tell a Model A related story

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Gerrard’s Revenge.
It was 1977 and I was off to spray cotton in the Sudan. It was grown on irrigation along the Eastern Nile or Blue Nile as it was correctly known. Myself and 12 other pilots gathered at Heathrow Airport, dispatched our luggage and assembled near the departure lounge. We then put our brief cases altogether and a rather young English pilot by the name of Dave was put in charge of its security. Well when we retrieved it to board Gerrard’s case was missing. Stolen. His documents including visa and pilot licence all gone. This caused Gerrard considerable setback and anxiety and took 3 weeks to sort.
This young pom wasn’t unpopular not only with Gerrard but all in the camp. He was very selfish and inconsiderate. For example, always 2 aeroplanes worked on one job. If he got there first he would start each close and handy paddock with one run, and the second pilot would be left with all the distant paddocks. Around the camp and dinner table inconsiderate also.

Dave considered himself a bit of a photographer. He had a nice 35mm camera and would send the film canisters home to his mummy in England to be developed and she would get a good look at Dave and his new job. Well Gerrard knew how to fix this rotten bastard. He hired a cab and the driver took him to town and to a brothel. Gerrard took just 2 pictures of girls posing in the most compromising way then returned Dave’s camera back to where he had taken it. Dave's mummy would have had an unexpected eye full. Justice done, well some justice anyway.

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My Memories of Broome. It’s a good story and it’s true.

It was 1967 and I was flying charter from Derby WA. I was tasked to fly 2 Woodside engineers to Roebourne which is about 50nm WSW of Port Hedland The population today (I see on the internet) is 975 but would have been half then.
There was some excitement around town at the time. The post office had been robbed. The only way for the thief or anyone for that matter to exit the town was by charter aeroplane or by road.
All roads were dirt, and dusty and because traffic is light no-one travelled unnoticed. The thief knew that so he stole a helicopter. He got it airborne but crashed into the fuel shed which was only about 30 yards away. He walked away, on one leg and 1 he could ground but with excruciating pain. He buried the cash and had figured, foolishly that he would hitch-hike.
In the interim the local native kids found the loot then went to the store and started spending. Of course this abnormality was quickly detected. It didn’t take long for the cops to pick up the limping bandit.

Another story from the north of WA.

The Eighty Mile Beach. About midway between Broome and Port Hedland. I’d call it the West Kimberlies. It was formally known as the Ninety Mile Beach, but so as not to confuse it to the Victorian Ninety Beach, it was renamed the Eighty Mile beach. I remember 3 things about it. One. It was shallow along way out to sea; observed from the air and 2 the number of dried Cuttle Fish; what bird keepers put in cages for birds to sharpen their beaks. And 3, a fisherman in a small boat was missing in the area. He had made it back to the beach. His story went like this. He remained afloat for a very long time, thought to be about 10 hours. but his strength eventually wore out and he sank. Only to find the water was only 5 foot deep and he walked to shore. Thought to be more than a half mile.

Broome. The town as I remember was built substantially of corrugated or ripple iron. When overnighting there I stayed in the ripple iron “Roebuck Hotel”. The airport was well out of town. Today the town is getting to surround the airport.

re were 2 wartime hangers, both arc or domed. One held the Catholic Bishops C182 and Wirraway (as owned by Horrie Millar of MacRobertson Millar Airlines. The corroding doomed Dornier Flying Boats in Roebuck Bay that had stopped to refuel. They were transporting Dutch refugees out of Indonesia and were strafed by Japanese war planes killing all who remained on board. It is said one pilot walked out of the hotel saw, this and suicided promptly.
One other thing. Residents became tired of Corella’s and their destructiveness. They had a town shoot and collected 15 ute loads of destroyed birds. And another I remember. Seeing about 100 pearling luggers in Roebuck bay. I understand that today there is 1 only left, on display on land. Apparently plastic buttons have made them all redundant.

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The curse of Corellas.

