Props & mags APRIL 2016

SOUTH AUSTRALIAN AVIATION MUSEUM

66 LIPSON STREET, PORT ADELAIDE P.O. BOX 150, PORT ADELAIDE, SA 5015. PHONE (08) 8240 1230

http://www.saam.org.au

FROM THE PRESIDENT ENGINE RUN Although attendance numbers were not what we expected and the Gnome rotary played up some, the night was a great success. In one way it was an opportunity for a lot of the members to get together, watch a classic movie and see some of our vintage engines run. The Merlin, yet again, was the hit of the night with it’s spectacular exhaust flames lighting up the scene. Fantastic photo opportunity for some. We will certainly think about having this type of function again, maybe once a year, to bring our members together for an informal evening and have another classic film available. Thank you Robin and your crew for your organization and running the event…great night was had by all. GRAHAM ALDERMAN Graham Alderman “resigned” from the Museum a couple of weeks ago. He didn’t resign his membership: rather he has decided to stop attending because he feels it is time to put his feet up and relax. And why not? He’s 93 years young and has put in sterling service since he joined us in 2002, as a founding History Group member, working on the donations register, writing letters of thanks to donors, compiling albums of press clippings and many other tasks in the library. Not all of you may know, however, what a long life in aviation Graham lived even before he joined our museum. He joined the RAAF in 1942, trained in Cunderdin and Geraldton in WA, did two years in England, came home in 1946 and joined Australian National Airways. He was appointed as manager of the Royal Aero Club of South Australia in 1957 and over the following thirteen years steered the club from 250-300 members flying 3,000 Tiger Moth hours a year to 700 members flying 10,000 hours a year with a diverse fleet including Victas, Pipers and Cessnas. During that time he was at the forefront of SA aviation events including the management in SA of the 1964 Brisbane-Adelaide Ansett Air Race and the 1969 UK-Australia Air Race in which our VH-DOL came second in class.

S.A.A.M. COMMITTEE

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MUSEUM PATRON: THE HON. ALEXANDER DOWNER

AC _______________

PRESIDENT PIETER VAN DYK

VICE PRESIDENT

DAVID BYRNE

TREASURER

JOHN HILLIER

SECRETARY MIKE MILLN

COLLECTION MANAGER

PAUL DAW

COLLECTION MANAGER – AIRCRAFT

WAYNNE LEE

MEMBERSHIP OFFICER ROD KOPP

WORKSHOP MANAGER

GRAHAM BELL

PUBLIC RELATIONS ROBIN De VORE

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DATES FOR YOUR DIARY …. SATURDAY 16th APRIL 10.00am History Group Meeting 12 noon B.B.Q. Lunch – Cost $5.00 1.00pm General Members Meeting EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING : Tuesday 3rd MAY

After leaving the Aero Club in 1970 he was made Executive Director of the Bus and Coach Association in 1971 and from 1976 was concurrently Director of the South Australian Road Transport Association. He served as Secretary to the Chartered Institute of Transport (South Australia) for 26 years and was a Rotary member for over 28 years, including spells as Club President, Secretary and District Secretary.

He was a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society and of the Chartered Institute of Transport and a Justice of the Peace for over 38 years. He received a Federation Award in 1969 from the Royal Federation of Aero Clubs of Australia for his service to the Federation; and an OAM in 2000 for service to the community, particularly through the Chartered Institute of Transport and to Rotary International. How many of you knew what an eminent person we had in our midst? Not many, I bet, because Graham is modest to a fault. We will all miss his unfailingly cheerful presence in the library every Wednesday, and we wish him all the very best in retirement! Pieter van Dyk PRESIDENT

Well-wishers waiting anxiously for Graham to cut his cake on 16 March! [Photo – Ian Jones]

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Nearly didn’t have to use the BBQ, for the free sausage sizzle

Photos courtesy of Dean Robinson and Paul Daw

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WING TIPS

ERRATA – “IFF” – Props & Mags March 2016 My friend and Honorary Member David Hamilton kindly pointed out a couple of errors in my article last month, which in the interests of accuracy I would like to correct: 1. I incorrectly entitled the article “Identity Friend or Foe”, when it should have read “Identification

Friend or Foe”

2. I referred to the development of “Radar” in the article. The British called it “RDF – Radio Direction Finding” and it was the Americans who later introduced the term “Radar” that then came into general usage.

