BAZflyer: December 2019

A random Bazflyer moment spawned this blog. Driving along the road mid week, audio volume turned up, a favourite song pulsing the air. And then it happened, the moment that is, or perhaps in the context of this blog it could appropriately be termed “think think time before”, a lovely Melanesian Pigin phrase for memory.

When first released the song cascading out of the car’s audio speakers was a memorable track on a desirable album of that time. The flash back moment was recalling the art-full activity of wrapping a cassette version of the album as a present to be opened on Christmas morning. The memory of that moment is so clear as are the descending words that adorned the cassette graphic; “Pink Floyd The Wall”. The album was released forty years ago in time for Christmas 1979.

However, there is more than the great Pink Floyd rock band to anchor 1979 in the Bazflyer’s memory archive. At the time they lived in Goroka, a small town in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea. Bazflyer1 was Chief Pilot for a fast growing helicopter company. Bazflyer2 taught at the local International School. The world was aviation centric and life was good.

Unfortunately forty years ago is also tagged for tragic reasons, especially for aviators of the time. It will be forever associated with two of the worst aircraft accidents of all time.

One of the accidents occurred on May 25, 1979, when a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 operated by American Airlines as Flight 191 from O’Hare, Chicago, Illinois, to Los Angeles, California, crashed into the ground as it was taking off from runway 32R. All 258 passengers and 13 crew on board were killed, along with two people on the ground. With 273 fatalities, it is the deadliest aviation accident to have occurred in the United States. The uncontrollable crash resulted when the left hand engine separated from the aircraft.

The second of these accidents tragically occurred on November 28, 1979. All 257 occupants on an Air New Zealand sightseeing flight TE901 were killed when the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 aircraft flew into Mount Erebus, Ross Island, Antarctica. This accident since referred to as the Erebus Disaster, is New Zealand's deadliest peacetime disaster, as well as the deadliest accident in the history of Air New Zealand.

Bazflyers succinctly remember the Erebus Disaster. They flew the morning after on a scheduled Air New Zealand flight in a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 with their two children travelling from Brisbane, Australia to Auckland, New Zealand. The totality of the tragedy was yet to become fully apparent, nevertheless, the mood on the flight that morning was eerily sombre in a most unforgettable manner.

Forever a maligned airplane the final passenger flight with a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 occurred just two years ago. The honour went to Bangladesh Biman Airlines, operator of the world's last passenger DC-10 that made its final scheduled flight on December 7, 2017. But while the iconic, wide-body, three-engine workhorse of late-20th-century air travel is no longer hauling passengers it hasn’t yet completely disappeared from the skies...it is still in use by cargo carriers.

Oh...you wish to know what the track from that album was..? It was “Mother”. Turn up the audio volume, stand back, enjoy a great song from one of the best rock bands ever! Then ‘think think time before’....what were you were doing forty years ago?

The album cover design was renowned for its simplicity.

Papua New Guinea is an independent nation located to the north of Australia previously featured in the blog.

One of the Hughes 500D helicopters flown by Bazflyer1 in Papua New Guinea. Pictured in 1979 at Goraka (AYGA) airport in the Eastern Highlands Province.

McDonnell Douglas DC-10 depicted in Continental Airlines livery as operated on the airline’s Trans-Pacific services and used on several occasions by Bazflyers.

There is no doubt that aviation has come a long way since two brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright demonstrated man’s ability to construct a machine capable of powered, sustained, and controlled flight in the air. The historic event occurred on December 17, 1903, just 116 years ago. From that pioneering beginning the airplane’s development took off. Until that moment in time the dream of flying like a bird in the sky had eluded mankind, probably since time immortal. The Greek legend of Daedalus and Icarus is one of the earliest known; others originated from India, China and the European Middle Age. During this early period the issues of lift, stability and control were not understood, and most attempts ended in serious injury or death.

Ten years after that Wright Brother’s flight, the airplane was used for the first time as a weapon of war. The strategic advantage of airplanes was instantly apparent and this translated into an accelerated period of development. By the time World War One ended in November 1918, the once rudimentary flying machine had become a relatively reliable and indispensable reality.

