Hi aroa.
Not sure about the Jagos
but did find this.
Regards R W

Karl F Jaeger (possibly Frank) owned a Proctor VH-BQH that crashed on Trefoil Island 27 March 1964. It was stripped of engine and useful parts then burnt onsite.
It goes on to say the pilot was 39 had a ppl with 298 hours and 63 hours on type.

PERCIVAL PROCTOR IN AUSTRALIA

RW...thanks for all that.

Had an old neuron fuse blow there...Karl Jaeger it was.

Ted Jago was the guy nr Innisfail that had 2 Tigers and an Auster 111 all in various stages of disrepair in the 70s.

Sad to see on the Proctor site how little the old machines were valued in days gone by. Dumped in creek beds, burnt etc.

Got to ride with Bob Burnett-Reid in SCC to Waikerie and back out of Parafield in 1967.

Karl Jaeger was always known as Frank and was a gentleman. He operated a Cherokee 6 from Smithton in (his) later years. Frank died at the controls with a CAA check pilot alongside him. Heather Innis was in the back seat. Heather tried to revive Frank while the CAA man flew the plane back to Smithton. It was only weeks after Frank passed his class 1 medical. Anyone who thinks a Cherokee 6 is not a short field aeroplane would be stunned at where Frank landed his.

Very sad end to the bloke who gave me one of my very first charters as a newly minted CPL. Now only Heather (and Frank B I believe) remain as the last of the "earlier era" bush pilots from Smithton.

Another highly competent pilot, Adrian Becker took over Heather's business not long after and a few years later was involved in a tragic accident on Trefoil Island that took his life and that of his passengers. That was basically the end of commercial aviation from Smithton.

Thanks for the memory jolt Aussie Bob.
Reading back through Billy's book, Frank took Billy for his first flight, in a Moth Minor, 15 minutes for 10 shillings. Billy was fourteen at the time.
I still miss Adrian Becker, always will.
Regards R W

Frank Jager
 

Frank was another character from Smithton. He was a carpenter by trade &
made some really beautiful furniture out of that lovely local timber. I bought a
table from him well over thirty years ago. There isn't a nail or screw to be seen anywhere - it's all dowels and glue and a beautiful example of French Polishing, that is still going strong today.

Aussie Bob, you are right about the Cherokee 6. I spent a morning riding with Frank around the beaches and rough strips in the Hunter Group a few years after I'd done my time with Bill. I'm not a Piper bloke, but what I saw Frank do was pretty impressive. He was working the manual flaps like it was a 180 or a 185 and, along with cold weather and high winds, I don't think there was anywhere in the area Frank couldn't operate.

I'm struggling to remember the Cherokee 6 registration....I'm fairly sure it was
on line at the Darwin Aeroclub in the mid 80s, when the Aeroclub was flourishing on the Southern side.

Prior to the Cherokee 6, Frank had a Cessna 182, VH- BAM. Frank used to add
a home made bench seat just for the Mutton Bird season, a time he quite openly proclaimed, was when the rules went out the window in favour of making hay while the sun shines.

One season, departing on about my 15th return trip to Trefoil Island, the DCA arrived in town in "Charlie Alpha something", one of the DCA fleet, to do ramp checks. Frank was still on Trefoil & he was at best indifferent to the regulator's presence. They can "go forth and multiply" - or words to that effect - "it's the Mutton Bird season and our time to make some money".

Soon after I watched Frank land his 182 on the taxiway in front of the DCA then taxy into his hangar. Frank had no time for a ramp check, explained the realities of the season to the DCA fellows while loading the bench seat & refuelling. He then pushed his aircraft out of the hangar, said goodbye and took off on the taxyway again.

Frank was quite a bit older than Bill. I'm pretty sure that Frank had a brother called Carl (Karl?), who was older and also involved in flying. I seem to remember seeing a photo of Billy as a student in a Wackett, with the Jäger brothers. Long time ago though, so I could be wrong.