Since I wrote the article I have also come up with a bit more information on the Spitfire’s Identification Lights: In addition, the radio identification signals sent in Morse Code were repeated visually by the Upward Identification Light on the upper fuselage behind the cockpit flashing the same identification in Morse (Photo at right), and by the Under Identification Light on the lower fuselage under the cockpit seat. (Photo below). The latter was fitted with coloured lenses that could be changed to reflect the colour of the day so as to aid identification of friendly aircraft. Langdon Badger

Have you found this? (see last page)

Spitfire UP-O Upper Identification Light (Clear) [Langdon Badger]

Spitfire UP-O Under Identification Light [Langdon Badger]

END OF SEASON As the fabric season draws to a close we are actually putting fabric on the Anson’s stubby wing bits that are attached to fuselage. The starboard side upper and lower

surfaces are done and as we had time on our hands we removed the aileron and outer rear section of the port wing and are doing that bit too. We are getting proficient with a paint roller when applying dope to the under surfaces and now have a lot less dope up our arms as a result. Having studied other Ansons’ fabric installation we have yet to find two the same so ours will be unique too. The best use of fabric and the least

wastage will mean planning ahead to see where joints and overlaps will look authentic. The Battle boys are forging ahead with the new tailplane with one side showing lots of shiny new metal ready for riveting. The tail cone is still awaiting the same treatment. The wheels for the Model 1 Cessna are almost complete and that may stir up some interest in getting the airframe tidied up. We have already stripped the old fabric off the rudder and once sand blasted and primed with some 2 pack undercoat we will install new fabric covering. Anybody that has been involved in rigging the controls for a wing warp system, please step forward as we need help in that area. Over and out, Anson Crew, Battlers and Wheely good workers, 5

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Here’s another from Jim Piscioneri. We are hoping he isn’t suggesting it as a means to store the Caribou until the hangar is ready.… This Mig 25 had apparently been buried to protect it from aerial attack during the last Gulf War, (now over...). We know that the Soviet military aircraft are built tough to withstand rough treatment, but I sure hope they scoop out all the gravel from those enormous air intakes! [From Australian Warbirds Squadron News,

Nov 2004] 6

Here’s an oldie but goldie from Jim Piscioneri. It’s been seen around attributed to Qantas engineers but this time they’re purported to be UA Air Force tech log entries and the subsequent replies from maintenance crews.

Pilot: Left inside main tyre almost needs replacement. Engineer: Almost replaced left inside main tyre. Pilot: Test flight OK, except autoland very rough. Engineer: Autoland not installed in this aircraft. Pilot: #2 propeller seeping prop fluid. Engineer: #2 propeller seepage normal. Pilot: #1, #3 and #4 propellers lack normal seepage. Pilot: Something loose in cockpit. Engineer: Something tightened in cockpit. Pilot: Evidence of hydraulic leak on right main landing gear. Engineer: Evidence removed. Pilot: DME volume unbelievably loud. Engineer: Volume set to more believable level. Pilot: Dead bugs on windshield. Engineer: Live bugs on order. Pilot: Autopilot in altitude hold mode produces 200 fpm descent. Engineer: Cannot reproduce problem on ground.

Pilot: IFF inoperative. Engineer: IFF always inoperative in OFF mode. Pilot: Friction lock causes throttles to stick. Engineer: That’s what they’re there for. Pilot: Number 3 engine missing. Engineer: Engine found on starboard wing after brief search. Pilot: Aircraft handles funny. Engineer: Aircraft warned to straighten up, “fly right” and be serious. Pilot: Target radar hums. Engineer: Reprogrammed Target Radar with the lyrics. Pilot: Autopilot tends to drop a wing when fuel imbalance reaches 500lbs. Engineer: Flight manual limits maximum fuel imbalance to 300lbs. Pilot”#2 ADF needle runs wild. Engineer: Caught and tamed #2 ADF needle. Pilot: Suspected crack in windshield. Engineer: Suspect you’re right. Pilot: the autopilot doesn’t. Engineer: It does now.

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SOUTH AUSTRALIAN AVIATION MUSEUM SIGNIFICANT AVIATOR PROFILES

JOHN FREEMAN OAM John Freeman was born on 17 May 1934 and spent his boyhood in Rugby, Warwickshire near Church Lawford

Aerodrome, then an RAF Training Command facility. This led him to join the Air Training Corps on his 14th birthday and to his first flight on a RAF Anson that imbued him with his fascination with aircraft and flying. He emigrated with his family to Adelaide in 1948 and immediately joined the Air Training Corps Squadron at Keswick Barracks. He was awarded a place in a course at Point Cook where he commenced his flying training in February 1951. He achieved his Private Pilot’s License in October 1951 at age 17, but was subsequently classified during National Service as not being of commercial pilot material. Fortunately, Reg Ellis, chief flying instructor at the Royal Aero Club of South Australia at Parafield disagreed, and John achieved his Commercial Pilot’s License there in April 1955 on a flying scholarship. He started work as a pilot for Rural Aviation Limited in

