Request for info on flying an Auster.
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Australia
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In regards to the flap.....
The easiest way is to keep your toes on the rudders, grab the control stick with your knees, wait for a smooth bit of air then grab the flap leaver with both hands to extend the flaps. Just watch where your placing your hands as the flap leaver bites!!
The easiest way is to keep your toes on the rudders, grab the control stick with your knees, wait for a smooth bit of air then grab the flap leaver with both hands to extend the flaps. Just watch where your placing your hands as the flap leaver bites!!
THAT flap handle....
If you are flying right hand on throttle lever, left hand on stick...simply transfer your right arm/hand up and across to the lever, above left, onto the flap lever handle
Lift the lever UP slightly..then slide forward the handle....then, pull the lever down and let the handle slide back so the holding pin engages in the required notch of 3....Take-off, 1/2, Full.
Ensure locating pin properly engaged back in the notch. If it isnt the lever may release and the flap can BANG ! back up due to the air load.
You will only do it once..loud noises in flight are scary !
Best if everything is oiled and travels easily. One hand and simple.
No such hi-techo in the J2....flapless !
AUSTERs are GO !
Lift the lever UP slightly..then slide forward the handle....then, pull the lever down and let the handle slide back so the holding pin engages in the required notch of 3....Take-off, 1/2, Full.
Ensure locating pin properly engaged back in the notch. If it isnt the lever may release and the flap can BANG ! back up due to the air load.
You will only do it once..loud noises in flight are scary !
Best if everything is oiled and travels easily. One hand and simple.
No such hi-techo in the J2....flapless !
AUSTERs are GO !
Arthur Kell for certain did not join 617 SQN till after the dams raid.
In 'RAAF Over Europe' by Frank Johnson, the photos pages at the end of the book include one showing crew togging up for a mission. Arthur is in that photo. He did bomb the 'Tirpitz'
When I mentioned to Arthur that I had this book on my shelves he asked to borrow it. No one likes necessarily to speak unfavourably of the dead, but it took a concerted effort to get the book back, at one stage Arthur telling me on the phone in heated tones that I had given it to him. When he did finally return it I was saddened to see that he had apparently used a razor blade to scratch out
the 'return to' with name etc that I had noted inside the cover.
In my defence, perhaps, all this happened when I was a callow nineteen. I would today, if confronted with a similar situation, and with a man in whatever bloody book as well, avoid any ructions. That's when silence is golden.
One of Arthur's little quirks on a busy day at the old club was to put his head round the flight office door and say "Alright, who's the next biscuit ?"
After the war Arthur flew for Transport Command, where his last posting was on Brittanias. His funeral was at St Phillips in Macquarie Street. Often wondered whether his young son, who would have been about ten at the time, followed in his dad's footsteps at all.
THE AUSTER (Latin for 'south wind')
As with a Tiger, once you take the time to get to know her, settle in after how ever many hours and landings it takes to feel part of the aeroplane, then despite the doughy handling, there's nothing more enjoyable than a sedate trip across open country with oodles of paddocks and lengthy pastures, liesurely studying the passing landscape, not too high and not too low. She's an old lady. Needs to be treated as such.
No big deal really, the flap lever. Once you have the knack, as 'aroa' says, of unloading the aerodynamic force on the lug in the notched arc, its a piece of piss requiring no brute strength at all. Nothing wrong with putting the whole lot down in one go as you turn a finely judged final, throttle fully closed.
A lot of satisfaction getting that right, slipping over the fence to hold off and hold off and hold off, till she settles on the grass, as gentle as a pelican on a lake.
Best way of becoming acquainted with the Auster brigade is do what kaz suggests -
We had a great weekend at Leeton. Lots of flying, no mishaps and heaps of fun. The next one will be at Luskintyre in 12 months time so come along if free and join in the war stories.
Griffo would know the one about the Auster taxying Wagga for Hay late in the afternoon.
'Wagga this is dah dee dah taxying for Hay'
'Dah dee dah . . Wagga. .. do you think you can make Hay while the sun shines?'
Last edited by Fantome; 16th May 2013 at 10:16.
Aha Mr Fantome,
That ocassion!! - and another from SY Flight Service, FSO was 'GS' on the console, chasing a late position on a VFR aircraft inbound to Hay from Bankstown and last light pending......
Turned around so as to face the room, and in a very good/loud 'stage voice', Shakespearean like - also put the same question......
" ABC, Will you be able to MAKE HAY WHILST THE SUN SHINES.."
The Supervisor - old fart - was NOT amused......but the rest of the room 'broke up' as they say....
Dem good ole days......
.
That ocassion!! - and another from SY Flight Service, FSO was 'GS' on the console, chasing a late position on a VFR aircraft inbound to Hay from Bankstown and last light pending......
Turned around so as to face the room, and in a very good/loud 'stage voice', Shakespearean like - also put the same question......
" ABC, Will you be able to MAKE HAY WHILST THE SUN SHINES.."
The Supervisor - old fart - was NOT amused......but the rest of the room 'broke up' as they say....
Dem good ole days......
.
Similarly, in the earlier Mining Boom days, many an aircraft taxing at Kal for Cue, took great delight in calling 'taxiing KAL, faa Q'....
And the response, under ones breath - not 'on air' of course, was along the lines of.....
Or, ABC, CFM taxiing 'FAA Q ???'
Had to be 'careful' - EVERYTHING was ON TAPE....still, it made life 'enjoyable' at times....
