Many felicitations from Cannock Chase. . . .

[Phil Perry]

Hi All,

 

I've posted in here once before, but what happened to it, I dunno.

 

I got my ( Petrol - Powered aircraft )wings at a liitle place in Victoria, called Casey Airfield, just South of Berwick village, about 12 klicks ESE of Dandenong. If you have a look on Google Earth, youcan just about make out where the runway was. . . ( single gravel strip, oriented 12/30) It used to be operated by a company called Groupair, run by a lovely retired Aussie Army Officer named Keith Hatfield ( Lt. Col. Retd. ) It was also the headquarters of the Antique Aeroplane Association of Australia, and there were some lovely old bits of kit kept there. Keith had a Leopard Moth, which he would not let me fly... since I bent his DH82A VH-TIG when I lost it taxying without wingmen in a crosswind, and ended up in a ditch, breaking the prop and shockloading the Gypsy Major. . . . I used to fly in and out of Moorabbin a lot, I see it's still there !!!

 

Anyway, most people on this forum are probably a lot youngert than me so I won't go on about it !! I'd love to trace an old cropduster pilot and instructor friend of mine though, anyone here heard of David Squirrell ???

 

Phil

 

 

[dazza 38]

Howdy Phil & Welcome

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Flippin 'Eck, that was quick, Thanks Dazza, Where do you fly from, as, from what I remember when I was lost somewhere around 200 miles South of Darwin, Katharine Flight service insisted I was lost, and I told them that I knew EXACTLY where i WAS, What I didn't tell them was that I was a bit unsure about the area underneath me. They didn't want to know about my report of "West abeam "Numerous Sand Ridges...."

 

Phil

 

 

[Phil Perry]

I can only imagine how luxurious it would have been back in the 70s if we'd had GPS..... !

 

 

[dazza 38]

Flippin 'Eck, that was quick, Thanks Dazza, Where do you fly from, as, from what I remember when I was lost somewhere around 200 miles South of Darwin, Katharine Flight service insisted I was lost, and I told them that I knew EXACTLY where i WAS, What I didn't tell them was that I was a bit unsure about the area underneath me. They didn't want to know about my report of "West abeam "Numerous Sand Ridges...."Phil

I fly out of a country town about 120 Km ( by road) west of the Gold Coast called Boonah .

 

 

[djpacro]

I haven't seen David S for ages either.

 

 

[gareth lacey]

Hi Phil

 

welcome aboard,iI used to live near you in wolverhampton ( actually Tettenhall) in the 70s moved to OZ in 71 have been back a few times but Oz is the best place to live for me ,do you still fly ? tell us more

 

cheers For now

 

Gareth:wave:

 

 

[Head in the clouds]

G'day Phil,

 

I used to fly from Casey field in the early 1980s and remember a very pleasant fellow there, the Keith you mention I think. And Pakenham, also now 'redeveloped'. And had a friend Barry Coutts who had a strip in Koo Wee Rup just south of there. Cheers, Alan

 

 

[metalman]

Are you still in area Phil, I'm only new to the Melbourne area .I've flown over the Berwick field a couple of times it can still be seen despite the buildings,

 

Met

 

 

[turboplanner]

Phil, try putting a post on this thread, because it attracted a lot of the long termers from Moorabbin http://www.pprune.org/dg-p-general-aviation-questions/308183-ymmb.html

 

Also, look up Tyabb, because there would have been some migration from Berwick.

 

 

[BoxFat]

Phil,

 

Well that's amazing. I got my ppl at Casey Field in must have been 1978, having ridden my bike to there from Lyndhurst as a kid for many years before that. That's not the amazing bit though - many people learnt to fly with Keith Hatfields Group air. I always wanted to fly a Tiger Moth and not long after getting my licence I did an hour half in Keith's Tiger - great fun...until it was taken out of the hire pool because, I was told, "someone" had taxied it into a ditch and though there was no damage the owner was spooked. Now I know that someone was YOU !! 34 years I've been thinking about that ! No hard feelings though - it could just as easily have been me who found that ditch and might have been next time (I remember exactly where it is and I reckon you cut the corner a little where the gravel taxiway crossed the drainage culvert).

