The contents of a logbook
 

I headed up to Kempsey on the weekend with my family to visit my Grandfather who has had a rough time lately following a fall, although fortunately he was doing pretty well when we visited. He is now in nursing care and a shadow of his former self, but still lucid and with his cheeky streak still in reserve.

He was where I got my flying passion from - he took my for my first flight at 10 and as a kid I could always talk planes with him, and he always had a lesson or something new to teach me. I was in awe of all these aero club trophies he had from various spot landing comps etc.

With things the way they are part of why we were up there was to sort through some of his things. Years ago he gave me his old correspondence flying school notes, recently his old DC headset and I am now looking after his flying bag and some of his related kit. I took a flick through his log book - about 650 hours in total, and it was amazing to me what you can pick out from that.

First TIF flight in a tiger moth in 1947, first solo in 6.5 hours. A bit of a break after that (having 6 kids does that) and resumption of the odd flight in the 60s, some more training and completion of his PPL in 1973. We found flights he took my parents on to take them to a wedding, lots of shark patrols around south west rocks, flying comps, aero club activities and even the flight the first time he took me up, with my name as his co pilot.

Maybe not a lot by some standards, but for a man who worked hard his whole life, raised his kids right and got in whatever flying he could it was meaningful to me, and interesting how much you can read from a collection of acronyms and numbers.

Just wanted to share.

on our airfield one night over some libations we compared notes as to hours flown.
all of us own aircraft, some own quite a few.
of the private owners some have been active on the airfield since 1975.
every single one of us had between 500 and 650 hours.

sarge your grandfather has nothing to be in the least bit ashamed of.
his hours are those of a very typical privately funded private pilot in this country.

Those are good memories to have "co-pilot" Bundy. Share all your thoughts with your grandfather and ask all you questions now. Everything that you can think of.

My dear old Dad always claimed that he had lost his log book of his WW11 flying experience.

It suddenly appeared on a bookshelf in the family home several days after his death, placed there I suspect by the Lawyer for whom he worked as a senior law clerk, who visited us to pay his condolences.

It indeed makes interesting reading but what a pity I cannot ask him a few questions.:{
But then again, maybe there were some things he simply didn`t want to talk about.

Those who really saw the shooting never do, do they?:hmm:

You each make the case for having a proper, handwritten log book, with various remarks, pictures etc. that eventually becomes an almanac of one's flying, be it private or professional, military or/and civil.


I can sit down with my books and resurrect events and people of long ago, something I don't think is so easy with the modern day impersonal, electronic books the youngsters of today seem so keen on. :)

Great story and sounds similar to my Granddad, although he wasn't able to continue after his early moth flights due to family and work commitments.

Anyone who can do 650 private hours shows a real passion for the cause.:ok:

To put it into context, it took nearly five years going at it as hard as a I could afford (i was single and had two jobs at the time) to get my first 200 hours and a CPL. After just over a year working as a pilot I had a 1000TT, but most of them were no-where near as fun as the first 200.

Ive got mates who can afford to fly privately, and in some ways i envy them..

until they tell me how much it cost to do a 100 hourly..:}

Sgt Bundy, your granddad is the aviation version of the salt of the earth. :ok:

Thanks for the kind words. In case anyone has bumped into him in his flying time, he is Reuben S. from Kempsey Flying Club.

Come now, Sgt: Logbooks aren't for the purposes of reminiscing. := Logbooks are for the purposes protecting one's self from prosecution.

Make sure your Granddad doesn't give his logbook away or make any alterations to the entries in it - 50 Penalty Unit Strict Liability offence times two:

About $220 averaged :ok:

Sgt Bundy,

It is clear that you, sir, have a soul.

Agreed.

No worries there, the last entry was well over 7 years ago.

I would have loved to have been at the point I could have had his name in my logbook as co-pilot, but unfortunately my flying has not been able to progress as I would have wished. Reading his stuff has motivated me, but motivation doesn't print money. I take heart that his flying noticeably was on hold for kids, so all is not lost, but just not well timed.

We had some chats a few years ago when he was in a better state, but I always kick myself later for not being able to think of enough to discuss. I also hate the thought that I might feel like I am doing a final inquisition.

SgtBundy, I can only echo what others have said and say 'Ask him!' - whilst you still can.

My late grandfather died more than 15 years ago. He never talked about the war, except in vague statements. We were under the impression that he was only a flying instructor, as he claimed, during the war.

Well, recently we came upon a whole heap of documents, photos, medals, and so forth...including his log book. Opening it up was thrilling and also sad. There was the only record, from start to finish, of a man who pre-WW2 had not flown at all, and after enlistment rapidly progressed from a Tiger Moth to Captain of a Lancaster. Several entries indicated that he wasn't just an instructor, he also went on sorties over Germany and was involved in Operation Chowhound (the Allied food drops over Nazi occupied Netherlands during the Dutch famine).

There are so many questions I would have liked to ask him...

sgtbundy my time has an 18 1/2 year break in it due to house, wife, kids etc.
the time away is a good time for reading and flying model aeroplanes.
if you "want it" your flying time will come again as mine did.
W8

SGT

On a more serious note than my previous (pointed elsewhere) post, have you thought about recording your Granddad's memories?

If you broach the subject and say that you'd like to record his experiences so that his great grandchildren and beyond might know his experiences and reflections, he may well be happy to chat. The entries in his logbook may well trigger some very detailed recollections of the circumstances of the flights that (as we all know) are far more extensive and interesting than the bland letters and numbers in the log book. My (first hand) experience with elderly family members is that earlier, precious memories come to the fore and have considerable detail and accuracy compared with later trivia.

Just so true, Creampuff. :ok:

Unfortunately I think his current condition puts him beyond that - he tends to communicate at the moment with nods and smiles, the odd word or two but not enough to record or have a long conversation. He tires fairly easily as well.

He might get some strength back and hopefully we could try to do so at some point.

sgt bundy. sadly the man is fading. it is too late. don't stress him.
just be thankful his log book wasn't discarded.

(I've worked in aged care)

W8 wrote:

"sgt bundy. sadly the man is fading. it is too late. don't stress him.
just be thankful his logbook wasn't discarded.

(I've worked in aged care.)"

I have a slightly different view. Part of my volunteering involves working with the very elderly in a number of ways. Patience is essential and even the time of day can be rather important when interacting with people suffering from dementia, for example.

You may be able to stimulate his memory with music that he always loved?

And that's why I agree with Creampuff's comments.

sgtbundy in his log book if he flew any Austers, what regos?

Unfortunately we lost my grandfather, Rueben Eric Saul, on Friday, aged 87.

The family gathered and went through some things over the weekend. We discovered letters of reference for his attempts to enter the RAAF, which was knocked back on medical grounds. One of which was a letter from his instructor at the Newcastle aero club (kempsey branch) giving him a great commendation for his flying skills.

We talked about the times he frightened my family members by turning off the cockpit lights during a night flight. How my cousin tried to get out of the aircraft when poppy pointed out Nan's house below. His sister told us as a young boy he once flew a tiger moth over the farm performing stunts, and his mother, who never swore, was heard to remark "that mad bastard will kill himself!".

Outside of flying he was a mechanic for 50 years running his own business, a tireless man with a work ethic to a fault. He was married to his wife for over 50 years until we lost her in 2003. The love and warmth of his family over the weekend is testament to the good job he did raising his 6 kids and how those values have been passed down to his 17 grand kids and 21 great grand kids.

He was a wonderful man with a love of aviation many of us can identify with.

Sorry to hear of your loss SgtBundy.