May 1955 and began a lifelong career in agricultural aviation. This included a stint with Robby’s Aircraft Co in 1956 before he married his first wife, Margaret, and went to England in April 1957. From July 1957 to May 1959 he flew on jobs with Crop Culture Ltd throughout England, Scotland and Wales – and spent 3 months in 1957 spraying cotton in the Sudan. This involved a flight of two DH-82 Tiger Moths and an Auster departing from Bembridge on the Isle of Wight to Lyon-Marseille-Rome-Palermo, then across the Mediterranean to Bone in Algeria then Tunis-Tripoli-Benghazi-El Adem-Cairo-Wadi Haifa and, finally, Khartoum. After three months spraying in the Ghazirah, the group returned to England in December 1957 by a different route. During his England sojourn he and Margaret had a son, Mark, and a daughter, Debbie. Debbie was born in January 1959. John then returned to Adelaide with his family and set up his own company, Trojan Aerial Spraying Co, in September 1959 in partnership with Alan Jones¹. The company was merged with SA Air Taxis in 1962 to form United Aviation Co Ltd. United Aviation was the Piper Aircraft dealer for South Australia and operated United Aviation Flying School at Parafield Airport, the first flying school at Parafield other than the Royal Aero Club. However, late in 1962 SA Air Taxis pulled out and United Aviation went out of business some time in 1963, which almost caused the failure of Trojan as well. United Aviation was liquidated in early 1963, but John continued agricultural spraying as Trojan Aerial Spraying Co². ________________________________________ ¹Alan Jones is standing at left in Trojan’s 1961 Calendar cover in the Attachment ²This section about Trojan Aerial Spraying Co Ltd and later Trojan Aerial Services Pty Ltd is derived from material provided by John Freeman including his Resume of Experience/Career and his History of Trojan Aerial Services Pty Ltd. The author also interviewed Mr Freeman at his home several times between January – July 2008 7

John Freeman Photo – Freeman Family via Mike Milln

Prior to the merger the company was originally formed using DH-82 Tiger Moth VH-TSM. Two additional Tiger Moths, equipped with Micronair A700 Rotary Atomiser spraying equipment, VH-TSE and VH-TSJ, were added during the 1960 season. The re-formed Trojan shrank to one Tiger Moth (VH-TSE), but 1963 was a good year and John Freeman and Bill Wauchope, who had joined the company, expanded with the purchase of two Piper Pawnee PA-25 aircraft. John first sprayed a potato crop at Virginia, using VH-TSE on 26 October 1964, and also had various spraying contracts. One was spraying Torrens Island³ against mosquitoes, when he and Bill Wauchope operated from a beach at Outer Harbour and parked the aircraft on the front lawn of a householder across the road.⁴ By mid-1965 the company had secured a six-week contract to spray cotton near the Ord River. This activity expanded over the next eight years as Trojan Aerial Spraying Company (Ord River) Pty Ltd (TASCO). TASCO operated Piper Pawnees and a Snow S2D (with a 600hp radial engine), and John pioneered night spraying with them, when the wind and turbulence tended to be least. Kimberley Chemicals Pty Ltd was also established at Kununurra. In 1971 John left the company and returned to South Australia to establish Trojan Aerial Services Pty Ltd. Bill Wauchope remained in Kununurra and continued operating TASCO. Trojan Aerial Services Pty Ltd was operated out of Parafield until a new strip was constructed on five blocks of land off Womma Road at Virginia that John purchased in 1972. He called it Virginia Airstrip and made it the company’s headquarters. By 1973 he had built a hangar and was operating four to five aircraft including two Piper Pawnee PA-25s, a Supercub PA-18A and a Cessna AgWagon. John married his second wife, Sue, in 1973. They had two sons, Jamie born in 1974 and Ben in 1977. As well as agricultural spraying in the Virginia area, Trojan sprayed vines in the Coonawarra during the period 1972-1982. John also joined the Department of Transport’s central office in Melbourne in 1978 as the Department’s agricultural aviation specialist in Australia, and John and Sue moved to Melbourne. David Shaw managed the company while he was away. _________________________________________ ³The 1964 Calendar cover reproduced in Attachment 1 depicts John Freeman carrying out mosquito eradication spraying at Adelaide Airport, then including much swamp land. The 1965 Calendar shows him spraying mosquitoes over the Torrens outlet in the vicinity of Henley Beach Road. ⁴This anecdote is from Bill Wauchope’s eulogy of John Freeman 8

Parafield hangar from 1962 United Aviation Ltd calendar John Freeman via Mike Milln

