Australian Air Race (Perth-Sydney, 20/24 Oct, 1976)

[Riley]

Dear wife (op shopping again!) brought me home an 'unbirthday' present today in the form of Participant Crew Briefing Notes for the abv ref air race. No listing of aircraft or crews involved and obviously no record of who/what the results were and my subsequent 'Googling' has produced nowt! Idle curiousity as I wasn't even in the country at the time but can anybody point me in any direction that might provide amplifying data on this event? cheers Riley

 

 

[djpacro]

Search for Benson and Hedges Air Race.

 

 

[Riley]

Search for Benson and Hedges Air Race.

Tks djp but 17 pages of B & H Air Race googling didn't get it. Anybody else have any ideas?

 

 

[Downunder]

Found this bit ,

 

I think it was in the late 70’s (1976) that Dennis flew one of our Pilatus Porter across Australia to win the Benson

 

& Hedges Air Race.

 

http://www.otu.asn.au/home-mainmenu-1/44-obituries/113-cpffey

 

Correction. Lt Col. Frank Markcrow and Lt. Doug Brown were the pilots of the Pilatus Porter in the B&H Air Race. Dennis wasn't involved in the race, but did fly none stop across Australia from Carnarvon to Brisbane, I believe

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

Porter must have had one hell of a handicap to win.

 

 

[djpacro]

My recollection was that a young lad in an Auster won something - perhaps first PPL?

 

 

[PPDL]

Dear wife (op shopping again!) brought me home an 'unbirthday' present today in the form of Participant Crew Briefing Notes for the abv ref air race. No listing of aircraft or crews involved and obviously no record of who/what the results were and my subsequent 'Googling' has produced nowt! Idle curiousity as I wasn't even in the country at the time but can anybody point me in any direction that might provide amplifying data on this event? cheers Riley

I have a fair bit of info regarding the B & H Air Race. What would you like to Know?

 

 

[Riley]

I have a fair bit of info regarding the B & H Air Race. What would you like to Know?

Greetings PPDL. I'll have to go thru my piles of aviation bumph/memorabilia/rubbish to find the brochure to review my curiousity. Will get back to you when I'm organized. In the interim, thanks much for the offer. cheers Riley

 

 

[winsor68]

How the Great Australian Air Race was won WITHOUT WINGS....

 

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1300&dat=19761203&id=ek8QAAAAIBAJ&sjid=SJIDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1924,636139&hl=en

 

 

[winsor68]

http://www.goodall.com.au/australian-aviation/narratives/saabsafir.pdf

 

The Safir, now registered VH-BHG taking part in another air race. Pictured at Jandakot WA 19 October 1976 at the start of the 1976 Benson & Hedges Australian Air Race from Perth to Sydney. Sponsors insignia for Bonds Gotchya underwear is on the fuselage behind the race number 234. On the tail fin is the infamous Dick Smith zap when stickers promoting Dick Smith Electronics were applied overnight to every race entrant. Photo by Neville Parnell

 

 

[Clipped Wings]

http://www.goodall.com.au/australian-aviation/narratives/saabsafir.pdf[ATTACH=full]39504[/ATTACH]The Safir, now registered VH-BHG taking part in another air race. Pictured at Jandakot WA 19 October 1976 at the start of the 1976 Benson & Hedges Australian Air Race from Perth to Sydney. Sponsors insignia for Bonds Gotchya underwear is on the fuselage behind the race number 234. On the tail fin is the infamous Dick Smith zap when stickers promoting Dick Smith Electronics were applied overnight to every race entrant. Photo by Neville Parnell

Dear wife (op shopping again!) brought me home an 'unbirthday' present today in the form of Participant Crew Briefing Notes for the abv ref air race. No listing of aircraft or crews involved and obviously no record of who/what the results were and my subsequent 'Googling' has produced nowt! Idle curiousity as I wasn't even in the country at the time but can anybody point me in any direction that might provide amplifying data on this event? cheers Riley

Hi Riley ( nice looking wheels too )

Came across Recreational Flying by accident when doing my own searching seeing as 1976 was 40 years ago and so memory is hazy but in 1976 I was in Broken Hill and myself and a couple of other guys took our BH Aero Club Piper Archer VH - UQK across to Perth and successfully completed the race, finishing just outside the top 10.

 

This post is about a year after the last but if you are interested Riley, I'll dredge up the memory into something of a day by day description and some day I might even be able to find my race booklet which I am pretty sure has a listing of entrants, our number remembered for sure being No. 211

 

 

[400FAN]

Did Bill Meek in VH-BOO, a Comanche 400, take line honours in the Perth to Sydney?

 

 

[naremman]

Like you Riley I was out of the country, enduring seven months in the UK on a Rural Youth/Young farmer exchange.

 

Wasn't this the event that had Douglas Bader along for the trip? If my memory serves me correct I recall tales of him in vintage form sitting on a four gallon tin in the hangar at Forrest, which was one of the overnight stops.

 

I know one aircraft that was entered that did not participate. I acquired my Airtourer 100 when the previous owner, Arthur Shearing, put it on the market so he could purchase a T3 Airtourer, the 130 hp variant, VH-PMC. Arthur had entered the 1976 Air Race, but just before the start date parked PMC, carrying a very good measure of airspeed, in Jarrah forest abeam Canning Dam. That he survived is testimony to the strength of Henry Millicer's design, and I am happy to report Arthur is still going strong at 95 living in Bruce Rock.

 

Sadly the comparative strength in General Aviation that existed in the 1970s is but a distant memory, and should an attempt be made today to replicate such an event can you imagine the imposition of rules for observance of, disclaimers, forms of indemnity, production of insurance certificates, mandatory ASICs and God knows what else? Taping over an ADF if you had one, and having everybody dependent on just a WAC, watch, compass and a smoking prayer wheel was a real skill set. All the electronic gadgetary available today just might have taken some of the fun (or even terror) out of it.