Anyone remember the SMI groundsman at the time? What would now be called the ARO - Jack Harrex - another gentleman and essential cog in the wheel of aviation in that part of Tasmania.

Thanks pithbot! I believe the DCA or the CAA ow whatever they were called at the time also took the trouble to hide and film Billy taking off on the said taxiway because it was all they could get evidence on to actually charge him with something. Something is wrong with Smithton, the taxiway always seems most orientated into the wind and is the same size as the runways. It should have been a three strip airport perhaps, the locals certainly made it one.

Didn't know B.V. that well though run into him from time to time. Last i seen him were at YTWB when he and Austflight's J.F. had just turned up from a test flight in the new 'Strutter' Drifter. Dont know what they'd been up to though there were a broken main strut connecter brace on the aircraft. Pilot and co-pilot didn't seem concerned about it and were more interested in selling aircraft..:)





.

The Jaegers of Smithton
 

Interesting posts here. I knew Carl Jaeger a bit (some of my friends and colleagues knew him well) and there seems to be a bit of confusion. Feel free to correct me if I'm mistaken. I believe Carl and Frank were brothers and together operated a sawmill. I know they jointly owned an Auster at one point. In fact I was told that they'd made various attempts to modify the landing gear so that it could land on untreated button-grass. One version had some sort of articulated two-wheel bogie on each strut - on the assumption that when one wheel was in a hole the other would be riding the range: it didn't work. Another attempt was said to have involved home-made skids; when testing this "system" they greased some boards to enable the take-off run to get started. The result was a nose-in at the end of the greased "runway" resulting in prop and engine destruction. I arrived in the area just too late to fly with Carl but some of my friends had flown with him quite a bit. It made them very nervous as his eyesight wasn't too great by that stage.

When I knew him he was a sort of mechanical guru to our mining operation, having operated heavy equipment in his logging business for many years. That man could fix or build anything. At the time (mid to late 70s) although quite an old man he was constructing a magnificent boat inside a building in Smithton. He had no previous experience of boat-building and had to read it up first. The hull planking timber was entirely Huon Pine which he'd collected, stored and milled himself during his logging years. It must have been 40 ft, double-ended, and entirely assembled with dowels apart from the bolts holding the bow, stern and keel elements together. He selected the timber and turned the dowels himself, having calculated the relative expansions of the various timbers involved. He also formulated his own caulking material. He fabricated the stainless steel fresh-water and fuel tanks to fit exactly into the profile of the boat and, as far as I recall, managed to haul them up and into the hull - on his own. My friends and I contributed some of the timber he needed to be used for the deck support (not very well up on marine architectural terms) by dismantling an old dance hall in Irishtown.

I once asked him what sort of masts he was proposing to buy. He told me that commercial masts were much too expensive so he was going to use very straight, green, Blackwood tree trunks hollowed out using a modified lathe and diamond drill rods, a system he'd designed himself, naturally. Once hollowed out (the Blackwood has much harder, denser wood on the periphery of the log) he'd dry it by pumping air at ambient temperature through the core so that it dried from the inside outward, thus hardening the wood optimally. When I asked if that was a well-known technique he said that he'd not heard of anyone else doing it previously...

The boat finally went in the Duck River a couple of years after I'd left Tasmania. As Carl had predicted, it immediately sunk. Some time much later, once the timber had swelled to the degree he'd predicted the boat was pumped out and floated up, water-tight. I always thought that when Carl popped his proverbial clogs he ought to be set on this magnificent craft (how much would that amount of Huon Pine be worth now?), pushed out into Bass Straight and set on fire like a Viking chieftain. I often wonder where this boat is today, and whether its owners have any idea what a remarkable individual its creator was - because it's Carl Jaeger's memorial.

It would be great to hear some more recollections of Bill and Carl. Maybe I can persuade some who knew them better than I did to post some stories.

Hey skridlov

What a great post - thank you!
Talented men those Jagers.I'd love to see the boat - if it's Huon and not been wrecked it will probably float forever.

