Anderson Lifetime in Longhaul

Qantas Pilot Flying Stories
1. Auflage 2012
ISBN: 978-1-922022-98-1
Verlag: Vivid Publishing
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 230 Seiten

This book is an opportunity to look into the fascinating world of longhaul aviation. In 1965, Qantas Airways commenced the Qantas Cadet Pilot Training Scheme. Thirteen courses were completed over a period of seven years, with the last course graduating in 1972. Bill Anderson was a member of 5 Course. He and twelve colleagues from that course recall their challenges both on the ground and in the air after 'A Lifetime in Longhaul'. These men have some amazing tales to tell, from their early days as young men learning to fly, their entry into Qantas and on to the present day. These stories contain humour and excitement, with some close calls and some very funny situations that arose during the course of those years. There are celebrities that find their way onto the flight deck and tales of cities that many will remember the way they used to be.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Anderson, Bill

Leseproben

Ken Saward
Qantas Pilot: 1967- - -
Flying Hours: 21,286 and counting
Ken and his wife, Denese live on six hundred acres of lovely undulating country near Canowindra in N.S.W. They run an excellent breeding herd of Angus cattle and are both keen horse riders. Ken drives the few hours to and from Mascot and insists it does not present a problem to him. Our home is near the Blue Mountains and they called in recently for lunch, after which I was able to sit with Ken and talk about his career. Ken plans to fly for another year or so and has some pretty set ideas about when to ‘hang up the goggles’. Ken......
I grew up on a small dairy farm near Wynyard in Tasmania and the local area school in Sisters Creek was my first school. When I was seven years of age I remember a flying display, probably at Burnie, and I clearly recall being outside the house when two jets, a Vampire and a Canberra bomber, roared overhead. It was very impressive and my hair stood on end! There was lots of talk at school about it all and a classmate of mine, Daryl Radford, who came from Cape Barren Island, had more flying stories to tell. I was absolutely intrigued! Dad was always keen on aircraft and had tried to enlist at the start of WW2, but he had broken an ankle years before and the Services would not accept him, on medical grounds. He continued with his farming, but I can recall he had feelings of both disappointment and envy when it came to aviation. He encouraged my interest all the way through school.
My secondary schooling started at Wynyard High School and I spent my two final years to matriculation at Burnie High. During this time I turned fifteen, and Mum and Dad made a generous offer to pay for either a University course after I finished school or thirty hours of flying instruction. There was no debate as far as I was concerned ....I wanted to learn to fly.
They accepted my choice with one condition. Dad insisted that I take a trial flight at the local flying school, before committing to the whole thing. It was a winner, the instructor seemed to believe I had the required coordination skills and so each weekend I would take a lesson, along with a few other fellows. The Tasmanian Aero Club would position an aircraft and instructor from Launceston to Wynyard for just this purpose. I was also studying for the theory subjects by correspondence and very soon after turning sixteen, I completed the final tests for my PPL (Private Pilot’s Licence). Everyone was happy. There were some competing interests for me, trying to study for my matriculation and the flying at the same time. Chemistry, which I really did not like, and maths, were not nearly as exciting as navigation and flight planning.
As I was approaching the end of my final year at high school it was time to start looking for a flying career. I wrote letters to Qantas and Trans Australia Airlines and also to the Air Force. The first reply was from Qantas with information about their Cadet Pilot Training Scheme......more family discussions transpired and we agreed this sounded very promising. I sent off an application to Qantas and was booked in for some medical tests at Launceston, passed those and then I was headed to Melbourne for various aptitude tests and an initial interview. The criteria for acceptance into the Scheme was very black and white.....amongst other requirements was a matriculation with passes in physics and maths A and B.
My matriculation results arrived in late 1966 and I had failed physics, and passed maths. I sent the results to Qantas and knew I would have to re-sit physics, but the scheme administrators at Qantas had clearly not researched the Tasmanian education syllabus, as they had a different point of view about the maths. They asked me to do a further maths exam and politely I refused so it was a standoff for a short while. I advised them that my intention was to find a career in aviation and if Qantas did not accept me then I would find another employer. I was pleased when they sent a letter acknowledging that my results met the criteria for the scheme and I was offered a place on 5 Course.
