There was an incident on the Catalina which readers may find amusing. We were doing a mag. and em. survey in Tasmania in the late 1950' s. We flew with three technicians up as the em. was new to us. They consisted of Ted Roberts, Les Snape and myself. Ted was a tech. but liked to have a nap, how anyone could doze with contour flying in Tas. was a mystery to me. Ted was operating the em. at the time and had dozed off; there was no great drama as I was watching it at the time. Les was on the mag and decided to play tricks. Les fed a plastic hose under the floor (which is a cat walk) and I put it in the back of the em. recorder. Les then blew cigarette smoke through the tube. I tapped Ted on the shoulder and said you have a fire in the em. Ted woke up, and it was all we could do to stop him throwing switches.

Maurie Miller
August 2004