 

I was sad to see Casey Field go - it had a long history of course having been private field of Lord Casey, former Australian Governor General, soldier and aviation enthusiast. I live in WA now but when feeling nostalgic I sometimes go on Google Earth and trace my boyhood ride along what were then country roads with packed lunch and water bottle to the threshold of Rnwy 30 where I sat for hours in judgement on the landings of others until I was old enough to try it myself.

 

Cheers,

 

BoxFat

 

 

[BoxFat]

Ahh .. just read your post again Phil and saw that TIG was damaged in that incident. Either my informant (instructor Bruce Hamilton) was downplaying it or it was an earlier less significant one - think it was your one though because it certainly went off-line after that. I dont have my log book with me right now but I will be able to pin the date down when I get home. Remember the train lines with overhead electrics not far from the upwind end of 30 ? Had to drag A PA28 with an under performing donk over those once and it still gives me shivers thinking about it.

 

 

[Guest Howard Hughes]

Welcome Phil, my Great Aunt worked for Lord & Lady Casey many years ago, so as a teenager I often spent the school holidays at 'Edrington'. I have fond memories of visiting'Casey Airfield' for an afternoon of plane watching.

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Gee Whuzz guys,

 

I wonder how many characters I can type on one post to respond to you all in turn. . . ( ! ) Dazza: Know Boonah, though I never landed or crashed there. / Gareth from "Wolvo" - you got to OZ about a year after me then ! And Yes, I do still fly, mainly now Hired PA28 Arrow 4, and a couple of microlights, one owned, and one shared ( Flash 2 Flex and X'Air) plus anything I can blag.

 

Alan In the Clouds : Is my old mate Barry Coutts still about? he used to own Volkspower near Moorabbin, and used to fly accross the USA in a Cessna nearly every annual holiday. I had no idea that he had a strip at Koo Wee. Shame that Pakenham is gone as well, but I guess nowt is forever. :

 

Metal - No I'm in the UK now, I have several friends in Melbourne, Gold Coast and Brisbane who I Skype to regularly though ( non flyers) : Turbo - Thanks for the link containing Moorabbinites. . ., I'll have a look on there shortly, good idea, might find some other ancient larrikins there too.

 

Boxfat : To be perfectly honest, I didn't actually damage TIG that much, one of the members "Said" "You've probably shock loaded the donkey mate" the prop was stopped and did so nearly level when the mainwheels entered the ditch, which wasn't at the intersection by the way, I'd turned lefrt off Rwy 12 and was following the parking track which paralleled the clubhouse buildings. I got a big gust and due to me panicking about hitting the tails of a couple of parked Cessnas, I badly over corrected for it with too much throttle, and swung 90 degrees right. I cut the mags and entered the ditch in SLOWMO. !!

 

I have a photograph of me standing in front of a PA28 which was flown over the railway power lines at the 12 threshold end, but hit the deck before the wire fence and went underneath it. And NO. . . It wasn't me guv Honest. I'll try and dig it out, scan and upload it.

 

My lady passenger thought this was the normal parking method (!) Keith was really nice about this and would not accept any payment for the resulting inspection. : Howard : I don't know what period you were there, but us members regularly took visitors and enthusiasts for a flight if they couldn't afford to pay for it. . . I wonder if you were in theframe between 1970 and 1974 ? From memory, a C-172 was costing me $A18.00 per hour wet, and I used to use Keith's C-210 VH-IWK ( It Will Kill ) quite a lot, as it was quite reasonably priced at around $A27.00 PH. It was his fastest "hireable" on which the undercart solenoids regularly failed. Had to pump the gear down a few times, a hundred and B****y four pumps of the lever if memory serves !!! ( Ahhh sweet memories ) I see you're located near Bulli, been there a few times as an old mate was a fireman thereabouts, and went to his wedding in Wollongong.

 

Thanks for all the responses people, I feel really welcome now !!

 

Kind regards to all

 

Phil

 

 

[djpacro]

Barry passed away many years (late '80s?) ago. Last saw Keith just over a year ago, Elsa a couple of years.

 

 

[Phil Perry]

DJP, that's very sad re- Barry, he had a major heart bypass op in the seventies, but still managed to return to flying. I'm really sorry I lost touch with him soon after I left for the UK in 1983, Really nice bloke, friend and client.

