81
It was packed and noisy; mainly
full of happy members of the
general public who enjoy this
environment with its strong
aviation association.
To round off this past
weekend, after several hours at
the Planes of Fame museum at
Chino, we attended a motorcycle
race meeting close to a major Los
Angeles Airport. The first race
had not started when the un-
announced stream of warbirds
grumbled overhead. I pointed,
but even before my colleagues
Dan and George could say a word
an argument broke out in the
seats in front of us as two total
strangers began to argue if it was
Texan or a Trojan*, then if next
was a B-25 or maybe a B-24, then
a B-17 (universally agreed) and
most everyone in the grandstand
was cheering, pointing and
waving. Many comments about
Flying Fortresses and Mustangs
came wafting out of the
surrounding crowd.
The aviation legacy of a
nation can be fostered or
ignored, accepted as a benefit, or
complained about in not-in-my-
back-yard (NIMBY) intolerance.
It’s not just that many in Oz don’tYou become an organic part of
a living and ongoing history.australianflying.com.auJuly – August 2018 AUSTRALIAN FLYINGIt has been said that no-one will live long enough to make every mistake there is to be made, so to
stay safe we have to learn from the mistakes others have made. GippsAero test pilot Dave Wheatland
has spent his career operating aeroplanes on the very edge of their limits and has a swag of yarns
about how ying taught him some hard lessons that we can all learn from.
understand or accept our aviation
community, but that they reject
and actively campaign against it,
to the detriment of all, including
themselves in the long run.
The aero club where John
Willis OAM first took to the
air with a snotty ginger-haired
Air Cadet in the early 70s was
a place of wonder and interest:
paneled walls, trophies, honour
rolls, photos of local historical
aircraft, a framed copy of a 78
phonogram record celebrating the
transpacific f light of CKS and
Ulm (and the yanks whose names
I cannot recall [Lyon and Warner- ed.]), a f lying competition
challenge from RVAC to the
local club framed in a toilet seat,
unit crests and badges, a grand
old dining room dresser covered
with models and mementos
stolen from PAC and f logged-out
old upright piano made for an
environment that immersed one
in a comfortable sense of history
and belonging.
In the perhaps misguided effort
to draw the club into the 20th
century, the walls were stripped
of the long-standing decor and
painted stark white with a f lat-
screen telly becoming the room's
focus of attention.
Perhaps this is what is expected,
even anticipated, by a neophyte in
the twenty teens, but it expunges
a significant heritage, a special
means of teaching and learning by
observation and belonging. You
become an organic part of a living
and ongoing history.
Promoting the Australian
aviation legacy at local national
and international levels isimportant, and we all need to
bring back those mementos and
photos. A few beers and a few
stories about the old days on
a Friday arvo in a hangar, at a
recreational f lyers group, or even
modelers club helps. A talk at
local rotary or service club,some
support for the local Air Cadet
unit, but most importantly do
not be afraid to sing the praises of
your local airport.
My workplace used to have
walls where persons and events
of significance were celebrated in
a pictorial display. Certificates,
photographs and wall maps
dotted with pins held a visual
history of blood sweat and tearsof those who worked long days
and nights bending metal and
complicated equations to meet the
bloody-minded determination of
a small team to create a successful
product. Corporate image now
rules. Bare walls, bare white walls,
no people, no history.
Here, the National Test Pilot
School currently feels much more
like an old familiar home. Walls
and hallways lined with framed
crests and pictures or graduating
classes, big paintings and prints,
portraits, display cases with
mementos of significance.
These people understand; not
everyone does.
I have sat in all sort of warbirds
from American bombers to
British fighters and Brownie’s
old Drover. They all have an
intimate story to tell in almost
every sense, and that will not be
washed away with a coat of white
semi-gloss paint.
*it was a Skyraider