GORDON BIGG
by Gordon Bigg
Gordon Bigg at the controls of an Anson.
In the
latter part of 1945, I was posted to No 3 Communications Unit at Mascot,
where I expected to remain until my projected discharge date of May 1946.
No 3 C.U. was only a small unit comprising a couple of Avro Ansons, one
D.H 84 Dragon, one D.H. Tiger Moth and for a short time one Norseman which
was damaged in a landing mishap and removed from unit strength.
After 4 years in the RAAF I had a total of 1300 flying hours. Included
in this total were 478 hours on Airspeed Oxfords, 190 hours on D.H. Dragons
and 216 hours on Avro Ansons. Most of our flying at Mascot consisted of
a daily return courier flight to the big RAAF stores depot at Dubbo. Other
odd jobs were carried out by the Ansons, and consisted mainly of co-operative
work for the School of Radio Physics, co-op work with HMAS Watson etc.
One of my last jobs with the RAAF was flying an Anson in formation with
Kingsford Smith's "Southern Cross" for a camera crew from Cinesound Studios.
The film "Smithy" was under production, and the producer wanted air to
air footage of the "Southern Cross" against a background of large cloud
build ups. I never did get to see the finished film.
Sometime in October or early November 1945, I learned that Adastra were
converting a couple of ex RAAF Ansons for aerial survey work in addition
to their D.H. 90 Dragonfly VH-AAD. More or less out of curiosity I contacted
Adastra to see if they had a vacancy for a pilot. Following an interview
with Capt Frank Follett, I was invited to submit a written application
which was accepted on 13th November 1945, and from that point 'things'
happened pretty quickly.
(See Gordon's employment letter from Frank
Follett)
December 3rd 1945 marked my formal discharge from the RAAF. On 10th December
1945, I did a 60 minute conversion on the Dragonfly, followed by a few
more circuits in the next few days.
During this time I was also busy becoming acquainted with the ground office,
film processing and mapping staff, and Chief Engineer Eric Haynes and
his hangar staff. It was also the time to get to know Harry Morrell, who
was to be my camera operator/navigator. Harry hadn't had much in the way
of previous flight experience, but we soon developed into a pretty good
team, as well as good mates. On the 14th-17th December, we carried out
a few practice over-lapping mapping runs. Our first actual job was photographing
Baulkham Hills from 6,000ft on the 21st December.
By this time I was feeling pretty comfortable with the Dragonfly, and
with Harry also coping well, it was adjudged time for us to head off to
Victoria, to start mapping virtually the whole of that State. Accordingly,
on the 22nd December 1945, we departed Mascot and flew direct to Essendon,
flight time being 4:10. At Essendon we were greeted by Joe Linfoot, Jack
Howard and Tom Carpenter who were crewing Anson VH-AGG.
After spending a pleasant Christmas in Melbourne, both crews moved to
Ballarat, where the aerodrome was still an Air Force base. We lived in
local hotels, but both aircraft had hangar space at the base, and we were
extended the courtesy of being made honorary members of the officers mess.
In mid-March, Harry and I moved base to Hamilton. From then until June
1947 we covered a large area of the state, operating mainly from Hamilton,
Kuong and Nhill. During this time we flew a total of 470 hours with the
Dragonfly, with it proving to be a most reliable little aircraft. With
just two Gipsy motors pushing us along, the climb from take off to our
normal operating height of 12,000ft was not all that spectacular, but
having reached there, it quite happily pushed along for hour after hour.
Without the benefit of an auto pilot, or modern day satellite assisted
navigation systems, the actual flight runs were pretty demanding, requiring
a high degree of concentration from both the pilot and camera operator.
On 12th June 1947 we flew VH-AAD from Wagga back to Mascot and that was
the end of what had been an interesting and enjoyable experiment with
the Dragonfly.
The remainder of my time with Adastra was spent flying the Ansons (in
total 1,464 hours in my time with Adastra). Tom Carpenter joined us as
a flight crew member and highly skilled licensed aircraft engineer. Over
the next few years we operated from various bases including Broken Hill,
Adelaide, Mt Isa, Roma, Derby, St George, Moruya etc. Tom and I became
good friends, and it was during this period that Tom met his future bride
Vilma at Roma. Similar good fortune befell me at St George where I first
met my wife Ishbel.
By the end of 1951, and with married life looming, it was time to say
farwell to my somewhat vagabond days with Adastra. In March 1952, I joined
Butler Air Transport and some 3 years later I moved to Lae, New Guinea
to fly with Mandated Airlines. It was at Lae that I again met up with
Adastra crews now operating Lockheed Hudsons.
Joe Linfoot and crew were the first to arrive, and it was great to catch
up with them again. They were later relieved by Jack Howard and crew who
were in turn followed by Allen Motteram. With Allen were Pat Murphy as
navigator and Gordon Murrell as camera operator.
Pat had recently qualified for his commercial licence, and was keen to
start a career as an airline pilot. As it happened, MAL were actively
recruiting at this time, having lost two new recruits in fatal air crashes
before they even arrived in Lae. I can't recall their names, but one died
in a light twin accident at Archerfield. The second young pilot was killed
in a solo crash, somewhere in NSW, possibly as a crop duster. When Pat
approached MAL with a view to possible employment, we were only too happy
to accept his application.
Unfortunately for MAL, and tragically for Pat, the old saying that "things
happen in threes" was to prove only too true.
On the morning of 24th June 1957, Allen was carrying out a practice single
engine approach and landing at Lae in Hudson VH-AGO. On final approach,
the aircraft ran into turbulence and down drafts. With one motor feathered,
landing gear down and full flaps extended, the pilot couldn't retain control
when he had to apply full power to the operating motor to try to make
the end of the runway. The Hudson rolled and plunged into the sea with
no survivors. This tragic and sad day marked my final association with
Adastra.
Gordon Bigg
April 2005
Footnote:
Gordon Bigg passed away on the Gold Coast on 14 February 2008. His funeral was held on 20 February 2008.