 

Nice though to hear that both Keith AND Elsa were still around not so long ago. I wonder If DS is still hiding somewhere . . . he did some instructing at Moorabbin as well as Berwick, in between AG flying work as you probably know. Althoughthis was in the early to mid seventies and time takes it's toll. . . . . . .

 

Thanks again.

 

Phil

 

 

[Head in the clouds]

I'm also sorry to hear the news about Barry, he was a very good friend to me. His heart surgery was related to a crash he had in a gyro as I understood it. He turned downwind and lost rotor rpm and went down in his backyard. While in hospital they discovered a massive annurism on the aorta very close to rupturing so he had emergency surgery. The condition may have been pre-existing, in which case the crash saved his life...

 

I met him in '83 through Geneer and Volkspower and then helped him build his KR2 and I flew my planes out of his strip and hangared there. He was truly one of life's gentlemen. I moved to Qld in '86 but met Barry again at fly-ins over the next 2-3 yrs then lost touch as well.

 

Hope you catch up with some more Moorabbin pals via the pprune site Phil.

 

BTW, I know exactly 'where you were' near Katherine. I've been around those dunes many a time, spent 13yrs flying helis in the Kimberley and NT, with frequent trips into the Tanami and Great Sandy....

 

Cheers, Alan

 

 

[XAIRVTW]

Welcome Phil this is why I enjoy being part of this forum doesnt matter where in the world you are if you need to find out about anything aviation you will always get an answer here. Enjoyed reading all the posts for this thread.

 

Well done to everyone.

 

Cheers.

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Alan,

 

Thanks for the memory jog on the Gyro crash, I seem to remember the local banter suggesting that he'd pushed the cyclic Forward a bit, OR. . . was operating at too low rotor rpm when he wrenched the thing downwind. . . wish we'd had email / skype / forums back then, These kids dunno how lucky they are ( !! )

 

One other query,. . . does your Civil Aviation Authority ( then DCA ) still have the dreaded "Form 225" ?? As I remember Dave Squirrell 225'd Katherine FLight Service for insisting that HE was lost around that time too !!!! It was quite rare in them thar days for a pilot to "225" a ground station, in fact it might have been unique - vwhat a character.

 

And X'Air, thanks for the kind words, Our X'Air is the older model ( 582 Bluetop and "Snarky" looking airframe )

 

Phil.

 

 

[Head in the clouds]

......One other query,. . . does your Civil Aviation Authority ( then DCA ) still have the dreaded "Form 225" ?? As I remember Dave Squirrell 225'd Katherine Flight Service for insisting that HE was lost around that time too !!!! It was quite rare in them thar days for a pilot to "225" a ground station, in fact it might have been unique - what a character......Phil.

Everything's changed now of course, there's not even been a flight service, in the old sense, for many years. Pests though they were they could be handy on odd occasions in the remotest areas, if you could get comms with them, HF being what it was and all that... but not always useful -

 

I wish I'd known about DS's 225 thing back then, flight service caused one of my greatest embarrassments which took months to clear up and finally get the blame placed where it belonged. Some keen fishermen chartered me to take them helifishing into a very remote river gorge (Berkley River in the Kimberley). We left at first light and I set my SARtime with Perth FS as 0900. After departing Kununurra we usually couldn't get comms again until on the way back near Wyndham.

 

During the day we used to fish a number of locations down the river starting at the top gorge and ending up at the mouth, we'd leave there about 4pm and be back in comms by 5pm local. And often we'd fish a tributary or two so we'd give fairly general info about the destination. We'd landed deep within the upper narrow gorge and it was a great fishing day so we were still there at around 9am when a small airliner (F27) buzzed the gorge at low level. It was unusual but I didn't pay much attention, the pilots sometimes did that sort of thing to give their pax a few jollies.

 

Ten minutes later an F28 also started doing low and slow passes up and down the gorge and orbiting.... alarm bells went off in my head and I started running to the machine, it was a good kilometer away in very hot and rocky terrain involving several climbs and descents. By the time I got there about fifteen minutes later we had two light twin aircraft had also joined the fray. I was so exhausted I couldn't even talk on the radio for heavy breathing, so the first thing the 'searchers' thought was that I was on my last breath from crash injuries or something, so next thing that's what was relayed to Perth.

 

Eventually I was able to explain that all was well and my SARtime was relayed to Perth - 0900.