There were a lot of happy folk around the Saward household. The letter advised of my flight details to Melbourne and then Sydney, and that I would be living at Coogee, which at that time meant very little. I began to assemble my few belongings and arranged for a final flight with my instructor Robin White. I wanted him to have a good look at my flying and make sure he was happy with what he saw.....I knew that someone at Qantas would be assessing me pretty soon.
Coogee
I arrived in Sydney aged seventeen and was met by a Qantas driver who took me to Coogee. I was to stay at the home of Mrs Lewis, which suited me perfectly, as one of her sons had been on an earlier course and although he did not complete it, it gave her a good understanding of the cadet programme. My early days of trying to catch buses and find my way around this huge city were all a bit daunting, but Coogee was a great spot. With summer approaching, it was easy to set off down the road for an early run on the sand and a swim.
My funds allowed me to buy a small car, an Isuzu Bellet and as Noel and Alf were billeted not far away, we shared some time and transport together. A few weeks for induction into Qantas and then the early theory began. Some of us had completed the PPL subjects, but we were still required to attend the lessons and sit the progress tests. As the flying began, I had a few days free or sat in the back seat whilst the other guys started their first flying lessons. I knew my check flight, the ‘30 hour check’ would turn up very quickly. All the fellows that joined the course with no flying, had now accumulated thirty hours and so with about three or four others, I was out at Bankstown to see if we met the required standard. Ron Croft was doing the check and we proceeded out into the training area where I had to demonstrate my general handling, steep turns, stalls and a forced landing. All went well and under my breath, I said a big thank you to Robin White back at my flying school. Coogee was proving to be just the ticket with the beach close, the home quiet and the ability to study without interruption. As a bonus, there was also a nice pub nearby. I had turned eighteen only three weeks after the course began.
The Course
The Course was terrific and I have fond memories of all of it. The blokes were friendly and very focussed on the job ahead.
A few of the early subjects had me amused. Ross Argue was a retired Flight Engineer and lectured us on engines..... radial engines, their carburettors and fuel systems. The syllabus also required us to be able to draw some of this equipment! He laboured away at it with great enthusiasm and all the time, we were wanting to learn about jets! We certainly received a wonderful grounding in all parts of aviation and eventually the jet stuff turned up.
Quite early on in the course a few blokes left for various reasons and I was rather sad about it. They were all nice guys and a rapport had already been established. Qantas owned a three storey building in Rosebery and the cadets occupied classrooms on the top floor. The first and second floors were occupied by Qantas apprentice ground engineers and a great array of machinery. These young blokes were the same age or younger and it was a shame that no formal attempt was made for us to get together, as in later years, most of these fellows would be on the tarmac maintaining our aircraft.
The flying moved into the second stage and Illawarra Flying School used single engine Mooney aircraft. Most of my instruction was with Frank Bethwaite, a Kiwi who had flown for Air New Zealand; he was very thorough and I really enjoyed that time. Our final stage of flying was on the Piper Aztec, with twin engines. It was exciting doing instrument flying and included some long cross country navigation exercises. On one trip, three of us combined our hours and three cadets from the Aero Club did the same, all approved of course, and we set off for Charleville in Western Queensland, landing at several places as we went. We tossed a coin to decide which legs we each flew and the planning of the route required the purchase of a few extra WAC charts (World Aeronautical Chart) to cover areas in Northern NSW and Qld. With great skill I joined the charts together, drew in the tracks we would fly to each airport and then laminated this masterpiece.
Departure day arrived and the two Aztecs set off, initially heading in different directions with a plan to meet in Charlevillle in a couple of days. My team headed northwest, but our map did not match what we were seeing on the ground below. As we progressed, this mis-match continued and our time intervals between points were wrong. We were so puzzled that we landed and laid out my chart to discover that there was an overlap of twenty or thirty minutes of latitude on the WACs, so you could not just join them end to end as I had done....the masterpiece was a disaster piece and had to be disassembled!
We duly arrived in Charleville and met the Aero Club boys. An earlier cadet, Wayne Kearns, was based there and took us into town, organised a few hotel rooms for the night and we all enjoyed a great meal. The return legs home were flown without incident and it was a wonderful few days away from the intensity of the theory subjects.
My test for the CPL (Commercial Pilot’s Licence) went well. Back in the classroom, I think most of us were pushed to the limit using spherical trigonometry. There were no calculators then and we each had a large book called Norie’s Nautical Tables and it was from there that the algebraic formulae and trigonometrical functions were...