Your story reminds me of a similar tale from Strahan, years later. A bloke called George Martin salvaged Huon logs from the southern end of Macquarie Harbour, dragged them 20 miles on the water into town, milled them and built a 40 ft boat in the old hall by himself. The hall roof had to be removed to lift the boat out by crane and she did float. She didn't yet have a name when I saw her but she was often touted as the last reasonable sized Huon boat built. George was a contemporary of a bloke called Mundy(?), who lived on the other side of Macquarie Harbor, near the light house. I flew him into Interview River a couple of times when working for Billy - is he the bloke you mentioned, Merv ?

Apologies for the thread drift.

pithblot

Keep it up! Thank you for the history both pithblot and skridlov, it's appreciated. Skridlov, I am sure your correct about Frank and Carl, I only ever met Frank.

It is interesting reading the anecdotes in this thread. :ok:
Keep 'em coming please.

Here are a few more snaps associated with Bill Vincent in the mid 70s around our mining operation at Balfour on the west coast of Tasmania.
One shows his Cessna in which we flew most of the time other than when it was "in the shop" - when he was using a hired 4-seater with a tricycle lg.
Another I took whilst waiting to be picked up at our strip after he'd dropped me off along with provisions and a couple of 44's worth of diesel - one broken down into smaller drums. Bill often did this for us during winter when it was hard to get out for supplies even in one of our 1944-vintage ex-army Studebaker 6x6s. For the little that we could afford to pay for his services this sort of help is why so many people remember him so warmly.
A couple of the other shots show the scene from the plane on the way back into our mine, one of which I think shows Mt. Frankland in the foreground.

Always cheery, very sorry to hear that he is no longer with us.
 

Got to know Billy in the 70s, it was always a pleasure to see him, his cheery grin like no one else. I flew with him a couple of memorable times landing once on Stanley International..the beach.. He flew with me too, once or twice, and he pointed out some of the unlikely places that he'd landed. A strip of sand bar near Robbins Island but well out from land, available only at low tide. A patch of tea tree on Three Hummock where due to very poor light he'd mistaken for the landing ground, fortunately no real damage, the tea tree seemed to support the wings and the aircraft was extricated and got out to open ground. He used to fly into my Phillip Island airport at times with various cargo or passengers, sometimes fishy goods that inspired washing out the 185 with a good hosing. The resulting rooster tail of water exiting the tail cone on take off was a sight, Billy handling the change in C of G with aplomb. Even then he had around 20,000 hours, he wanted to come over and do his commercial licence with me but could never find the time...He wasn't too popular with the idiots, they took him to court for illegal charter flying but they had to withdraw many of the instances they relied on because they had chartered him themselves to visit crash locations they were investigating. The Magistrate was therefore not impressed with the clowns but with irrefutable evidence had to order the absolute minimum fines. Billy then made a valiant attempt to 'go straight' but the employed commercial pilots, even the especially CAA approved ones, kept crashing so he had to keep flying himself but I think the fun was going out of it. They should have just given him an honorary Com licence, but of course that would spoil the Can'tberra party and we can't have that. Vale Billy, truly a fine Australian and as someone else said we won't see his like again, a product of freedom, all powerful bureaucracy will see to that.

Hopefully a few of the ex King Island FSOs could turn up with some of their anecdotes. Great days and amazing reading if you can get a hold of Billy's book.

Thanks...
 

skridlov...top anecdote. Amazingly practical folk in the not so distant 'good old days'

Karl Jaeger's good ladywife introduced me to the unique taste of roast mutton bird, something completely different ... most enjoyable meals.

First attempt with Karl for a trip down to Hobart was aborted nr Launceston due reports of 90 mph gusts at Hobart...that would have stopped the Auster in its tracks.!! Made it a few days latter and came back to Smithton via the west coast, refueling at Strahan. Sure is some wild and wooly country and wx down there !!

I remember Karl had the Gipsy Six engine from the Proctor hanging in the shed at home...I wonder where that ended up.