 

Western Australia, vast though it is, is very lightly populated in the north and everyone knows everyone else so over the next few weeks I became the laughing stock of the aviation community and my competitors had a field day. Although my pax were able to confirm my SARtime request of 0900 Perth FS insisted it had been 0000 which was 8am so they had called for half an hour then set a search in motion. The F27 was the ANSETT RPT between Darwin, Kununurra and Broome and the F28 was the Darwin, Port Headland to Perth flight. The two twins were specially chartered for the search and they'd also just diverted a QANTAS BAe146 when contact was established. The cost of all that, as you might imagine, was enormous, let alone the diversions of the first two for non-scheduled re-fuelling.

 

It was fully two months before I was able to convince DoA/DCA/CAA/CASA (Dept of name changes) that the damage to my business was so bad that I needed an investigation and they eventually admitted, in a very terse note, that the recordings had been pulled at the time and it was confirmed that my SARtime was correct and the FS bloke's handwriting was so bad that when the shift changed the next fella thought it said 0000 when it was actually 0900.

 

So I had as little to do with FS as possible after that.

 

 

[Phil Perry]

B****y Hell Alan, I don't know how to respond to that. . . . ! I hope that your business recovered to a satisfactory level after the truth finally came out.

 

We also occasionally have problems with "Certain" Civil Service aviation personnel who try to cover their arses and shift any blame onto the pilot(s) involved when they know damned well that they are in the wrong.

 

EG., This story happened on my 50th Birthday, June 2nd 2000; I was flying to the Isle of Man to see the TT races, flying my Gemini Flash2 Microlight, accompanied by Two Rans S6 three axis aircraft.

 

I was the most senior pilot ( old fart ) and I'd been asked to handle all the R/T comms for the formation ( I've never understood why people are afraid of using a radio... ) We ran into some really severe unforecast weather and asked BAE Warton ( Near Blackpool, UK ) for a weather diversion. This request was refused, ( ! ) When I asked why, the nice lady controller said that they didn't accept "Non - Emergency" diversions, and we could only land there if we declared one !!!!!! In all my flying I had never heard such a load of unintelligent bull***t. Warton is where they were building the "Eurofighter" project, and they had received a severe B******ing due to an incident the previous week, more on that later. . .

 

By this time, the solid "Wall" of weather was rapidly approaching the threshold end of the runway we would need ( 26 ) and we were now flying in heavy rain at the half downwind point for 26L.

 

I tried to reason with the controller, but my bar mounted PTT switch had filled up with water, and I got no transmit. Fortunately, my friend Ian, in one of the other aircraft, whilst only a student pilot, called a very well put together "MAYDAY" for the formation. What happened next should go down in the annals of aviation stupidity and downright criminality. . . . . . . the controller said (and I quote verbatim ) "Roger your Mayday Bravo Juliet formation, please hold your position whilst the BAE146 departs" The 146 was, at that moment, clearly visible still on the taxiway, approaching the 26L hold point.

 

So. . . . . we were forced to hold whilst the other aircraft crawled onto the runway, I would estimate this took a further four minutes. By now the weather "Wall" was only around 100 metres from the 26 threshold and the field was going to be zero vis in a matter of a couple of minutes. We watched the 146 climb out behind us, then we were given clear to land. It was too late, the weather front had blanked out the 26 numbers and I turned in front of the other two aircraft hoping that they would follow me onto a dangerously tight circuit for 08, and a downwind landing.

 

This they did, and we landed very close to each other two side by side and one close behind just as the airfield disappeared. After parking, we were asked to visit the tower, where the controller had the worst bollocking that I have ever given to anyone, culminating in my comment that her job was now seriously in jeopardy, and a full report would be going in to CAA flight safety. I had asked her if she could define what a "MAYDAY" message actually meant . . . . . and why she thought that it was secondary to the mail plane to Farnborough. . . . .

 

We were then shown to a rest room, where all six of us found that we were locked in, with an armed guard outside ( I'm not joking here ) for a couple of hours. Later the pilot of the 146 came to see us ( local mail sortie aparently) and we were told that he would be filing an "Airprox" report against us as we'd "Cut him up" on his climbout . . . . ( you couldn't make it up !! ) We had another short discussion with him later, after they had checked us out to see if we were terrorists (!) when we told him that we'd got THREE GPS tracklogs to prove that he was incorrect ( that's not the words which were used by the way) He went a bit white and buggered off. We were told we couldn't continue on our trip after the storm had passed, as ATC had "Gone Home" for the day, and it wouldn't be safe. . . . .

