PPRuNe Forums - Vale Darren Moore

We'll miss you mate. My wife and I were only reminiscing the other day about that NYE in the middle of the salt lake, and the quick blat in Daisy terrorising the local goats...

RIP, and our sincerest thoughts and sympathies to your family. :{

Ops - Funny thing I have almost the same photo of him, with the same expression, but a few years earlier.

And here's his story as referenced above. My favourite line is him working for "an idiot with ****e gear and false promises and an attitude that made it impossible to work for him without getting an assault charge on my record. "

Priceless.

-------------------------------------------------
Wiz's Story, by Wiz
I bailed on my edjumakashun before high school as I wasn't too good at the learning business. Traipsed about the country working as a station hand/stockman for a while.
Went to the fishing industry and fished on boats of all sizes and shapes for skippers of all types. worked from the south on tuna, shark, wetline scale fish through to the north on crayfish, yellow fin tuna, scallops, prawns and so on.

Eventually the bush called me back and I went back to stations as a ringer, fencing contractor, mustering contractor, well digger, windmill erector, dogger, etc. drank far to much rum, fought too many other drunken ringers and got sick of four months work in the middle of nowhere, paying for a five day blow out and a new pair of jeans and boots and then having to go back to do it again. (jeans only last so long you know).

Did a heavy duty fitters apprenticeship in the mining industry in the gold fields due to a punch-up with the bosses son on the last station I was on, then moved to the north of the country.
Worked up there as a sandblaster/ spray painter, laborer, bar man, semi pro boxer, donkey shooter, tree lopper.

Moved back to the goldfields and got tied up with a gal.
Got a job as a fettler out on the trans line at a place called Forrest. (no doubt you all have heard of it) it was here I got a taste of aviation.
I ended up as a part time refueller as well as working for the railways.

One day one of the guys from the Met side hired an airplane and bought it out to Forrest and did a little flying about. When I asked what it took to get a license, I was told not to bother as I wasn't clever enough....... so I didn't.
I hitched a ride to Rawlinna on a Aztec one day and loved the fact it was a 45 min flight against a eight hour rough drive.

The gal got preggers so we left the middle of nowhere to be in civilization for the birth.
I had worked my way up from Fettler to leading hand to Ganger and there was no room to go any further, as the road master was a lifer.
Had a kid and went back north as a donkey shooter, cum general hand at any and every thing.
One day while breaking some horses for an up coming sale, I was approached by a guy who asked if I could break a camel. I replied, "Dunno........... give it a shot though." I learned quickly that you can't buck out a camel.......... that snapping gator mouth can reach you while you're perched on its bouncing ass trying to stay on.

The guy then asked me if I could fix his truck as he was going out the desert to muster camels. I ended up going out as the mechanic and truck driver as I was the only one that could drive the truck.
In two weeks in the bush I witnessed three aircraft crashes (still have some awesome photos of them).

After running out of planks, the guy got a chopper in to do the work.
The guy that was flying the chopper was a great bloke and after some rum by the fire after dinner, we got talking abou
t flying. I told him I wasn't clever enough to fly a plane or chopper, but wished I was.
He told me I was full of it and next morning he would show me.

Next morning he kicked me out of my swag for my first ever flying lesson.
Well, we wheeled about doing the effects of controls in cruise and I was driving the helicopter unaided in a very short time. He decided that was too easy so we went to hovering.
I managed a sort of hover after twenty minutes of mayhem and was bitten hard by the bug.
Ian Hayward was responsible for me flying today.
Unfortunately he was killed a few years later in Tazwegia - caught a wire while ag flying.

A few years later and a few more kids, I was living in Esperance and shooting roos to supplement my meagre income as a diesel fitter in a farming town that was poverty stricken.
I bought a hang glider that kept falling out of the sky and hurting me. After successfully towing up with a vehicle and thermalling up to 7K a few times, I got to enjoy the floating about the sky bizzo.
After one really bad launch from a sand dune one day, I sold the hang glider to stop it hurting me for no reason. (I shudder now knowing I had seen 7K without knowing what a stall was).