I recently wrote on a corella shoot at Broome where I was told some 15 ute loads of these noisy, dirty and destructive birds were shot. It does seem a lot and I’ve have been wondering if that was correct. It’s a lot of birds. Broome is a small town, even though it serves the graziers in an extensive area. That would have taken a considerable amount of ammo which no supplier in town would have had on hand. It is not the sort of thing one would airfreight from Perth which is more than 1,000 miles south. Maybe it was delivered by the coastal shipping operator? Or was I told a furphy?

Kununurra (population about 1,500 at the time) was a new town some 450 miles north east of Broome. It had a new dam built to provide water to a newly developed irrigation area. The first crop grown, more or less on trial was rice. Well the Magpie Geese cleaned that out. Then sorghum and the corellas destroyed that. Then cotton, the insects made that unprofitable. Genetically modified cotton plant and better insect management improved the yield and profitability. But now, let’s cut to the chase. Grain crops provide a 24/7 diner for the birds, the dam with it’s dead trees (the trees now have their roots submerged) provided safe roosting for the corellas. Now Kununurra had a problem. A new airstrip was built only half a mile from the dam and the corella daily flight path to the farmer provided 24/7 diner in the morning and returning in the evening was across this new airstrip. The local airline had just upgraded propellor aeroplanes with jets and these birds were now of concern. The university in Perth was asked to estimate the number and they reported 72,000.

I have lived on the other side of the country for many years now and here in Tocumwal (population now 3,000) we also have a corella problem. The town is built on the banks of the Murray River so in providing both water and trees for nesting. Only 1 mile away is a grain delivery site with many tens of thousands of tons of grain: cereals and canola. There are 2 grain buyers, one can keep his site clear of corellas and the other, a national grain handler does not; they treat this town with contempt in providing a 24/7 diner. We have squadrons of these noisy, dirty and destructive birds. More than Kununurra or Broome. A company providing deterrent electronic scarers estimated minimum of 100 thousand and say it is the worst they have ever experienced in the whole of Australia.
Would you believe these birds are protected. No you wouldn’t. Eighty percent of our population live within 50 miles of the coast and they hold political power. These people love birds and so do I but not in the plagues we have in farming areas.

Three towns in our broad local area have had cases of bird poisoning. Government officials arrive from the city and threatened all sorts of legal reprisals but have never found anyone who knows anything about it.

It is well known these birds bring big money in Asia. We have sufficient to pay off our national debt.

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Red Tide. From my Tocumwal flyers small magazine.

Algae bloom is currently in South Australia and at times in the Murray River. I have had experience with algae bloom and I wouldn’t be drinking or consuming products that have been exposed to it ever again. Here is my story.

Red Tide no, nothing to do with Russian submarines.

I was working in the Malaysian state of Sabah which is located in the north east of Borneo. I had 2 work buddies to load the aeroplane, one Amat and the other Ali. We mostly took 2 when we were working away from our usual base. Company was important to them.
The day Ali was to work but he came to me “Ali very ill today, Mr Gary, cannot work”. That’s okay Ali, Amat can work in your place.
Next day Ali came to work again because it was Amat was very ill. Strange. Next day Mr Gary very ill. I flew back to base and saw a Filipino doctor by the name of Dr. Pete, a nice guy, most Filipinos are. He wanted to send me to hospital in an ambulance. I had never seen an ambulance at our base town and the ambulance probably meant a taxi with the fastest driver. Just didn’t appeal. A road full of holes and some in low gear. So I flew to town, Lahad Datu, about a 30 minute flight. You will find it on Google Maps.
A local doctor received me. I asked his name and he said it was so long I’d need to stop for a drink of water before I finished saying it, but the abridged version was Anan.
I came down with the shits badly. After 3 days the doctor was keen to send me to Tawau where they could operate on me. That didn’t appeal greatly either. Then they changed their mind. Probably couldn’t afford an orang putti (White man) death on their hands I suspect so they discharged me. Some hours prior Dr Pete’s wife arrived with a bag of grapes and a bottle of prune juice purchased from the 1 good supermarket in town. This I consumed and later in the day I was discharged.

