tell a Model A related story

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[QUOTE=40 Deluxe;1748440]So has he let you take it up yet?[/QUOTE

No and I'd be cautious. I'm accustomed to putting very large inputs to the flight controls I'd be sure to roll it whilst on the ground. Plus it doesn't excite me greatly because I'm too old and fat for aerobatics.

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Repairs on a modern motor car.

A VW in this case. I’m on my third VW and have never had a moments trouble from the first two. Then I bought a Tiguan, diesel, a 2009 upmarket model with 100k kilometres. I was tickled pink with this motor car. In less than 5k kilometres the high pressure fuel pump failed. The VW authorised dealer/workshop inspected and quoted $10,700 to repair. All new fuel system components, fuel pump, filter, injectors and fuel lines and labour to install it all plus clean the fuel tank. I reckon they were following recommended repair procedures laid down by the manufacturer and they were going to comply to this lucrative directive.
I thought about this for quite a while and figured I’d have the pump and filter only replaced and proceed further only if required. I purchased both and had my travelling mechanic replace same. He was required to purchase some special tools for this type. All up cost for labour and components $1,350. It runs like a Swiss watch once again.
Following the inspection and report the VW workshop sent me an email asking how I felt about them, such questions as “did I find them professional, were they courteous and would I care to recommend them”. I did respond and was careful not to slander or abuse but asked them a question. It went like this. “ Question to you. How can you be so far out with your quote”. And do you know what they said? No of course you don’t so I'll tell you. They said nothing, no response at all. Are you surprised?
I look at my 28 A, smile and say “boy I love you and I think you are great”.

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Making Judgement outside their field of Experience.

Wayne Cowan is a cropduster in Elmore Vic. He has been operating for years and has a good reputation and safety record. He had an inspection by the aviation authority. They told him they didn’t like his attitude. They wouldn’t like mine either because I have contempt for them. Every operation must have a chief pilot whose job it is to set standards and be responsible for the operation. They removed Wayne’s status. Wayne got the shits with them and just doesn’t bother to fly any more but his son Andrew now carries the business.
Robbie Robbilliard is an operator at Griffith and has an AgCat. From my memory it will carry a load of about 900 litres of liquid and about 15 cwt of fertilizer. A spray job can take quite a few loads and likewise fertilizer. Aviation Authority says his log must be written for each load. Some days he could do 30 loads of which many could be for one farmer client. That could fill a log book each year and Robbie would need a bag trolley to carry all those log books.
The people who demand all this useless information may have experience in flying some pretty slick aeroplanes in and out of controlled airspace but why do they tell a professional in agricultural flying how to conduct his business. Quite stupid.
When I was working in Malaysia when the operators insurance carrier sent an auditor to review the operation because we had several accidents. Fortunately none were Garys. Well this bloke was a helicopter operator. A descent enough bloke. He wrote his report up but missed seeing the reason for the accidents. An experienced Ag pilot would have spotted the problem immediately.
It’s courses for horses. This the pictures clearly show.

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Lightning Ridge Cop Chase. Kidman Way #2

Lightning Ridge is an opal mining town in northern NSW. Accommodation or housing is pretty rough or what we would call humpies. Maybe Americans call them the same, I don’t know. Made from scraps of anything, mostly found in the Sunday Supermarket, which is the rubbish tip.
Miners at ‘the ridge’ are made up of people from various backgrounds. Some escaping alimony, some escaping the law and they have various names or alias’s. Some are just opportunistic and hoping to make a great deal of money from a find which is mainly in their mind. Mining is slow because it is hand excavation. The up market fellows have old trucks converted to big vacuum cleaners which suck the pay dirt (hopefully) to the surface for sorting.
There are three opal fields in Australia. Coober Peedy, White Cliffs and Lightning Ridge. The former two are where the miners live underground. This can be rather pleasant because the temp is just perfect and doesn’t vary in summer or winter. The walls are coloured from whites to reds with various derivates of each. Ventilation is by vertical shafts tunnelled to the surface. It took me the best part of a bottle of whiskey to overcome my claustrophobia to sleep underground. Anytime after that I was okay.
Now I mentioned in Lightning Ridge the miners and others live in humpies and that is because it is slightly damp living underground. Much ingenuity is used in the form of buildings and facilities. Improvisation is king.
The soil colour is mainly white and off white. From the air it resembles what I would believe to be similar to moonscape. It is pretty messy with holes, heaps and humpies.
The evening or night it can be entertaining. Cops chasing miners. The former in new 4 wheel drive Toyota Landcruisers and the miners in anything even little and old Datsuns which are battered and unregistered. Sirens, speed and savvy, the Datsuns in the lead heading for the diggings where the escapees know their way around. The cops aren't permitted to enter the diggings because have lost too many motorcars down the holes. Reprieve, respite, relief and remission for the miners until their next visit to town.
It’s quite exciting. It’s a place where one would barrack for the little bloke. It’s a place where being a cop wouldn’t hold a great deal of status. It’s a place where time has left behind.

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Drought and Kangaroos. Kidman Way #1.