Amazing gentlemen all R I P

No rescue choppers, no flash Dornier, no Sat Phones, the local fishermen relied on people like Billy V to come and rescue them. Local knowledge of the waterways, tidal movements, weather conditions are gained by actually operating in the area over a lifetime not from a PowerPoint presentation in an air conditioned office at a training session.

Look at the Blythe Star search debacle that has been on Sunday Night over the last two weeks.

One of the old Heron skippers at Airlines of Tas, had either worked for or knew Billy from the past and could tell some interesting stories!

Blythe Star
 

CLX,
Bill would get very hot under the collar talking about the Blythe Star.

From another thread http://www.pprune.org/pacific-genera...ml#post5252366

I have found a picture of Bill Vincent's Cessna 206 at the Balfour airstrip,northwest Tasmania.Bill flew us over to an airshow in Mt Gambier SA one time,he took the seats out of the plane and set up his bedding and slept in the plane overnight.Cheers to you all...

Balfour
 

Hi supercharger.
Well, I flew in and out of that strip at Balfour with Billy many times - the plane in question usually being that of which I've posted photos already - I believe it was in New Guinea before Bill acquired it (can't recall the model - 6-seater 6 cyl). When was your photo taken and what were you doing at Balfour? There are quite a few more people in and out of there now than there were at the time we were actively mining Specimen Hill. In winter parts of the track were really difficult, even with our trusty (sometimes) Studebaker WW2 vintage 6X6s so Bill would occasionally fly in a couple of emergency drums of fuel and drop them at the strip as shown in one of the other pix I posted. Last time I drove in was in a small Ford saloon in Dec 2000. The only damage was a knocked off exhaust system although on the way out I had some help from a Land Cruiser. These days you don't even need a 4x4 in dry weather. I recall someone riding a Honda Gold Wing in some time back in the 70s. Not my idea of a trail bike.

On one occasion with 18 drums of fuel on the flatbed Studebaker we were bogged overnight until someone came out with extra chain and cable - we'd already winched out all the small trees we could reach. Shortly after getting under way again we were on the easy part of the track when I noticed I'd left the prop-shaft handbrake on for a couple of miles. Letting it off again ignited all the oil that had soaked into the brake shoes from the leaky transfer case and it immediately ignited like a blowtorch - under the three drums of petrol that were at the front of the wooden truck bed. Amazingly the fire extinguisher that was lying around amongst the debris on the truck floor actually worked otherwise the smoke would have been visible in Marrawah, if not Smithton.
It was a different world back then.
Edit: I really have to get hold of a copy of Bill's book!

My goodness, ERM the germ! What a great workhorse, with Robertson STOL, that Bill used in the early 80s. Someone in an earlier post mentioned taxiing power against brakes....shut the engine down....aircraft sits on it's tail. That was ERM. She was a great example of 1001 ways to kill a Cessna that failed....like Clarkson's video of how not to kill an old Hilux! (post 3). Bill was flying into Balfor a lot in the 80s because it was still a very dodgy 4WD track, five hours from Smithton IIRCC, verses 15 or so minutes in the 206.

Back then Balfor was an 'alternative' lifestyle community supported by 'horticulture' and small tin mines. Marty Larn had an octagonal house down there and a MKV Jag in Smithton. With the newish Tarkine Track the Jag could probably get to Balfor now.

Most of the preceding types were conventional gear (tail wheel), like CME the red one you mentioned skridlov. It was a Cessna 185 that was in PNG for many years before Bill got hold of it. Flying a 185 properly in gusty conditions is quite a skill and Bill had lots of practice (I think about 6000 hours, just in CME) - he seemed immune to crosswinds in CME.....his X wind technique was a tail down wheeler and he told me he listened for a change in note through the wing strut as part of the flare/check forward. It worked for Bill.

CME suffered a very nasty end with its new owner, I think on its ferry flight north from Smithton.

Great yarn about the truck skridlov!