E on Lockheed C130A models when flying in PNG, later on C130E and C130H models before going Boeing (B707 initially). Happy days mate.

[thorn bird]

Ladies and Gents,
A question for you.
During my sighs and smiles reading through these posts, Ahh, memories!! my dementia addled brain suddenly thought...Is it "really" any safer flying today than it was back then?...is it as enjoyable today as it was back then?
Seems like my stress levels are a lot higher , continually worried about big brother breathing down my neck, with that criminal prosecution for a minor mistake, to relax. (Who wants to spend their retirement in Jail?)
Lots more box ticking and paper work now...but is it any safer? with all these new rules, which I have to confess I dont fully understand, even if I can find them in all the tomes they now occupy. Flying seems so complicated today.
Sorry guys, must be old age creeping up on me, maybe its time to hang up the Dave Clarks, and keep the fond memories.

[sixtiesrelic]

Old fella you're correct, Dyslexia's functioning too, but we did dine in the Ansett mess in 72.

Some pickies for you from outside your aeroplane during the 'Gamon famon'
It started off real enough when they had a six week drought but they got cunning later and gently waved red hot sticks over the leaves of the crop when the morning dew was on it so the steam burned the leaves and then they showed the Kiaps the frost damage and reckoned they'd need more Kaikai b'long Australia. Havin choppers deliver food beat weedin' gardens and digging up crops.

[sixtiesrelic]

More Famine Ops.

[sixtiesrelic]

Mendi 5000ft elev.




Some of the things the RAAF did to their aeroplanes.

[sixtiesrelic]

Then there was the day when they busted the nosewheel at Madang.









Couple of other pickies.





So OLDFELLA that's what we saw.
PM me if you would like more.

[Tmbstory]

Photos of the Hercules in PNG

Sixtiesrelic:

Thanks for posting those, I enjoyed them. Even though I was not in the RAAF, I did spend quite some time with the L382's and SAT on the operation from Nadzab to Moro when we helped develop that project.

Regards

Tmb

[Old Fella]

Famine Relief PNG 1972

Sixtiesrelic. Thanks very much for posting the photographs of C130 ops in PNG. The nose gear failure on -213 was the first of its type in RAAF service. A similar event happened within the last couple of years with a C130H. The one in Madang could have been much worse. As you may recall, the torque link on the C130 is forward facing. The dual wheel nose gear axle broke away from the bottom of the strut and the axle and wheel assys trailed with the torque link fully extended. Don Stuart, I think, was flying the aircraft and after jettisoning a load of empty 44 gallon drums into Madang harbour they landed, very gingerly lowering the nose so that the broken strut slid down the torque link and rested on the broken axle. There was very little secondary damage and a new NLG strut assy complete with new wheels and tyres was about all required to get the aircraft back on line. I checked my log book and I was in Madang during October '72. A couple of times a week we would go down to Cairns and load up with potatoes from the Atherton area, departing early in the mornings to fly direct to Mendi. The aircraft which bogged at Rabaul broke through what had been a WWII repaired bomb crater as I recall. It had been filled with drums and covered with earth. The drums eventually rotted and the Herc broke through. I had a bogging incident on Daru, luckily we had a number of Aussie soldiers on board who had been away from home for weeks and they soon dug us an excape route.

[Tee Emm]

So OLDFELLA that's what we saw.

Was Bruce Clarke the pilot of any of those Hercs. We flew together at 34 Sqn on 748's and in DCA. He keeled over at his desk at DCA. RIP/.

[Tee Emm]

was to check the wind lines on the local water dams.

And not forgetting cows always have their arses into wind. They never tell you that in the A330 simulator when doing the volcanic ash exercise and you can't get the engines started...

[ForkTailedDrKiller]

And not forgetting cows always have their arses into wind.

Yup! Especially after I have been at'm!

Dr

[Hempy]

tinpis and the local FSO, circa ?

[Old Fella]

Bruce Clark

Tee Emm I first met Bruce I think in 1959. He was on C130's then and I later caught up with him while he was an Instructor on Winjeels at Point Cook in the early 1960's. I did not get back to RAAF Richmond until late 1968 and I can't recall if Bruce was around then. He certainly was on the C130A in around 1966 or '67. He and Arch Streeter were in
A97-207 with Barrie Wallis as F/E and Les Wells as Loadie when they inadvertently entered a spin during practice stalls. One of the outboard props re-acted to a Negative Torque Signal and away they went. They lost a lot of height before recovering at a fairly low altitude. I know the power off stalls were always thereafter with a minimum of about 1000 in/lbs of torque on all engines to preclude another NTS event during stalling practice. I was aware that Bruce had passed away, a long time ago now. He was a good guy and an early wearer of the Crew Cut hair style. RIP.