In the mid 90's Archerfield aviators and the air-show public were introduced to a softly spoken gentleman from the USA who had a flying career spanning more than fifty years
flown in thousands of air-shows worldwide and performed before more people in more types of aircraft than any other pilot in the history of aviation
 This very well known
chap went for a fly at the time with Archerfield's "ace" professional pilot and Chief Flying Instructor (and now amateur snake
charmer at Gil Layts Flying School) in a DH82A Tiger Moth VH-FSS
This tall and lean gentleman, recipient of the USA Distinguished Flying Cross - Soldier's Medal - Air Medal and Purple Heart after flying 58 successful missions in WW2 (he was shot down on the
59th!) was here to do an air-show display at Archerfield
He was also a recipent of various aviation Awards for his outstanding contribution to aviation and is enshrined in the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton Ohio along with other aviation and
space pioneers such as Neil Armstrong - James Doolittle - Barry Goldwater - Charles Lindberg - Eddie Rickenbacker - The Wright Brothers - Chuck Yeager - Richard Byrd and Howard Hughes
 A book now available
and titled "Air of Injustice" is about the true story of injustice done to RA "Bob" Hoover during the mid '90's with the author showing the ugly sequence of events wherein two FAA inspectors decided maliciously - and because
they were little men - to bring down an American Icon who was so much bigger than they could ever hope to be ¹
¹ Source:- www.kindredspirit.com/airof.htm
|
|
Now this sort of thing could never happen here in OZ with our CASA
"Inspectors" and any of our well known "ace" aviators around the country
...could it..?
|
|
|
|
This month brings on the end-of-year party time for workshops aircraft
parts suppliers and flying schools
The big(er) Aviall party was on Friday December 15 and Sunland on Saturday - with a
number of other shops intending to "party on" later in the week just prior to Christmas
|
|
|
Working for a living can sometimes be dangerous no matter what industry
you support
An aircraft accident claimed the life of a crop-sprayer during the week - see below -
but as mentioned danger is not far away in any workplace environment and industrial type accidents can and do
occur both in the air and on the ground ¹
|
|
An experienced 52-year-old Ayres Turbo Thrush crop-sprayer pilot lost
his life on Monday night the 11th at around 7.20pm when the insecticide spraying aircraft he was
operating became involved in a mishap in a western Queensland cotton growing area about 30km north-west of St
George ¹
There has been no further details released at this point in time by the authorities
as to the possible cause
¹ Various News Sources
|
|
The Federal Government has put a ceiling "cap" on additional growth at Kingsford Smith airport at Kurnell in Sydney and put the Badgerys Creek airport proposal on ice
Bankstown residents are gearing up to fight an upgrading of Bankstown airport as any future increase in flight activity into Sydney would cause an "overflow" into Bankstown Archerfield's sister
airport for the Sydney area and the locals are not impressed with the potential noise prospect
|
|
;){kind=small}
)
;){kind=link}