 

The only thing which saved my birthday (a little bit anyway ) was that my mate Mitch ( Ian of the Mayday) knew an airline pilot named Howard who lived just outside the airfield perimeter. He and his wife put us all up for the night, on sofas and floors and whatever, and stuck the heating on wo that we could dry our wet knickers on the radiators. . . Apparently, Howard used to work for Warton and had flown the ubiquitous 146 himself. He'd been away flying B757s for another airline, and this was the first night he'd been home, so instead of a bit of rumpo with beautiful Wife Nicola, all he got were six half drowned microlight flyers. The best bit was the local corner shop, where I told the lady my sad story, birthday and all, and unbelievably, she GAVE me a bottle of champagne, and a case of tinnies for the lads and all at no charge ! ( Obviously she'd never worked for BAE Warton)

 

We flew out the next morning, and air traffic were a litle bit terse with me on the wireless, but we departed OK, and continued on our journey, though somewhat late.

 

What followed was six months of crap in the form of letters from the CAA following a completely fabricated story of the event, received from Warton. They WERE shot down in flames by our indisputable GPS track logs, but we never received an apology from them, nor heard that they had been censured for "Holding" aircraft which had declared distress. ( A hanging offence in my book ) They tried to prosecute Mitch since he was a student, and owned the aircraft, but he had a fully licensed GA pilot with him acting as P1. A N Y W A Y we got the closest thing you ever get to a "Sorry" letter from a Goverment department after the thing had been going on for so long. "No further action in this regard" Yours faithfully etc...etc.....

 

We found out a while later why they had possibly been a bit "Jumpy" apparently, prior to our unexpected visit. . . a British SAS force Hercules had landed in the dead of night on a "Security Check" detail, unloaded a jeep and placed "Smiley" stickers on all of the secret hangars where the new Eurofighter aircraft was being built !! ! ! The Herc, took off and no one at Warton saw or even heard the thing !!!

 

Red faces all around I guess.

 

Don't you just love aviation ?? where else couyld you find such daft tales ??????

 

Postscript, I ferried a Rans S10 from Blackpool to our base at Otherton some while after this, and when Blackpool ATC handed me over to Warton, I told them, sorry, readability one. . get yer radio fixed. changing now to London Information 124.75 . Have not spoken to them since and don't particularly want to.

 

Phil

 

 

[dazza 38]

Great Story Phil, I was at BAE Warton for four months in 1998 completing a Tornado course. Lived in St Annes.

 

 

[djpacro]

Can't remember when I was at Warton but about the same time as dazza. I also stayed in St Annes. I remember walking into that nice pub and seeing an old friend from Oz I hadn't seen for ages. I was working on Eurofighter.

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Thanks, Dazza, I'm really sorry I was too poor a physical speciment to get into Mil Flying, always wanted to be a jet fighter jock when I was a sprog. . . . closest I've been is a bloke called Pablo Mason, who flew tornados in Gulf War one, I know him but couldn't say that he was a "Mate" really, he's retired now but occasionally gives talks about his experiences in Tornadoes, and the Airlines too, at out Club meetings.

 

I have however . . .had some stick time on an English electric Lightning, many years ago as an Air cadet, WHAT A BLAST !!!!!!!!!! Doubt whether I'd like to try and land one nowadays though, not at the kind of speeds those things operated at. . . !! You need young sprog reactions for that kind of kit. Closest I ever got was Dak cargo, then 727 cargo P2, moving up from flight engineer. No commercial paperwork any more, don't even have an IR now, not even the British IMC rating, I can still fly IMC in practice, but the only time I ever call on that experience is on the odd occasion when I'm flying as Pax with another GA driver friend who gets himself into the crap by not checking the weather forecast and relying too much on his Aware 5 colourmap or whatever. . . , and then it's just a nice turnaround into the clear stuff. As you will know you need to be a bit sharp and in regular practice to fly sensibly through even en-route IMC, especially using radionav at the same time. . . I think that the latest generation of pretty picture moving map GPS units are putting inexperienced pilots into trouble thinking that the kit will get them out of the crap, but as most of us know, it usually results in the driver getting disoriented and flying into some cumulo granitus, or the trees, or breaking the wings off in a screaming dive . . . . . .Not many modern microlight aircraft are fitted with even a wing leveller at the moment, but I guess it's just a matter of time before the market changes in response to the whingeing of naughty Imc wannabees. . .