The much quoted phrase amongst 'retired' FSO's, of "Area QNH 1013", means pretty much the same....but with 'love and a smile'....often abbrev to simply 1013 .......
1013
= See Ya .....
And the response, under ones breath - not 'on air' of course, was along the lines of.....
Or, ABC, CFM taxiing 'FAA Q ???'
Had to be 'careful' - EVERYTHING was ON TAPE....still, it made life 'enjoyable' at times....
The much quoted phrase amongst 'retired' FSO's, of "Area QNH 1013", means pretty much the same....but with 'love and a smile'....often abbrev to simply 1013 .......
1013
= See Ya .....
Last edited by Ex FSO GRIFFO; 18th May 2013 at 16:25.
oh I don't know Griff. . . . . any diversion should be apples round here. "Are you diverting?" was heard on occasion from the man with his eye on the maggots. It was asked one occasion around 0200 of a NSW air ambulance pilot returning back to base at Mascot. He was dozy, added to which the A/P heading hold was defective.
1013 as a catch phrase recalls to mind what miners on the southern coalfields of NSW used to say when saying cheerio to a mate .. . "Keep your hand on your four and nine". A recent revised award handed down to them had specified
under "Danger Money" the paltry sum of four shillings and ninepence.
You'd have heard some of the stories that used get around in the sixties about that flying padre, name of Petersen ? , who'd go off in his Auster for weeks at a time spreading the word and holding services at remote cattle stations. Would have been in '65 at Wyndham , having a chat to the FSO one fine morning early. Heard outside the aforementioned Auster come to life, followed a short time later by the sight out the window of the taxying plane, from which also came the most unusual scraping sound. Our sky pilot had managed to run over a cone marker which he was now dragging along the nearby section of tarmac. Sounded a bit like finger nails being dragged down a blackboard.
With engine still ticking over, he climbed out, lay down on his back and pushed and kicked the thing free. He then got up, reached inside the Auster to get hold of a big pair of shears, with the aid of which he trimmed off a few bits of ragged fabric and dangly bits. Happy with which he got back in, shortly after disappearing like a man on a mission out across the Kimberleys.
It was his habit to put in a flight plan that specified a sartime that might be not just a nominated time of day but date and time that might be a week away. That would have been a reflection as to his uncertainty about some of those stations and out stations back then that had poor radio phone links or none.
At the main roads camp out at the nine mile east of Wyndham there was a memorable cook. He was a past master with the mouth watering things he could do with a bush turkey that would emerge from his oven done to perfection with a perfect sauce to boot . Served up with a wink and a finger to the lips as a substantial fine was attached to any discovery of this bird being potted.
1013 as a catch phrase recalls to mind what miners on the southern coalfields of NSW used to say when saying cheerio to a mate .. . "Keep your hand on your four and nine". A recent revised award handed down to them had specified
under "Danger Money" the paltry sum of four shillings and ninepence.
You'd have heard some of the stories that used get around in the sixties about that flying padre, name of Petersen ? , who'd go off in his Auster for weeks at a time spreading the word and holding services at remote cattle stations. Would have been in '65 at Wyndham , having a chat to the FSO one fine morning early. Heard outside the aforementioned Auster come to life, followed a short time later by the sight out the window of the taxying plane, from which also came the most unusual scraping sound. Our sky pilot had managed to run over a cone marker which he was now dragging along the nearby section of tarmac. Sounded a bit like finger nails being dragged down a blackboard.
With engine still ticking over, he climbed out, lay down on his back and pushed and kicked the thing free. He then got up, reached inside the Auster to get hold of a big pair of shears, with the aid of which he trimmed off a few bits of ragged fabric and dangly bits. Happy with which he got back in, shortly after disappearing like a man on a mission out across the Kimberleys.
It was his habit to put in a flight plan that specified a sartime that might be not just a nominated time of day but date and time that might be a week away. That would have been a reflection as to his uncertainty about some of those stations and out stations back then that had poor radio phone links or none.
At the main roads camp out at the nine mile east of Wyndham there was a memorable cook. He was a past master with the mouth watering things he could do with a bush turkey that would emerge from his oven done to perfection with a perfect sauce to boot . Served up with a wink and a finger to the lips as a substantial fine was attached to any discovery of this bird being potted.
Last edited by Fantome; 18th May 2013 at 17:45.
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Victoria
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Tales from Outback
I have a book about the Flying Salvos and Vic got into trouble in his Tigers and Austers more than once. I remember he landed in mangroves off the WA Coast after engine problems and the aircraft was eventually recovered by barge.
He was found by Mission blacks and took it all in his stride.
Turkeys? I had a station in the Upper Gascoyne in the late 70's and our Aboriginal stockmen would shoot one for Christmas and bring it in to be stuffed and cooked. Our local (!) policeman came out to stay with us for a few days and had a nasty accident on the way...a turkey flew up and broke its neck on his HF aerial. He was devastated, of course, and brought the body to us for gentle cremation in the oven :-)
Luskintyre is on at the end of April.
Kaz
Edit: should mention my Auster and I both just turned 70.
He was found by Mission blacks and took it all in his stride.
Turkeys? I had a station in the Upper Gascoyne in the late 70's and our Aboriginal stockmen would shoot one for Christmas and bring it in to be stuffed and cooked. Our local (!) policeman came out to stay with us for a few days and had a nasty accident on the way...a turkey flew up and broke its neck on his HF aerial. He was devastated, of course, and brought the body to us for gentle cremation in the oven :-)
Luskintyre is on at the end of April.
Kaz
Edit: should mention my Auster and I both just turned 70.
