Childhood memories

[pmccarthy]

It would be great to read about other people's memories of aviation in early childhood. Mine include Wirraways at Albury, which may have been crop sprayers, a couple of abandoned 4 engined planes beside the water-side road at Mascot, which I think were Lancastrians, Tiger Moths aerobating at Tumut, Vampires performing at Wagga, and a field full of WW2 aircraft on the right hand side beside the road somewhere, but I don't remember where, when we drove to Sydney I would love to go back and absorb those experiences again, with today's knowledge. My grandmother gave me a Biggles book each year, which I looked forward to., but these scenes stick in my mind. I'm talking about memories from the first ten years of your life, I suppose.

 

 

[Bob Llewellyn]

My brother and I tested our ability to read a clock with the toy clock at Bathurst aerodrome... the one that told the gliding club when the East-West F-27 was due. Put me off clocks for a while...

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

I saw few aircraft, none up close, but used to watch a strange-looking freighter on its regular flights over our farm, climbing to make it over Acacia Plateau. Almost fifty years later I got talking to an old flier who turned put to have been the pilot.

 

 

[red750]

My family lived in Deniliquin from 1956 to 1959. This was where I had my first experience with aviation. I can recall an Ansett Bristol Sycamore helicopter rattling over our house. I attended an airshow at the Deni airport, and saw a number of aircraft, but the only ones I can recall are a Tiger Moth which performed an aerobatic display, and a DH Chipmunk, which unfortunately crashed during it's performance, killing the pilot. On another occasion, my father took me to the airport to see Prince Phillip arrive in a DC3. When I left school, I applied to Ansett for a job, and as part of the experience, got to sit in the cockpit of a Convair in the maintenance hangar, and had a close-up look at Reg Ansett's Bell 47G helicopter (before the 47J-2's). I didn't get the job because my father thought I should do 1 more year of high school before starting work.

 

 

[Bob Llewellyn]

The Cherokee 2 soaring on the row of poplars at the end of Bathurst strip; the noise of a Tigermoth tug; back-seating the club's 125hp supercub tug; all those big white gliders...

 

 

[sfGnome]

Reading about Louis Blériot's flight over the channel, looking at the pictures and thinking "I could build that!"... Must have been about 8 at the time, and the thought has never left me.

 

 

[metalman]

Biggles and plastic models, first time I actually touched a light aircraft was VH PMA for a TIF,

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Reading about Louis Blériot's flight over the channel, looking at the pictures and thinking "I could build that!"... Must have been about 8 at the time, and the thought has never left me.

I presume you mean his flight was still in the news. You must be an old bugga!

 

 

[rgmwa]

When I was very young, our house backed onto a golf course. One day a silver Tiger Moth landed there, and I remember my dad lifting me up so I could look into the cockpit. I was about four at the time. Had my first flight in the back of a Piper Tri-Pacer when I was seven. Felt queasy and threw up as we touched down. I remember that experience very well. When I was about 9, my mother and I flew from Warrnambool to Melbourne to visit friends - in a DC-3. I'd read dozens of Biggles books by then, and it was a big thrill to be able to see into the cockpit and watch the pilots. Clearly remember walking uphill to get to our seats. When I was 16, the Wimmera District Aero Clubs ran a competition with a PPL course as the prize (worth about $5,000 at the time). It was open to all comers from various towns in the district, so I applied. You sat in the left seat of a Cherokee and the instructor showed you what to do and assessed how you went. There were 280 applicants and I made the shortlist of 14, who were then re-assessed by the CFI to select the eventual winner. It wasn't me, but I was over the moon to have made the final cut. Took me another 43 years to get that PPL.

 

rgmwa

 

 

[bexrbetter]

WW2 movies as a kid, any plane with big teeth!! Honours to Corsairs with Gull wings too.

 

 

 

[facthunter]

People doing aeros over Newcastle in Ryan STM's and Fred Hoinville sky writing. Miles Gemini's Dragons and Percivals (visiting) at Broadmeadows aerodrome. RAAF DC-3 and Eric Greathead landing the mustang at West Maitland with coolant leaking out of it. (That was later, when I was BIG and wore long trousers). Nev

 

 

[kaz3g]

Yes, the sky writers and the banner towing was a regular event when I was little. And the DC3 rides from Essendon to see the lights of Melbourne during the Coronation and the Queen's visit.

 

The family over the road where old "Nan Thomson" presided and talked of her 13 boys most of whom had served in the RAAF...one of them, Bruce,was killed in an air crash when returning from Laverton to Sale in the mid 50's from memory. He had earlier been shot down in a Meteor by MIGs over Korea in 1951 but successfully ejected and was captured and held as a POW by the enemy for some time.

 

http://www.ejection-history.org.uk/country-by-country/australia.htm

 

I get a journey into nostalgia every time I renew my medical because the DAME I see has his surgey in the Thomson's former home. I always feel a little weird sitting in what was their living room, now waiting room...I don't believe in ghosts, but...

 

Kaz

 

 

[Riley]

At age 8 or so when old enough to trek the 2 miles thru the bush to go fishing off the float plane dock at the local air service, having to haul up my lines and step away whenever a flight arrived or departed. Beavers, Norsemen, Wacos, and numerous 2-place "littlelys". Occasionaly if the wind was wrong or the skipper stuffed up his taxi, being thrown a rope from the floats to assist with the docking - really made me a necessary part of the crew (I thought). I would have traded my biggest, most prized catch of that whole summer for an offer of a flip. Alas, it was another three years (a 1/2 hour birthday present flight) before I got airborne. Visited the location some 40 years later to find the whole bay area surrounded by suburbia. You can never go back but ya can't kill the memories. cheers Riley

 

 

[bexrbetter]

Yes, the sky writers and the banner towing was a regular event when I was little.

