Rob Marty

by Rob Marty

Looking at my personal log-book, I see that I first flew for Adastra on 10 February 1967 in VH-AGS out of Sydney with Lionel, and lost #1 engine. I flew the Cessna 206 VH-DGD until 17 April, then back on the Hudsons. I spent a little time after that on the Aero Commander VH-AGA and the DC-3 VH-AGU in May of 67, then back on the Hudsons until my last flight with Adastra on 11 May 1968. This is when I took Neil Edwards and his girl up on a 'fun' flight at Alice Springs. (Neil was the Canadian chess champ in his past, and made fools of Alex and I many a time on the chess-board out at Giles).

My first Hudson crew at Tennant Creek, April 1967 (replacing the crashed VH-AGE), Left to right: Myself, Alex, Fred Bailey, and Ian Davies. (I do remember that Ian Davies was born during WW2 while his parents were immigrating to Australia onboard an American freighter which was under attack by a Japanese submarine!)

Alex and I arriving at Tennant Creek on 21 April 67. The mast in the lower left of the picture was on top of the Adastra shed where many of us lived at the airport. Personally, I slept in the back of the aircraft.

(Given the tragic circumstances surrounding the loss of VH-AGE just six months earlier, Rob acknowledges that this arrival could have been less exuberant! ... Ed)

On 14 June 1967at Kununurra, reversal winds caused Alex and I to go-around from 50 feet with full flaps and #1 engine shut-down. A tree-top, down-town, level restart attempt with reversed mixture controls nearly cost us our lives. As close to death as I have ever been in an aeroplane, and there have been many near death times for me, over the years!

Rob Marty
15th November 2003

Rob is currently Director of Operations and Chief Pilot for Panther Air Express of Melbourne, Florida, USA.