Australian Flying - July 2018

53

three of their directors. It seems
they wanted him to deliver the
aircraft to the mine, somewhere
inland. They also thought is
would be a brilliant idea if Jack
was to do a f ly-past while a
photographer filmed the event.
So Jack and the three directors
climbed aboard, took off, did a
180 and dived down on the man
with the cine-camera, which
was mounted on a solid tripod.
Looking through the viewfinder,
the photographer didn’t have the
correct perspective of how fast and
low the aircraft was.
Perhaps it was the heavy load,
or the high temperature, or
simply a desire to push things
to the limit. Whatever the
reason, Jack managed to take the
photographer’s head off with the
wing. A very nasty business.

But it immediately became a

whole lot more nasty. A pointy bit of

the massive camera sliced through

the bottom skin of the wing. Jack

obviously got a hell of a fright and

hauled back on the pole. The G

forces, combined with the weakened

wing structure caused the wing to

fold upwards and the whole lot went

into the ground upside-down. There

were no survivors.

In fact Placo barely survived.

We were sued by the company,

or the insurers, or someone,

because our pilot had caused this

devastation. I don’t remember

the amount, but it was certainly

enough to close us down.

Ultimately we were able to show

that our contract was to deliver the

aircraft to Luanda, and that Jack

was acting on his own behalf when

he agreed to f ly it on to the mine.

Quinton Posthumus

A handsome young pilot, with very

little experience and a curious name.

Anyhow he was dispatched to

Cape Town in a 140 Cherokee to

use his charm to rustle up some

business and sell a few aeroplanes.

The target market was the f lying

clubs and schools. We were

deliberately selling 140 Cherokees

at exactly the same price as 150

Cessnas in order to corner the

training market. This would

soon lead to Piper-trained pilots

wanting to buy Pipers rather than

Cessnas. The strategy worked

extremely well world-wide.

In those days, Youngsfield

was still in operation. It was at

Kennilworth, in the shadow of

Table Mountain. It was a wonderful

old-time genuine airfield: no

runways, just a big squarish grass

field, which meant that you never

had to cope with crosswinds.

Exactly how Quentin hoped

to justify f lying-school sales, by

taking three young ladies for a ride

in a 140 Cherokee is not recorded.

The first we heard was a phone

call to Zingi, saying that the aircraft

had crashed killing all on board.

It turned out to be the old story;

the one that had nearly put an

end to Eric and me. A beat-up,

followed by a stall-turnish thing

that went wrong. And they spun

into the ground.

Again, Placo was left to

prove that Jack was acting in

his own interests and not as a

representative of the company.

Then we had another death.

A young guy named Wagner, I

think, was delivering a Bonanza

to Durban. Weather forced him

australianflying.com.au

July – August 2018 AUSTRALIAN FLYING

A pilot’s logbook is far more that just a record of dates, times, places and ights; it is also a history of a pilot’s

ying career and a chronicle of the lessons learnt that makes them the aviator they are today. Jim Davis takes

a look back through his own logbooks, and records the incidents that have shaped his approach to ying.

LEFT: The Twin Comanche was a common charter weapon in the day,

and the type that Ken Anders lew on his nal mission.

BELOW: Max Kolb’s Cherokee 180 was often used as a subject for his

fashion photography work.

JIM DAVIS