Brinsmead – Aviation Historical Society of Australia

DerekB30/12/202431/12/2024

Outlook AHSA Newsletter December 2024

The December 2024 edition of Outlook / AHSA News was distributed to members recently. This edition can be read online in the viewer below....

1924 WGCDR Stanley James Goble and FLTLT Ivor Ewing McIntyre continued their around-Australia flight in Fairey IIID A10-3. After another night of heavy rain, Southport was cleared just before noon and a fairly pleasant flight was made to Gladstone, which was reached at 3.45 p.m. on the 10 April 1924. Coral in the harbour and mud and logs in the river forced McIntyre to land at Pacing Island some ten miles away. The petrol was brought over in a launch by Captain Payne, the marine pilot at Gladstone, and from 8 p.m. till 2 a.m. the crew worked up to their necks in water, straining the fuel through chamois leather. Source: The First Round-Australia Flight, 1924 by Neville Parnell, AHSA Journal, vol 6, no 12, December 1965

1929 After a forced landing west of Wyndham, WA, Charles Kingsford Smith, Charles Ulm, Harold Litchfield and Tom McWilliams were stranded for an eleventh day on 10 April 1929. Ulm recorded the following in his log: "We have been 10 days lost. We are still alive, even if just barely. We used the last drop of energy turning generator the last night. This morning Smithy and Litchfield went to collect mud snails and water while Mac and myself tried to walk to the top of a new hill (named Disappointment Hill, because the 'planes passed there), about two miles away, but broke down after a walk of a mile and-a-half to the base. We were too weak to move, but lit a fire on the point. Smithy and Litchfield joined us later with snails and water, but it was no use; we could not make the hill. Even Smithy, who is seemingly tireless, is giving out. He was literally reeling as he walked today. There were no signs of a plane by 1 p.m., so Smithy and Litchfield returned to the Coffee Royal, Mac and I kept the fire going in the remote hope of the 'plane returning. Hunger pains were nearly driving Mac and I insane. We discovered a thin long bean weed today and cooked and ate some. We did not like them, but they contained some nourishment. Oh, curse these flies! When returning from the point about 3.30 p.m. across the mud flats Mac and I were cut off by tidal waters and had to make a detour about another mile through the mangrove swamps and tall swordlike grass. This last straw broke my camel's back and I virtually collapsed five times on the walk and staggered into the Coffee Royal a beaten man. This stupid weakness is so distressing. You feel you must force yourself to go on and do so, and find you cannot keep going more than a minute or two. Mac and I feel pretty useless for anything away from the Coffee Royal. Oh, for a cigarette! This and food. For the past few days we have all been getting mental mirages of wonderful dishes of foods. It may sound childish, what with the heat, the flies, the mosquitoes, lighting fires, pulling down trees, pulling up grass for smoke, walking for water, eating a few snails, drinking water and a cup of very thin gruel, listen to the radio, turn the generator until every ounce of energy is gone, then lie down to be eaten alive by mosquitoes — that is our day. When will it end! Smithy and Litchfield found a new waterhole this afternoon, and this should keep us going for a week or two but the high tides are making it impossible to reach the snails. We saw emu and dingo tracks in the mud about half-a-mile from us, but there is no chance of shooting one with a .32 automatic. If the water lasts we feel we can live here indefinitely. I believe that if we are forced to stay two or three months we will become acclimatised, gain strength and eventually be able to walk out, We have debated the question of making a raft out of the two wings and tanks, carrying it three and a-half miles to the river and drifting down with the tide on an exploration tour, but there are many difficulties and dangers in the way. We have decided to abandon this until the radio receiving 'batteries give out and we can receive no news. However, after being passed by three 'planes we are hopeless of 'planes finding us and hope they send aborigines out. We'll look screams with eleven days' growth, but we have made a pact not to shave till we get out, although I feel like breaking it as my beard is almost painful now. There is a small tree, not 5 ft. from the starboard propeller, and two beautiful little birds of the finch type are building a nest there. They don't mind us and we don't trouble them. They are too small to shoot and eat anyhow. A long message came for us from VIS tonight telling of more 'planes leaving to rescue us and aborigines being concentrated at Port George for a search. We also heard for the first time of the rescue fund, said to total £5000. This is encouraging. Thanks to everybody. VIS asked us to reply, so Smithy, Litchfield and myself wound our very insides out on the generator, but no good resulted. He can't hear us. Physically we are all in. Now to bed." Two of the Western Australian Airways DH.50s worked as a pair for their searches on 10 April. James Wood flew one aircraft with Siddons as observer and Bert Heath flew the other, accompanied by Digby as his observer. Les Holden in the DH.61 "Canberra" departed from Wyndham and searched to the east of Port George IV mission. Matheson and Finn were in Longreach, where a long-range fuel tank was installed in the Goulburn Aero Club's Gipsy Moth by Qantas mechanics, allowing up to 7 hours duration. Keith Anderson and Bob Hitchcock in the Kookaburra departed Alice Springs at 7:30 am planning to fly directly to Wyndham. The aircraft was overloaded with fuel, but with very little food and water. Anderson commenced the flight by following a telegraph line for around 100 miles, then to save a couple of hours flying time he chose to leave the telegraph line and fly directly to Halls Creek and pick up the telegraph line again. But he veered off course in a northerly direction due to a faulty compass and crosswinds. The tappet nut which had vibrated loose on the upper end of a pushrod several days before (south of Oodnadatta) came loose again, and the engine started losing power. Anderson landed the "Kookaburra" on an area of loose sand and turpentine scrub, making a successful forced landing with very little damage. Hitchcock repaired the tappet and the pair set about clearing a space for the aircraft to take off - the scrub was much more dense than it had appeared from the air. After clearing a short runway, their first attempt at taking off was unsuccessful as the narrow tyres sank into the sandy soil and they could not build up enough speed. They made several attempts at taking off, clearing more scrub and puncturing a tyre. But they were not able to take off and remained stranded. The forced landing by the Southern Cross and its consequences became known as the "Coffee Royal" affair. Sources: Parnell, N. and Boughton, T., Flypast, A Record of Aviation in Australia, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 1988; Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld), Mon 15 Apr 1929, Page 9, "LIEUTENANT ULM'S LOG"; Davis, Pedr and Smith, Dick, Kookaburra: The Most Compelling Story in Australia's Aviation History, Lansdowne Press, Dee Why, NSW, 1980

2008 The new Federal Government released for comment an issues paper directed ‘Towards a National Aviation Policy Statement’ on 10 April 2008 and invited public comment. The paper was broad in coverage and scope to cover the gamut of industry, safety and infrastructure matters. Source: http://www.infrastructure.gov.au/ via aph.gov.au website