Flightpath - May 2018

(Chris Devlin) #1
FLIGHTPATH | 23

Mailbag


Point Cook Flyer


Hi Rob, this is the flyer sent out for the
Fly-In at Point Cook where some of the
photos were included in Point Cook Pag-
eant article (Vol. 29, No.3). As you can
see, there were a number of Fly-ins con-
ducted by our RAAF Point Cook Flying
Club (which started flying training in
1970) throughout the seventies.
The 1973 event was, I think, the sec-
ond one and, over a few drinks at
the Club bar one Sunday night, the
committee decided, in its infinite
wisdom, to put an advertisement in the
Sun newspaper. The result of this
was that the airshow traffic backed up
to the Geelong freeway as all of
Melbourne thought it was an official
RAAF airshow.
I have lots of pics of our ‘Tiger Black’
Tiger Moth Formation Team featuring
VH-ULR, ‘ALC, ‘PCK, ‘CXY and ‘CJW.
This last one was owned by Peter Trevan
and Barrie Lynard. It is the white Tiger
airside of Jim O’Connell’s Dragon on
page 69.
I’m starting to rave, but I have heaps
and heaps of stories to tell regarding op-
erations of the Club at Point Cook in the
seventies. Trevor Cox


Dear Rob,I’minthethroesofwritingaboutRobertBaudin’s
rather low-level flight over Sydney in Arthur Napper’s Auster in


  1. Does anyone have photographs either of the incident, or of
    Baudin, his two Austers at Bankstown, or has Baudin’s aerial
    shots of the construction of the Sydney Opera House, Long Bay
    Gaol and Circular Quay (his company was Australian Air Pho-
    tos - these days they’re ‘courtesy Hornibrook Ltd’)?
    Also, I wonder if anyone knows Arthur Napper, the air traffic
    controller at Mascot (a Mr Hook, I believe), the ATC at Bankstown,
    or knew Fred Krahe, or even (long shot) actually knew Baudin?
    Pilot N.W. Sullivan was flying a Qantas DC-3 that day. Also in the
    air was John Laffan with the DCA’s senior examiner, Russ Evans.
    Any contact with these men, their families or anyone who knew
    and remembers them would be wonderful please. If any of your
    readers have memories, photos or documents relating to the above,
    I’d love to hear from them. Thank you, Robert Brokenmouth.


ABOVE: The Flyer for the 1973 Point Cook Flying Club
picnic ly-in.

RIGHT: Front page of the Melbourne Sun News Pctorial
newspaper, featuring the lying club members Tiger
Moths that helped draw the large crowd.

Baudin’s low level light


After ditching his Percival Proctor shortly after take-of from Singapore, Baudin
bought two Austers. One of them, VR-SED ‘The Spirit of Singapore’, easily became
VH-SED once he arrived in Australia. It is seen here in a hangar at Bankstown on 01
April 1962, it still remains on the civil register. [via Neil Follett]
Free download pdf