Looking back in time it was hardly surprising that in the aftermath of a horrific World War people were hungry for good news stories and hero celebrities, and the airplane did not disappoint. The year 1919 was a vintage year for the airplane and this year is the centenary.

Only a few months ago, at the end of July, the Bazflyers were piloting their trusty Comanche airplane on the transatlantic sector of an round the world flight. The route took them via Greenland and Iceland. Along the way Bazflyers were eminently mindful that 100 years earlier, in June 1919, British aviators John Alcock and Arthur Brown made the very first non stop transatlantic flight. They flew a modified First World War Vickers Vimy bomber.

Four years previously Bazflyers had stood at the location near Galway on the west coast of Ireland where Alcock and Brown rather unceremoniously arrived ending their 16 hour flight from St Johns, Newfoundland. They did however, collect the prize of £10,000.

This month of December marks the centenary of another historic long range aviation flight. A flight that coincidentally also involved a modified First World War Vickers Vimy bomber. This was the epic first flight of an airplane from Britain to Australia.

The then Prime Minister of Australia, William “Billy” Hughes, keen to bolster civil aviation in Australia and bridge the tyranny of distance between Australia and the rest of the world, offered a prize of £10,000 for the first Australian to fly from England to Australia within 30 days. Six crews qualified to enter the great air race, all experienced airmen and World War I veterans. Only two crews completed the journey. Four aviators perished during their attempt.

So, when highly decorated pilot Captain Ross Smith and his brother Lieutenant Keith Smith, landed at Darwin on 10 December 1919, the event was met with national and international excitement and acclaim.

Although the Bazflyers flew a different route from Britain to Australia in their Comanche ZK-BAZ, they were always humbly mindful of their centennial connection with the Smith brothers historic flight.

As history goes it was April 1969 when New Zealand aviator, Cliff Tait, flew out of New Zealand to circumnavigate the world in his diminutive Airtourer airplane. Fast forward fifty years and it was April 2019 when the Bazflyers departed New Zealand, a copy of Tait’s book ‘Flight of the Kiwi’ in the airplane seat pocket. Along the way Cliff’s historic flight path was nostalgically intercepted on several occasions. In commemoration, the Bazflyers flew through Russia’s Far East where politics fifty years earlier had unceremoniously denied Cliff a flight approval, an intervention that robbed him of a seamless round the world flight.

Having flown round the world themselves, the Bazflyers can well appreciate how difficult long range airplane flying must have been 50 or more years ago. For starters there was no GPS providing precise navigation. No satellite weather imagery. No computer generated metrological forecasts. No internet or mobile phone. There can be no question flying across oceans and continents in today’s world is a much safer and more reliable expedition than it used to be. And for the Bazflyers such comparisons with their own epic journey were reassuring companions on every flight.

It was while attending Sentimental Journey the Bazflyers caught up with Ted Miller a retired airline captain and an avid aviator. Ted had flown his vintage yellow open cockpit Boeing Stearman airplane from Southern California across the USA to Lock Haven. “Its like riding a Harley across the country”, Ted told the Bazflyers. “It feels good when you stop, but it sure is fun”. Ted in his Beech Debonair is no stranger to flying long distances. He is a veteran of multiple ocean crossings. Ted and his wife even celebrated their honeymoon in 1971 by flying the Beech Debonair round the world. Ted had the Bazflyers enthralled with his modest dialogue describing how he navigated the Debonair over the Pacific Ocean using a sextant while steadily flying without the aid of an autopilot.

Would the Bazflyers have wanted to fly round the world without ZK-BAZ’s array of modern digital navigation and communication equipment..? Hell, no! It is thanks in part to pioneering and epic flights, aviation has come a very long way in just a short 100 years.....the Bazflyers proudly salute all those flight pioneers...men and women alike.

The Vickers Vimy, G-EAOU (affectionately known as "God 'Elp All Of Us"), was 100 years ago flown by the brothers Ross and Keith Smith, along with their mechanics, in the great air race from London to Australia. In the process, they became the first people ever to fly from England to Australia.