I called a taxi to take me to the airport where my plane was but on the way I needed a toilet stop badly and had the driver divert to the Exectitive hotel. The grapes and prune juice had run straight through me. I shit. Large quantity, rapid and runny. Instantly, yes instantly I felt better. The discomfort and pain gone completely but I was left weak. The Dr. Pete’s food stuffs had cleaned me out.
Some weeks later our group was having dinner at a grubby little cafe about 10 miles out of town. A doctor was there, a mate of Dr Pete’s. He knew about the incident and said I shouldn’t have flown to town as my blood pressure was down to 70. I would have been pleased if that was my diastolic pressure, but no it wasn’t. The company director who was with us said “forgot to tell you Gary, 7 died with that”. The poisoning was from “red tide”. That is an algae, pale red in colour growing in the ocean near Tawau where we had all eaten fish a few days earlier. Red tide is not an uncommon occurrence in many parts of the world. They, Ali and Amat were tougher than I and recovered earlier.
I have just looked up Red Tide on the internet and treatment is contradictory. 1. Pump stomach out and that’s what the grapes and prune juice did. And 2. Give charcoal and that stops diarrhoea.
From the internet here is some facts.

Did you read about my charcoal incident story in a previous story. I was ferrying from Tawau to Darwin, an 11 hour flight and was violently ill for 8 hours. And I mean violently ill. Food poisoning. It’s a lesson for all.

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Static electricity. It is a hazard and it’s serious. Here is several stories about just that.

Note it is not only a problem for aviation but for the motor industry also. I saw a poster at a service station asking that customers ground containers they were filling. One customer had filled a container whilst holding it above ground. Thus it was not grounded. Static electricity again. The entire service station totally demolished to ground level. Pictures of before and after on display.

In 1971 a helicopter and drums of avgas were burned at Bedford Downs in the Kimberlies. The pilot and engineer who were refuelling it were very badly burned. I made a visit to them in the Kununurra hospital. They said they had refuelled one side fuel tank of the helicopter and then passed the hose back over the Perspex bubble. Static electricity.

Another static electricity fire, 1982. Finley, just 10 miles north of Tocumwal. In the evening so we could see the blaze. An operator had 80 drums of avgas (44 gallon drums) behind a hanger. In pumping without common sense procedures static caught them (fortunately no injuries) and up she went, the lot. 6 went through the back wall of the hanger. From the picture it may look as bad as it was but this picture was taken in 2024 42 years later and the worst has faded both with time and rain.

I also had an incident. I was refuelling my trustee old Agcat from a 44 and I felt electricity run through my body. An employee had fitted a composite camloc coupling to the hand pump which was acting as an insulator and thus not earthing it as a metal one would. We fuelled then and for the remainder of the day using jumper leads to earth aeroplane to the truck. It was also my practice to use the proper fuel hose which has a copper wire running through the rubber and earthed it to the pump camloc at the source to the camloc at the delivery end.

An additional lesson can be learned here. When I was learning to fly my instructor told me never to park an aeroplane in a hanger with breaks on for a fireman will not know how to release them plus leave the tow handle in place so as he can pull it out and clear. Fortunately in this case one of the firemen was a part owner of an aeroplane hangered there thus familiar with all of that.

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To support my story below here are some pictures of service station fires that would have most probably started by static electricity. For some unknown reason I was able to attach only 1 picture. The internet is full of many many pictures of service station fires

[Jim Brierley]

Woofa, I was a mechanic for the City of LA, Dept. of Water & Power, and was sent to a nearby receiving station (incoming power lines) to adjust a clutch. This was a big truck, with a moveable pressure plate, towards the flywheel. It was a dirt yard but I spotted a flat concrete area so I moved the truck to take advantage of it. The concrete happened to be under the incoming power lines. So I got under the truck to work thru the clutch inspection cover. Soon I was feeling a tingle in my wrists, from inductive current off the power lines! No problem, I leaned a crow bar from the ground to the frame of the truck, grounding the whole truck. So I crawled back under and finished the job, with no current flowing to/from my wrists! Problem solved!

