Remember Bert?

[nomadpete]

Does anybody remember Bert's gliding skills?

 

I call him the exception to the basic rule of pilots. He impressed me as being the only "Old Bold" pilot over ever met. And such a quiet gentleman. I am honoured to have met him.

 

I recall watching him do a double loop from about head height above the deck. In a glider. At Caboolture.

 

He also briefly held the Australian height gain record. Inside a cumulo nimbus. At Alice Springs.

[Blueadventures]

Absolutely agree. Shared some time and learn't some maintenance and repair methods from him. He was always willing to help out and share his knowledge to those who were willing to learn and help out.

[Bruce Tuncks]

I knew him quite well. They took his height record from him, sadly but correctly in my view, because cloud flying is illegal. Bert initially claimed he had climbed up the outside but privately told differently.

Bert nearly held a world record out and return ( Bond Springs to Three Ways ) but got caught out by darkness on the return.

I agree he was a great guy and I have several more stories about him. He was a larger than life character for sure.

[FlyBoy1960]

Who the hell is Bert ?

 

A legend no doubt but there are a lot of Bert's in Australia ?

[onetrack]

Bert sounds like Frank.

 

A man walks out to the street and catches a taxi just as it's going by. As he gets into the taxi, and the cabbie says, "Impeccable timing. You're just like Frank."

Passenger: "Who?"

Cabbie: "Frank Feldman. He's a guy who did everything right all the time. Like my coming along when you needed a cab, things happened like that to Frank Feldman every single time."

Passenger: "There are always a few clouds over everybody."

 

Cabbie: "Not Frank Feldman. He was a terrific athlete. He could have won the Grand-Slam at tennis. He could golf with the pros. He sang like an opera baritone, and danced like a Broadway star, and you should have heard him play the piano. He was an amazing guy."

Passenger: "Sounds like he was really something special."

 

Cabbie: "There's more. He had a memory like a computer. He remembered everybody's birthday. He knew all about wine, which foods to order and which fork to eat them with. He could fix anything. Not like me. I change a fuse, and the whole street blacks out. But Frank Feldman could do everything right.”

Passenger: "Wow, what a guy!"

 

Cabbie: "He always knew the quickest way to go in traffic and avoid traffic jams. Not like me, I always seem to get stuck in them. But Frank, he never made a mistake, and he really knew how to treat a woman and make her feel good. He would never answer her back even if she was in the wrong; and his clothing was always immaculate, shoes highly polished, too. He was the perfect man! He never made a mistake. No one could ever measure up to Frank Feldman."

 

Passenger: "How did you meet him?"

 

Cabbie: "I never actually met Frank. He died, and I married his wife."

[Rastus]

[

I knew him quite well. They took his height record from him, sadly but correctly in my view, because cloud flying is illegal. Bert initially claimed he had climbed up the outside but privately told differently.

Bert nearly held a world record out and return ( Bond Springs to Three Ways ) but got caught out by darkness on the return.

I agree he was a great guy and I have several more stories about him. He was a larger than life character for sure.

 

What are you guys on about? Your posts seem to imply that you believe Bert Persson has passed on. I can assure you that, as of last evening ( 21/07/2020), Bert is very much alive and kicking.

 

In fact, he has recently been very involved in re-furbishing Caboolture GC's Pawnee and in the last 12 months has rebuilt a damaged Blanik to flying condition'

 

Please tell me I am wrong about the tone of this thread.

 

Robert

[pmccarthy]

They may be thinking of another persson.

[FlyBoy1960]

I am thinking we all have the wrong Bert ?

 

Perhaps Bert is fictitious, a figment of said imaginations ?

 

I will vote Bert for Prime Minister ! If we can ever work out who said Bert is ?

[onetrack]

I'm hanging out to hear a lot more about this Bert bloke. Sounds like he deserves an AO at least.

[Mike Borgelt]

Nice to hear Bert Perssons is still around. I saw him last at lunch at the Watt's bridge fly in in 2015. I told him about my plan to go to NZ and buy a Bolkow Junior several of which were for sale over there, fly it around for a couple of years in NZ on trips and then bring it home to turn into a warbird - either a Biafran Baby (look it up - fascinating story of Count Carl Gustav Ericsson von Rosen - a man who put his money and life on the line for what he believed was right) or the Swedish Air Force Armed trainer version. Told Bert there was an A model Junior being restored at Watt's so we went to have a look at it. Could tell Bert was misting up a little as he reminisced about glider towing in one in Sweden, 50 or so years before.

 

The NZ trip turned out to be interesting. Missed out by a week on the good one. The others? Well that's quite a story involving a close brush with disaster.