Yuh, sitting on Mornington beach every weekend watching them and of course the 3DB radio station's "Flying Tadpole" shark patrol.

 

 

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

http://www.ejection-history.org.uk/country-by-country/australia.htm[/url]

Kaz

 

Fascinating memories, Kaz. That database has me intrigued:

 

Aircraft entered high speed dive duringlimited-panel training.Pilot recoveredaircraft and returnedto base9 nm east ofStanthorpe,Qld

 

Is that a misprint, or was there a base near Stanthorpe? (I grew up just east of there)

[rankamateur]

My earliest memory of an aircract was standing out in the garden seeing a structure that to my mind looked like it was made out of irrigation pipes and roared so I assume it was a jet, I must have been about two because when I was three we took an East-West fokker friendship from Inverell to Sydney and then caught a really big jet to Canberra, I remember that really well because the hostie took me up front to sit in the pilots seat on the way across.

 

 

[facthunter]

Eenie Weeny Airlines .....Great Airline. Based in Tamworth ?.I think the flight attendants used to make their own uniforms, or perhaps that was a rumour.

 

That flying Tadpole is a Republic Seabee. Peter Geraketeys had one at Rutherford . Franklin engine with a composite prop There was another one at Mission Beach.

 

Re the wartime pilots they reached age retirement generally by the mid 80's There were some from Korea also. I flew with a large number of ww2 pilots. They rarely if ever spoke of the WAR or any aspect of their flying in it.. Not even the types of planes they flew..Nev

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

Lot of sign writing in the skies around Sydney during the late sixties, popular adverts were "LUV" a dog food brand and Uncle Sam, deodorant. Banner towing was mainly along the beaches.

 

Living at Chipping Norton and a little later at Panania during the early sixties we were woken to the screams of Vampires at Bankstown during winter. Gran said they used the heat of the engines to help burn the fog off. Saturday mornings used to watch a continuous flow of aircraft as they turned from downwind to base over the dog track at Panania. First airshow was at YBK back then clowns peddling pushbikes hanging under big navy helicopters. Old man gave me a belting when i found my way onto a 4 engined turboprop that was probably a Viscount, maybe ANA. I was all buckled up ready to go when they dragged me back down the stairs. No older than 5 or 6. Didn't get my first flight until my 19th birthday then another 2 years for my first landing.

 

 

[RKW]

Eenie Weeny Airlines .....Great Airline. Based in Tamworth ?.I think the flight attendants used to make their own uniforms, or perhaps that was a rumour.That flying Tadpole is a Republic Seabee. Peter Geraketeys had one at Rutherford . Franklin engine with a composite prop There was another one at Mission Beach.

Re the wartime pilots they reached age retirement generally by the mid 80's There were some from Korea also. I flew with a large number of ww2 pilots. They rarely if ever spoke of the WAR or any aspect of their flying in it.. Not even the types of planes they flew..Nev

Saw the Seabee at mission beach. It belonged to the owner of the Mission Beach Resort, a TAA captain known as Fatty Hawkins. I was there to install a phone system in the early 80's. Also remember being attacked by cass O'wary. Bob

 

 

[eightyknots]

My brother and I constructed balsawood-framed model aeroplanes and then flew these rubber band propelled aircraft in our large back yard. This meant we had to carefully cut many parts into the correct shape, follow assembly plans and then come to terms with the elements of flight once our model planes became operational. These enjoyable childhood activities first kindled an interest in aviation. Numerous Biggles books maintained this. So did visits to the Richmond RAAF base watching the Caribou pilots do their practice flights.

 

Many years later, my wife and I moved to Schofields, a Sydney suburb, which happened to be adjacent to an Australian military aerodrome. This was no longer used by the armed forces but the Schofields Flying Club was permitted to use it on weekends and public holidays. The constant flight of light aeroplanes above our house re‑kindled my interest in aviation.

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

HMAS Nirimba was the name. It is a huge tertiary school now. I used to do a lot of work on the Schofields fleet. Shame they closed that airfield down.

 

 

[sfGnome]

I presume you mean his flight was still in the news. You must be an old bugga!

Yeah. The pictures in question were carved on a cave wall!

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Yeah. The pictures in question were carved on a cave wall!

You're right, Gnome! I saw them on the Moody Blues album cover "To our children's children's children".

 

 

[ayavner]

Hah funny as I sit here I have that LP (and most their other early ones) in arm's reach. That, seventh sojourn, threshold of a dream, question of balance ... some of the finest music ever recorded...

 

I don't really have any standout aviation memories from childhood, other than the occasional ferry between US and Oz. My big fire was lit in the 80s when I joined the AF and worked on the EC and RC 135s at RAF Mildenhall in the UK (707s kitted out for airborne command and control and refueling, or recon). Used to watch the SR71 Blackbird take off every chance I could, never got old...

 

Never thought back then that I could do it... wasn't until 20 years later, a ride with a mate in a 172, and now look at me!

 

I have a 4 year old nephew... i have to win over his mum (my sis) but my goal is to give him his first aviation memory (even if its just sitting on the ground in the right seat making motor noises with our lips)...

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

The Moodies made grand, timeless music.

 

Wonderful to hear so many kids are getting to experience real flying. They'll thank you. Sam's doing his bit in Qdi.