 

Whilst running a little business making graphics for cars and trucks, I decided that cost and discretion was the better part. . . etc. . etc. . . . and didn't want the hassle of regular revals for the PPL/IR and every 13 months for an IMC. I tend to fly low energy stuff nowadays, purely VFR and use my experiences to annoy the crap out of younger Club pilots with my constant nannie whingeing, both in their face, and on FORUMS TOO !!!!

 

We get some howlers here on the forums in the uk, like, "I could download that beer tilting app for my Iphone and use that to keep level in the clouds. . . . . . . ." !

 

Phil

 

 

[Head in the clouds]

That's outrageous - and hilarious! What the little tin gods get up to in their moment of power...

 

By contrast, in 1989 I took a lady-friend on a bit of a cross-country in a Drifter. It turned out to be the longest unsupported ultralight trip to date, we covered 15,000km between May and September from Kooralbyn about 100km West of Brisbane to Darwin and Arnhemland and lots of places in between, and back to Kooralbyn, including working on a number of cattle stations as everything from Jackeroo/Jillaroo, boreman, cook, and I was trying to get students for the flying school or teach along the way as well as sell Drifters.

 

Commercially it wasn't much of a success but what an adventure we had and people we met.

 

One of our biggest regular tasks was getting fuel for the plane, it had a Rotax 503 so could run on any petrol including avgas, in fact it ran sweetest on avgas. Once we were well into the bush it was fairly straightforward in many places to just land on a road and taxi up to the bowsers/pumps at a service station, that hardly warranted a glance from the locals as choppers and station planes did the same thing often enough. But once we got into the Territory it became more difficult with vast distances between towns and the towns are generally a bit bigger, so they have a police presence and all that. I'd made a second tank to extend our range, so we had a 6.5hr endurance but that wasn't enough out there.

 

As we planned ahead Katherine started to show that it was where we might have the greatest trouble. In some other areas of controlled airspace we'd scouted away from the main highway and been assisted at some of the outstations on cattle properties but the control zone at Katherine was just too big. It's an airforce base called Tindal and was the very sensitive home to our new fleet of FA-18s. We couldn't see a safe way past and so we began to shy away from our hopes of making it to Darwin and some of the friendly folk we knew there, ultralights being totally banned from CTA, no exceptions.

 

In the end I decided to phone the tower and ask their advise about how we might get past. I've never had a more friendly reception. The controller asked our ETA, which was a couple of days away, and he said he'd 'just vector us in'. I had no idea what that meant and furthermore our craft wasn't radio equipped. So he just described what we were to do, path to fly, alt etc and asked if we knew the light signals. Another negative so he just said OK, if you see a red light just piss off and if it's green land however you like on the main runway and someone will direct you from there.

 

All went perfectly to plan and we landed and stopped within the piano keys (!), could have landed and taken off twice across them. A minute later a jeep festooned with flags and a big FOLLOW ME turned up and we taxied for about a month to the main apron and were parked next to a line of Hercs and Blackhawks. We got escorted to lunch, given a tour of the ssshhh areas and then FOLLOW ME again to the far end of the airfield, nearly ran out of fuel taxiing, and shown into the civilian parking area where a massive tanker turned up to 'pump our gas'. The highflow nozzle was a problem but with a series of funnels and tubes filled our needs in about 4 seconds and FOLLOW ME again led us to the run-up bay, single ignition... yes it was running so we followed again to the very beginning of the runway (you need all of the five miles or so for a Drifter...) and had about 200ft by the end of the piano keys.

 

Next we'd been asked to buzz the tower heading southward for a Kodak moment. Unfortunately the wind was about 30kt from the south so it took us an age to get there and we crawled past so they had time to use a roll or two of film. We almost needed to refuel again by then, but made it safely to MKT strip, great friends just south of Darwin CTA.