I decided to invest the $$ I got for the hang glider into a real airplane license.
Packed my best thongs and headed off to the big smoke for a couple of lessons. managed to solo in minimum time. 5.4 hours.
I then returned to Esperance and shot roos to afford my next few lessons.
I would shoot until I had five tons, then load up my Landcruiser and trailer and wander down to the big smoke for more lessons.
Got my GFPT and aeros rating and moved back to the Golfields for the $$$.
Finished my PPL with a brand new school.
I was the first PPL out of Goldfield Air Services (Air Charter Kalgoorlie Western Australia - Charter Flights Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Flight Training School Western Australia WA - GoldFields Air Services).
I decided that I had to go all the way to CPL to stop the $$$ drain and get some more flying.

I moved to Perth to try and get work close to aviation and ended up doing a cert IV, Diploma and advanced diploma while working as a kangaroo boner and free lance mechanic to feed the now four kids and missus.
I ended up working for a larrakin aggy as a mechanic and loader and he got me to do a bit of ferry work to build my hours up and learn the business as an aggy.

I got my CPL and initial multi and hung around the airport as a Fly anything anywhere anytime guy and flew dirt darts on weekends.
Got into some international ferry flying C172s from YPJT to Manila in the Philippines and that sort of thing.
Eventually decided to get a mustering rating, as I could see me making a quid out of that.
I did the low level rating and headed up north to do the mustering rating. Got home and received a phone call two days later, offering me a job with the guy that did my rating.
Worked for him for a while and got sick of sleeping in hangars with holes in the roof that leaked in the rain, and eating crook food on old attitude stations.

The final straw was the boss rolling in on his new Harley that I had paid for with my last three months work, to be told they have no money this month and I'll get paid next month.......... meanwhile I was eating the army ations out of' the airplane's emergency rations while sleeping on the hangar floor.
I left and went home..... decided to set up my own outfit and went off mustering for myself.
Made a living out of that for 9 years - bought a house, csr, schooled my kids, went overseas on holidays, bought an old C310 and restored it and generally lived life.

Eventually mustering became too hard to make a living out of due to the bad stock prices, bad payers and the government's decision to stop the dingo control programs, thus ending the sheep era in most of the country I worked in.
Went back to the mining industry for a while and did the odd ferry overseas. managed to fly around PNG, Timor (yeah, they were still shooting while I was there), Indonesia (all over it), and the Philippines.

I eventually succumbed to my longing to fly a Caravan, as I fell in love with it from first sight.
I ended up bashing a few around the tropics during the build up and wet season for a good company, after bailing on an idiot with ****e gear and false promises and an attitude that made it impossible to work for him without getting an assault charge on my record.
Funnily enough, the CP of the company I moved to was one of my instructors 17 years before.

I bashed the van around for a couple of years in the seasons that they needed some experience and wrote an ops manual while working back in the goldfields during the breaks from flying.
I got my CP approval and AOC and all the other required approvals to start a turbine operation........ just in time to catch the global economic crisis.
I am now waiting to hear from several applications I have submitted for jobs while I wait out the looming depression.
I managed to squeeze a CPLH into all the above as well.

I am currently recovering from a back operation and am spending way too much time on the internet annoying all the know all's and mods on PPrune, while I wait for a flying job....... or the other one I have applied for overseas (my preferred position).

There ya go.......... the condensed version.

I might add that although i have managed to accrue 8500 odd hours in most pistons and a few turbines, I have loved most of it and have never felt the need to fly jets.
I do wish to fly some of the more character aircraft like the PC6, DHC6, DC3 and a few others, and I will eventually.

I have a drive that has dragged me this far, and have flown from C152's to PC12's all funded from aviation and hard work, so I won't stop until I have flown my wish list.

Kids are all grown and house is almost paid for, so I guess I can manage GA for a bit longer.