[facthunter]

You have us ALL curious and our full attention, Mike....... Nev

[Mike Borgelt]

Sorry, the story will remain confidential to protect the innocent the guilty and the yet to be caught. There wasn't any malice in involved, just ignorance.

[Bruce Tuncks]

I too am pleased that Bert is still ok and active. I honestly thought ( from the tone of the posts ) he had died. Sorry if I passed on this wrong thought. He must be over 80 though.

Bert learned to glide in Sweden where cloud flying is nothing special. The English thought nothing much of it either. I once had an English textbook which advised you to use cloud climbs on your first cross-country flight, even if you had not done this before! If the cu base is 2,500 ft and the tops are 12,000 ft then cloud flying is the only way you can get far.

Now this stuff refers to the olden days like the 1950's. I wonder if it still is so.

[spacesailor]

Bert weeden

English guitarist

Very famous in the 50 And 60s,.

Usually comes up as First googled answer !.

Influenced the Beatles, and others.

Made the Hit Parade but never sang a song.

spacesailor

[spacesailor]

Bert weeden.

Best guitarist ever

spacesailor

[eightyknots]

I remember Bert.

 

Bert is a golden yellow Muppet character on the long running television show Sesame Street.

[FlyBoy1960]

Is it Bert Hinkler ?

[Old Koreelah]

What are you guys on about? Your posts seem to imply that you believe Bert Persson has passed on. I can assure you that, as of last evening ( 21/07/2020), Bert is very much alive and kicking...

 

Sounds a bit like Mark Twain: "Rumours of my death are exaggerated."

[Mike Borgelt]

Bert Perssons was 80 back in 2015 so that makes him 85 now.

[Mike Borgelt]

New Zealand allows cloud flying in gliders in certain areas, Bruce.

[Mike Borgelt]

With GNSS navigation, ADSB out and in and the modern solid state AHRS systems which, if done right, do not suffer from the problems of the classic AH, cloud flying in gliders should be perfectly safe and feasible nowadays. The problem is the concrete craniums in CASA and probably the "Karens" in the GFA.

[spacesailor]

New Zealand

Would have to allow flying, with it being the Land of the long white cloud.

spacesailor

[nomadpete]

I apologise to everyone for starting this thread with an ambiguous title. I didn't see it that way until someone took it the wrong way.

 

Bruce had mentioned Bert in another thread, and it prompted my own recollections.

 

It occurred to me that there must be many very skilled people out there and they all have had adventures worthy of retelling. Bert is one of many.

 

I sometimes think that our modern society doesn't allow much scope for adventure.

 

There is a wealth of knowledge residing in many of our senior fellow pilots. So many lessons and skills that should be shared.

 

So, can anybody think of a few other unsung heroes in aviation?

[Bruce Tuncks]

Yep there are lots of Berts. I had an uncle Bert who was a grocer and he made a million or more from being good at his grocery shop.

But Bert Perssons was one of our lot who lived for flying. Originally from Sweden, he spent many years in Alice Springs. Then he moved south and east to finish up in Qld the last I heard of him.

Here's an unsung hero for you nomadpete... Andy Woz. His surname was Wosniakowski and he lived for gliding. His only other passion was photography. He spent nothing on nonsense like shoes... i remember him making his own from old tyres. He would stop and clear rubbish from paddocks because a glider might need the space.

His longest flight was a record attempt from Gawler to Benalla, quite a long way in a wooden glider.

He finished up in jail because the policeman near the outlanding didn't believe that a tramp-looking guy, with an expensive and obviously stolen camera, had flown from south australia without an engine. He refused to look just over the rise which obscured the glider.

[Blueadventures]

Yep there are lots of Berts. I had an uncle Bert who was a grocer and he made a million or more from being good at his grocery shop.

But Bert Perssons was one of our lot who lived for flying. Originally from Sweden, he spent many years in Alice Springs. Then he moved south and east to finish up in Qld the last I heard of him.

Here's an unsung hero for you nomadpete... Andy Woz. His surname was Wosniakowski and he lived for gliding. His only other passion was photography. He spent nothing on nonsense like shoes... i remember him making his own from old tyres. He would stop and clear rubbish from paddocks because a glider might need the space.

His longest flight was a record attempt from Gawler to Benalla, quite a long way in a wooden glider.

He finished up in jail because the policeman near the outlanding didn't believe that a tramp-looking guy, with an expensive and obviously stolen camera, had flown from south australia without an engine. He refused to look just over the rise which obscured the glider.

 

A couple of images with Bert in them when maintenance being done, otherwise he is flying. Anytime I was in Brisbane I would call and help out as I would always learn something off the master. Great bloke.