Bill Vincent Bush Pilot
 

A workmate lent me a copy of the book Bill Vincent Bush Pilot, a very interesting and at time frightening read about a bush pilot from Tasmania.
Certainly had some very interesting way of operating aircraft and getting away with it along with the odd incident or accident, and gave a few new CPL's a start in the industry during tough times that GA has experienced over the years.
Any Ppruners ever work for the man?
Cessna certainly made a very good product especially the way this guy abused them.
Must be a good stick and rudder man to log up 20,000 hours and survive!!

Sounds interesting who is the publisher and whats ICQ (?) number please, would not mind having a read myself.

When was the book published? I recall an operator out of Smithton years ago who did lots of "interesting" flying; don't know if they are one and the same.

Norwest Air Charters was based in Smithton in the 60's and 70's. They operated Cessna 180's and wrote off at least one or two per year. Their strip's were pretty difficult.
Back in those days, C180 endorsements were lumped into a group, C180/182/185. They use to advertise for pilots and employ low experienced pilots with a C182 endorsement. Then the owner would check them out in the180 and them turn them loose in and out of these horrendous strips. With the weather experienced around that area, it usually wasn't long before a 180 was upended. They also never had the rear seat fitted, they use to use old aircraft tyres to sit people on, so they could carry more passengers!

Stationair8, some more details when you can please.

Is Bill Vincent Bush Pilot the correct title? I've done a google with no results.

I Remember seeing one of his 205/6? land at King Island one day and the pilot taxing in with lots and lots of power against brake.... only to see it fall on its tail as soon as he shut the engine down....We all went over to see what was wrong only to find about 20 goats tightly sqeezed into the back and the pilot looking red-faced saying ....."your not from the C.A.A. are you"???

Billy Vincent Bush Pilot is written by Guy Nicholson.

Paperback ISBN 978-0-9804006-1-8

Hardback ISBN 978-0-9804006-4-9

Published in 2007 by 40 Degrees South Pty Ltd, Hobart, Tasmania.

My mates copy was obtained from Petrarch's Bookshop 03 6331 8088.

The other point of contact to obtain a book maybe the Circular Head Council, as they contributed funds to write the book and Billy is still living at Smithton

I believe Billy has now moved to Somerset, between Burnie and Wynyard, and leaving a fairly quiet life.

A few of the CPL's that worked for Billy over the years;
Damon Terry,
Tony Willis,
Luke Downes,
Rusty Gardiner.

A few more CPL's that worked for Billy were:
Keith Barron,
Garry Greene,
Alan Miller,
Pat Shipp,
Drew Salter,
Paul Murphy.

After reading the book it amazes me that these blokes and Billy actually survived, even though a fair number of aircraft were crashed they only ever injured one passenger.

Billy must have been a real thorn in the side of DCA/DOT and finally the CAA, I would have liked to been a fly on the wall when Gordon "Freddie" Fox and Billy had a little chat about the way things should be done!!

As I said in my original post Cessna must build a bloody good aircraft the way this mob overloaded them and generally abused them. Long live the mighty Cessna 172, 180, 185 and 206.

Also the Auster must have been a rugged old bird as well.

The only real mistake Billy probably made was not to operate the mighty C207 as we all know they are the pick of Mr Cessna's products.

It must have been a real eye opener for somebody with a brand new Commercial licence that had been gained at one of the big flying schools and get a job at Smithton and spend your first few hours doing the mutton bird runs!!!

Does anybody know if the ATSB have old accident reports from the Safety Digest on their website, as I would like to have read about some of the accidents?

Does anyone know where Rusty Gardiner is these days???

Stationair8. Thanks for the book ref. I'll get a copy myself.

Rustly is on the Airbus fleet with Emirates.

Just having a flick through the book, an interesting read. Covers dramas with mutton birding, ten years harasment by the police drug squad and other interesting subjects.... oh, and lots of aircraft storys.

I understand Andrew Ogilvie (Ex AN 320 Capt) also worked for Bill Vincent briefly and may have upended a C206 on one of the islands due to a 70 kt ground gust.

AO didn't work for Bill but for Brian Raven in Wynyard...Bill was in the air at the same time that the 206 (VH-PGJ now residing at MK) was upended on the ground at Trefoil Is.

As a matter of interest where is AO and what is he doing ?.

I believe he is with Jetstar.

Brian Raven still got the Air BP agency at Wynyard?

No, he lost the fuelling contract several years ago. Must be in his early to mid seventies now. Owns I believe a Kitten home built and flies occassionally. Lives in Burnie.

Same chap had an Apache VH-BUA. Burnt in the button grass off the end of the runway at Strahan.

If you like bill vincent's book, you'll love another called 'flying doctor' by clyde fenton...auto-biography...NT in the 30's and 40's in a fox moth...he got away with some pretty hairy stuff too...on one occaision, he flew, (illegally), to hong kong in the fox thru monsoon storms DR'ing it all the way, (which can't have been easy as he seemed to spend the vast majority of the time in coud, not to mention no AI)...and he talks at length about the hillarious on-going battle he had with the then CAA...some things never change i guess! It's even funnier as it's written in a formal 'queens english' style of the times. Are we all soft these days!? Pprune book club review 10/10....:ok: