What? the old Queenair??:eek: Is it still going?:ooh:

Still wish that I had been able to fly the example that sat in the Douglas maintenance hangar in Moresby the whole time I was there. (1990) Never came out of the major inspection.:sad:

Sorry Pinky, It still brings tears to my eyes to hear her fate. Last time i have heard she was getting pulled apart at Caloundra to keep another one going. :{

Bummer!!:ugh: Still remember the grand sound she made at T/O revs as she went over my unit at YPLC around 2am all those years ago.:ooh:

Also remember the chats we had in the *** office there on some of those late nights where I was still on duty.:ok:

I miss the sound of the old Queenies, as well as C404's & C421's. :{

DF.

Well you're in luck, the Straight 65 at CDR is alive and well.:ok:

Pretty sure I spotted a twin Bonza at SBK a week or two ago, status unknown.

Sherbrook? On the north coast of NSW?

...or YSBK in Sydney?

:mad:

I bet the straight 65 is VH-FDV. The bastard probably has my old brand new engines out of my old Queenie.....:{
Anyways.... How about the Merlin that flew all 350kg of medicine on a mercy flight from the Phillipines for MEOC. Drugs?....What drugs!....:E

Moving back towards the original thread.

I suspect it was mid 80s, but there was quite a nice Australian owned Cessna twin siezed in DPS with large amount of drugs hidden under the trim.The pilot was based at Bankstown and had done a number of runs with young pilots with new licenses to help fly on the "holiday" trip to Bankok.I later flew with one of them who insisted that he knew and saw nothing on his holiday

I seem to remember that the pilot ended up escaping Bali and somehow making it home but was later caught doing the run again but it was along time ago and I may be wrong about the pilot history. I do know that the aircraft sat at DPS for many years and eventually ended up as an apprentice trainer for the local AME school.

At that time we regularly saw unlit aircraft in the moonlight heading south over the Timor Sea and into Central Australia from out 35,000 lookout. Its a big country and I'm sure lots happens out there even now.

Wunwing

Who remembers the incident back in the 70's of the virtually brand new Shrike Commander that was intercepted by a RAAF Hercules (I think) and eventually forced to land on a bush strip, but was subsequently torched by the Pilot because it was 'loaded to the gunn'ls' with giggleweed!:ooh:

A bloody waste of a good Aircraft!:mad:

I was going to mention having seen Hercs around the NT chasing these aircraft but I thought no one would believe it. Saw it happen a few times. You can see a lot looking down in the moonlight.

NT and HERCS 1978
 

That would be this fellow below. DONALD TAIT

Drug runner intercepted over NT 19th Jan 1978.


On this day, a light aircraft was spotted on radar entering the Northern Territory to the west of Darwin. Coincidentally, a C-130 Hercules (A97-168) from No 37 Squadron was returning from a trip to Butterworth and was about to come into Darwin at the same time. In the absence of any fighters to scramble, the captain of the RAAF transport was asked to follow the mystery aircraft as it travelled inland. Eventually the C-130 caught up with what turned out to be a twin-engine Aero Commander 680E. The pilot of the light aircraft made a crashlanding in a muddy paddock 14 kilometres north-west of Katherine, then set the aircraft on fire in an attempt to conceal that on board were 270 000 Thai ‘buddha sticks’ (high-grade cannabis) worth nearly $4 million. After hiding out in the bush for 40 hours, the pilot––later identified as drug runner, Donald Tait––was discovered by police and arrested. Tait was subsequently jailed for seven years.


Groggy

I can't account for the veracity of this story but maybe someone can fill in the gaps. I have been told that one morning staff arrived at work, also at YWOL, to find an unmarked aircraft abandoned on the runway after a wheels up landing. Cleaned out, stripped down, and with a suspicious lack of people around it.

That's all I have, sorry, it may be compete fiction, but does anyone recall such an event?

I was in an enforcement job in the late 80's through the 90's and I recall several discussions about light aircraft coming into the Cobourg Peninsula from the north and disappearing again.

It was pretty isolated then and rumour had it that a few inquisitive souls disappeared as well.

Kaz

How 'Naive' we were then.....

When 'committing aviation' ex Hedland, I can remember seeing Mr Tait in a Shrike at Hedland in the early 70's, it had 'Loran Geophysical Survey' or somesuch painted on the sides, and his story was that he was doing a 'Loran' / Geo survey....

No-one really knew what that was.

I guess it was sufficient 'cover' at the time though....Nice fella to talk to....

:ooh:

It was said at the time of his arrest, - Groggy's post - that after the successful delivery of that 'cargo' he would have actually owned the aircraft.

From the MadCow Link

Lieutenant Commander??:rolleyes:

I stopped reading the 'story' at that point.:ugh:

Pinky

And with a direct link to his Bio which says Navy in the first Paragraph !


(Just noticed he ejected from an A4 Skyhawk on the deck of HMAS Melbourne as it went off the end).

Pinky and 500N

Lt Cmdr D Baddams MBE, RAN Ret. is in fact a former RAN fighter pilot, he is in fact a retired Lt CDR of HMS Invincible.