[Fullraceflathead]

Wow!!!!!!!

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Originally Posted by Jim Brierley

Woofa, I was a mechanic for the City of LA, Dept. of Water & Power, and was sent to a nearby receiving station (incoming power lines) to adjust a clutch. This was a big truck, with a moveable pressure plate, towards the flywheel. It was a dirt yard but I spotted a flat concrete area so I moved the truck to take advantage of it. The concrete happened to be under the incoming power lines. So I got under the truck to work thru the clutch inspection cover. Soon I was feeling a tingle in my wrists, from inductive current off the power lines! No problem, I leaned a crow bar from the ground to the frame of the truck, grounding the whole truck. So I crawled back under and finished the job, with no current flowing to/from my wrists! Problem solved!

Hi Bill, a university trained engineer who a government bureaucracy would have hired would have designed a complex and expensive device to address that problem. Doesn’t simplicity overcome stupidity.

[Jim Brierley]

Originally Posted by woofa.express

hi bill, a university trained engineer who a government bureaucracy would have hired would have designed a complex and expensive device to address that problem. Doesn’t simplicity overcome stupidity.

yes!

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Bob Caldwell.

I’ve told this story before so some readers may be familiar with it, however many won’t have read it so I have published it again. Now abridged.It was a popular story. It’s of a crop sprayer from Williams, California.

Bob became my friend when he toured Australia, calling upon local cropsprayers. A personable fellow with immaculate manners. He had married an Australian girl, her name Loraine who he had met here while on an R and R leave from Vietnam where he was flying helicopters. He was also an enterprising fellow and bought for me a cropduster from South Dakota, packaged it and had it shipped. He made many such purchases and shipments for Australian operators.
Bob was a cropduster in Williams, rice being just one of several crops he sowed, protected and fertilized. During his off season he came to Australia and sowed rice at Coleambally which is an hour and half north of us here at Tocumwal. I got to know him well.
Bob died of prostate at only 52. One always wonders if it was dioxin from 245T (agent orange) used in Viet Nam or being a passenger in an ag plane in Canberra in which the pilot crashed. (Bob had no flight controls to recover a bad manoeuvre). What bought on this cancer we will never know. His ashes are spread at Williams and Coleambally and a plaque is set in Coleambally town with a Hamilton Standard propellor set with it.

Bob had a unique and a fortunate experience in Viet Nam. While flying he was shot in the head by a sniper and survived. Unique because the bullet entered the right hand side of his helmet and exited the left side destroying the audio on both sides. You may well ask how he survived. After it entered the right audio it turned and tracked at the rear of the helmet behind his head before it’s exit. I know this to be true because I visited him in Williams, held the helmet and viewed this myself.
It is a sad event when a gentleman loses his life prematurely, leaving a wife and 3 kids. His parents were among the first ag aeroplane operators in America and they lost another son in ag aeroplane when he was only 21 leaving them childless. His parents were one of the very first cropdusting operators in America.

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This is a follow on story to that of Bob Caldwell. It was written to me from my good friend Hugh.

Hi Gary
The account of the bullet in the helmet reminds me of a similar Vietnam war account. In the 1970s I worked as a laboratory assistant at UNWA. My boss was a former US medical officer deployed over there. A conscious but wounded soldier on a stretcher was brought to him and he asked him “what’s the problem?” The soldier replied “not sure doc but I’ve sure as shit got the mother of all migraine headaches.” The paramedic (John Ormond, my former boss) removed his helmet and discovered a bullet hole in the centre of his forehead. An X-ray revealed that the projectile had passed exactly between the left and right lobes of the brain, exiting from the back of his head. John watched him recover and saw him on a flight back to the US.[/SIZE]