Smithy (movie) – Aviation Historical Society of Australia

DerekB30/09/202319/11/2023

Aviation Heritage Vol. 54 No. 3 (September 2023) Contents Listing

The latest quarterly AHSA journal – Aviation Heritage – has recently been posted to members. The contents of all articles are listed below: Aviation...

1971 The fourth launch of the United Kingdom's Black Arrow rocket took place at the RAAF Woomera rocket range on 28 October 1971 and successfully orbited the Prospero satellite, making the United Kingdom the sixth nation to place a satellite into orbit by means of an indigenously developed carrier rocket. The satellite, also known as X-3, was named Prospero after the character Prospero in Shakespeare's The Tempest. The name was chosen as a reference to events in the play, in which Prospero, a sorcerer, gives up his powers. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Arrow

2002 On 28 October 2002, Qantas initiated Jetconnect, a wholly owned subsidiary which commenced operations on domestic services in New Zealand, effectively taking over the role of the former franchised Qantas New Zealand operation. Jetconnect flew Boeing 737-300 aircraft in Qantas livery, but without the Spirit of Australia caption. It had a New Zealand Airline Operators Certificate and its aircraft were registered in New Zealand. Source: Australian Airline Industry, Research Paper Index, Research Paper no. 10 2002-03, Turbulent Times:Australian Airline Industry Issues 2003, John Kain and Richard Webb, Economics, Commerce and Industrial Relations Group, 16 June 2003, https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp0203/03RP10 retrieved 6 Nov 2022.

2003 The ATSB issued a Supplementary Whyalla Airlines Investigation Report (tabled on 28 October 2003) to reconfirm the ATSB December 2001 report, rather than the SA State Coroners July findings. Source: ATSB Media Release 2003/07. via aph.gov.au website

2017 Cessna T310R VH-JMW crashed at Johns River, NSW on 28 October 2017. During the afternoon of 28 October 2017, VH-JMW was conducting a return flight from The Lakes airstrip, New South Wales to Toowoomba Airport, Queensland with the pilot and one passenger on board. On the return flight from Toowoomba, during descent to The Lakes, and while about 8 km from the runway, a witness recalled hearing the sound of what he thought was a single-engine aircraft ‘cough’ and then stop. Shortly afterwards, JMW was seen descending slowly with the landing gear extended. The aircraft then ‘jerked’ suddenly, rolled to the left and descended rapidly to the ground. The pilot and passenger were fatally injured and the aircraft was destroyed. The ATSB identified that during the final descent towards The Lakes airstrip runway, the left engine was not producing power and the right engine was operating at low or intermittent power. Following the loss of engine power a safe flying speed was not maintained resulting in a loss of control and collision with terrain due to either an aerodynamic stall, asymmetric power effects or a combination of both. The loss of engine power was probably the result of either insufficient fuel for the flight or an in‑flight fuel management error. Sources: ATSB; aviation-safety.net website