He is also a man of much respect.

The fact that some scummy web news can't get their facts straight and at the same time is trying to discredit him is something I think his lawyers will have a field day with. no doubt many have a copy of that article already.

His contract to ferry the aircraft to the PH is simply that. I have had some knowledge of the flight, the challenges due winds and actual performance, and to be frank have no reason at all to believe any wrong doing.

The same cannot be said of the owner.

Mr Baddams however I expect will be keen to see the moronic actions of some taken to account. This guy is no fool. far from it, but he is not immune to being lied to by a customer. That in itself is not illegal.

Mad Cow news indeed……Mad. :bored:

Jaba

Thanks.

I didn't read MadCow, it came across as weird - CIA !

Everything I read on the web re Lt Cmdr D Baddams MBE is of an exceptional person, as you said.

I think I'm dumber for having read part way through mad cow news. I'm certain it was written by someone in a tin foil hat.

What utter crap

Thanks also from me Jaba.

The thought crossed my mind that he was ex RAN. However, as soon as I spot a clanger like that in a story I just stop reading it!

QueenAir engines
 

I bet the straight 65 is VH-FDV. The bastard probably has my old brand new engines out of my old Queenie.....:{

Nope !! Original engines as purchased - one bulk stripped by Suncoast Aero Engines - and a good job they did too !!
I believe the engines from yours ended up with the (then) local LAME school.
Lol - i was unsuccessful in trying to buy them :{

Pilot BS in court today re drug importation and manufacturing. :eek:
Described in court as a "flight risk".

There are fools - and then there are complete idiots.

I mean to say - producing $300K in folding notes for a property deposit, isn't going to be noticed by anyone, is it?? :rolleyes:

Pilot attempts property purchase with $300K in cash

Amazing but imagine what goes on behind the scenes that we don't find.
Organized crime is just that organized & I bet only a fraction gets brought to the attention of the authorities.
These people maybe idiots but they are not fools, well fools in the eyes of law abiding citizens that is but in amongst their own corrupt society they are very clever.


Wmk2

SMS777 - not FWG you are referring to is it?

Hi Jamair,
Yes, you are correct. FDV is the straight tail one. FWG is the one being used for meat bombing at Caloundra if it's still in action.
Cheers...:ok:

FWG was broken up a few years back.

The mighty FDV is, however, still active (heard/seen over my house yesterday).

Not passing the smell test…… :confused:

I'm with Jabba!

He is a Drug Peddler! Lucky we don't have the death penalty you poor excuse for a father!
He deserves more time in the Pokey having his "Dangly Bits" played with by the Prison Heavy!

DB

…But does he lose his pilots licence?

Research conducted by a former trial lawyer, now a NSW Judge, revealed that 1 in 4 male prisoners is sexually assaulted (raped) while serving his sentence. They are the young, the weak, the feminine, the old...those over whom male power and control can be imposed.

The damage this does to those individuals and, by extension the rest of society when both perpetrator and abused are eventually released is huge.

Not the sort of thing a civilised society should tolerate nor one that should be encouraged even in jest in my view.

Kaz

Very well said.

They should think about that before embarking on a crime that will have the obvious consequences. :=

"....But does he lose his pilots license?"
No, he will not....but what's the use if he won't get an ASIC due to criminal conviction on his record. He won't be flying commercially for a while, me thinks.

Not sure if he's a LAME but he has owned a maintenance shop in the past, and in my dealings with him he was very concerned about providing good customer service and value for money which is more than you can say for some. :ugh:

I imagine that he doesn't hold a current medical if his cancer status is as reported. I don't know if he breached any civil aviation laws, and I dunno if CASA could get their act together sufficiently to prove it if he did.

This trial was related to the drugs activities, which are not outlawed by the CAA, CARs or CASRs, so cancellation of civil aviation privileges will not be a direct action available to the court. As others have said, the criminal conviction will slow down ASICs and handicap (but not kill) a commercial flying career.

Without passing comment on the crime or the (surprisingly short) sentence, I feel sorry for Bernie and his family. He is a nice guy. :(

Dangly bits, you're a tool, and you're also advocating, nay suggesting, that a crime take place. This voids any protection you have for your anonymity on this forum, and could possibly be a criminal offence in itself.

Bernie may have been misguided, I know he was desperately trying to find ways to generate more cash, but he is not a bad guy.

I had business dealings with him over a few years and found that he was always relatively honest and upfront. He lived in a modest home and certainly never made ostentatious displays of wealth or displayed any of the behaviors that you would ordinarily associate with criminals. He's currently bailed pending appeal, and hopefully, as a small fish, he doesn't get too long. I have no doubt he'll be back in the game at some stage, and he'll still be more honest than many of the players in this industry in Australia.

Ex-FSO Griffo,
Tait's aeroplane was a 560E, not a Shrike, after years of being an instructional airframe at Padstow TAFE, what is left is at Australian Aviation Museum, Bankstown.
Tootle pip!!