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During his time with the then Department of Transport from 1978 to 1981⁵, John wrote an Agricultural Pilot Training Manual and two books on low level safe flying techniques. In 1983 John effectively severed his connection with Trojan and rejoined the Department of Aviation⁶ as its Central Office agricultural specialist, but this time attached to the Adelaide Office and based in Adelaide. During this time he took periodic leaves of absence to train pilots to agricultural rating standard and participated in a delegation to China to discuss the checking and training of Chinese agricultural pilots. He led the program that eventuated and made a further eight trips to China throughout the ‘80s. Trojan also operated a subsidiary company from 1981 to 1984 called Seawings with a floats-equipped Cessna 185 VH-TSF on tourist flights between Port Adelaide and the Coorong, and scenic flights at Goolwa. On Saturday 12 May 1984, John piloted this aircraft to the first float landing on Lake Eyre.

He stayed as the CAA’s agricultural specialist until 1992 when he left the Authority and commenced agricultural flying training full-time with Trojan under the trading name Low Level Aviation. He continued with Low Level Aviation based at his property on Goat Island, Lake Alexandrina, until 2000. By then he had trained 84 pilots to agricultural pilot rating standard and 74 more in low flying techniques using a low level safety course he had developed. He finally retired in 2006.

Trojan’s aerial spraying operations based at Virginia Airstrip were purchased by Bill Wauchope in 1983 on John Freeman’s departure. He renamed the company Southern Aerial Spraying Services, and in 1989 renamed it again as Agricair.

The photograph at left shows Bill Wauchope and his Piper Colt VH-KFB in front of the Virginia Airstrip hangar on 13 December 1991. By June 1992 an office extension had been added to the hangar and the building remains substantially unchanged to this day. Agricair was purchased by Godfrey Gardiner in 1991 and the company continued to spray in Virginia for local vegetable growers John and Geoffrey Bergamin from Virginia Airstrip until the closure of the airstrip on 6 June, 1996.

__________________________________________ ⁵The Department of Transport was formed in 1972 from the previous Department of Shipping and Transport, and was renamed again in 1982 as the Department of Aviation. ⁶It became the Civil Aviation Authority in 1988 9

Piper Pawnee and hangar at Virginia Airstrip from 1975 Trojan Aerial Services calendar

Bill Wauchope with Piper Colt VH-KFB at Virginia Airstrip 13 December 1991

John Bergamin via Mike Milln

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The hangar, still painted with Trojan’s name as shown in the photograph below, is now a vegetable packing shed. The closure of Virginia Airstrip was anticipated for some time prior to this because of its non-compliance with environmental legislation and regulations. This led to John Bergamin’s decision to develop a new airfield at his property in Virginia, which he called Calvin Grove after the nearby historic farmhouse built by the pioneer Taylor family around 1860-70. The airfield was officially opened for the Bergamin family on 2 May 1997 by John Freeman, whom John Bergamin recognizes as the inspiration for his development of it. Film exists of the ceremony and John Freeman’s speech. John Freeman was awarded the UK Guild of Air Pilots and Navigators Sir James Martin Award for 2006 “in recognition of the development of low level flying techniques and low flying courses in Australia resulting in a significant enhancement to flight safety”. Also in 2006 he was awarded Aerial Agriculture Association of Australia Ray Mackay Award at its annual convention. On 26 January 2008 he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia “for services to aviation through the development of safe low flying techniques in the agricultural sector”.

John Freeman at site of Virginia airstrip 25 May 2008 Mike Milln

Perhaps John himself described this rich and fulfilling life best in his book The Golden Years of Low Level Flight: “A life full of low flying operations as aerial spraying operator and pilot for twenty seven years, then examiner of airmen in low flying with the Department of Aviation for eleven years followed by nine years training agricultural pilots, eighty four in all, plus seventy two other pilots in general low level operations. A total of 13000 hours of flight at lower levels with the only injury being a scratch on the back of my hand from a split pin!”

John died at the Mary Potter Hospice on 9 November 2008 after a long battle with cancer, just a year after the death of his wife Sue in October 2007. He is survived by his four children and grandchildren. Mike Milln History Group South Australian Aviation Museum Inc August 2013 10

John Freeman’s speech to open Calvin Grove Airstrip 2 May 1997 John Bergamin via Mike Milln

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LOST PROPERTY Fellow members, I left a Maserati show bag (left) in the Museum a while ago. Inside was a blue plastic folder containing an original red Japanese Map (right). I want the next Display Bay to have an enlarged image of the map as a

backdrop, similar to the Port Pirie overhead photograph in the WW II Training Bases display. We need the original for hi-res scanning, so it is very important that the map is found. Would anyone who has found the bag please leave it in the administration office for me. Any help would be much appreciated! Langdon