During a drought period the only green pick is at the roadside. This is because any small amount of rain will run off the road, bitumen or dirt, and provide damp ground where foliage will grow and thus that is the only place where kangaroos can graze.
Aerial mustering is done by frightening live stock so as they run away from the aeroplane or helicopter. That includes bovine, ovine, goats, sheep, pigs, buffalo and they tell me fish. Only 2 animals that can be erratic and won’t conform are horses and kangaroos. Sometimes they will, sometimes they won’t. The same goes for those same animals grazing on the roadside and they need to be treated with caution. Drivers who don’t take care frequently find the front of their motorcars rearranged. Some motor cars have ‘roo bars’ and most trucks have ‘bull bars’. Really only trucks can get away with such a confrontation.
We are having a severe drought at present. Of course the greenies are saying it’s global warming. Of course it is and it ended the last ice age 11,700 years ago (Wikipedia). We have droughts every few years but the only one that can match this very severe drought was in 1902 and is remembered as the ‘federation drought’. This was prior to co2 being discharged into the atmosphere. I reckon there are lies told on both sides of this global warming discussion or disagreement.
Now back to the kangaroos. Between the inland towns of Hillston and Cobar (both NSW) the average number of grazing kangaroos must have been 5 every mile and dead ones which includes bones and skin must have been an additional 10 per mile. Patsy and I drove this highway just a few days ago. Our average speed was 35mph. That’s still quicker than arranging a tow truck, accommodation somewhere and transport home of self and vehicle and then having to speak to my insurance carrier.
The roo numbers are greater in grazing country where there is water storages for livestock as compared to farming country where ground is frequently fallow and water storages are few.
This is the story of driving the highway called the “KidmanWay”. I will call it “Kidman Way #1” and one or two more stories will follow. The pictures show kangaroos on roadside, pictures from Google. one is unrelated and shows a dispute between 2 adult males.

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The story of the town Lightning Ridge is also on the Kidman Way and I should have named it as such. It is number 545.
and headed Kidman Way 2

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The new avatar is a koala bear. Native to Australia. Sitting on our gate post. A marsupial. Baby Joey is born and crawls into mother's pouch for up to 7 months. It is a herbivore eating only gum leaves. it has a grunt not dissimilar to a pig. It's only relative is a wombat and I'll do something on that some time in the near future.
Kidman Way continues tomorrow. gary

[Jim Brierley]

Didn't know Wombats and Koala's were related! Saw many dead Wombats along the road when we were down there. We had been warned to be careful of them, especially at night. I have a small sign in my shop, "beware of wombats".

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Originally Posted by Jim Brierley

Didn't know Wombats and Koala's were related! Saw many dead Wombats along the road when we were down there. We had been warned to be careful of them, especially at night. I have a small sign in my shop, "beware of wombats".

Hi Jim, no I didn't know that either until I looked up Wikipedia, which I frequently do before writing to glean additional information. A kangaroo strike will mess up the front of your motor car but a wombat will mess up the underneath of your car. Well so I am told. I haven't collected a wombat so I haven't had first hand experience and hope that I never do. cheers, gary

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Kidman Way #3

Who was Kidman? When a lad at the age of 13 he spent his savings and bought a one eyed horse and went droving. He went on to become a successful grazier with holdings Australia wide. A young nun who was governess to the Von Trapp family said, “lets start at the very beginning”, so lets do as she said. If that doesn’t ring a bell just think.
Kidman was born in Adelaide S.A. in 1857. In addition to droving became a roustabout, bullock team driver, a transporter and a retail trader. I guess anything he could do to make a quid. He served the new mining towns of Burra Burra, Cobar, Broken Hill and Kapunda. Obviously he was enterprising. He later build a most magnificent home in Kapunda which more recently was gifted and now a school. None of the above is how he made his name or fortune.
When Kidman was 21 he inherited a great deal of money, namely 400 pound, from his grandfather. He started trading in livestock and bought a 1/16 share in Broken Hill Pty Ltd. Had he kept that he would have become a multi billionaire but mining was not his interest and sold. He acquired his first property on the Diamantina River which is mostly about 50 yards wide but when it floods becomes massive. I’ve seen it at more than 40miles wide in flood. Following a flood it becomes an immense cattle fattening area.
He eventually owned some 68 properties, many are well known today. On those properties he owned 176,000 head of cattle and 215,000 head of sheep. He was knighted in 1921 for his war effort and thus became Sir Sidney Kidman.
I do know several of his properties but am not aware that I have worked on any. He had strategically set many up for breeding or fattening or being relatively drought free or as interim stops whilst droving cattle south to the markets.
Kidman died in 1938 at the age of 78 leaving 1 son and 3 daughters. He is a well known Australian icon and has an Adelaide suburb and a highway named after him. This highway starts some 40 miles north of Tocumwal and terminates as the Matilda highway at Karumba in the Gulf of Carpentaria. I regularly drive part of this highway but only once drove the length. It's about 1500 miles and that's a long way.


For those interested here is a link to Kidman's obituary. It's not too long and it is interesting.
http://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/kidman-sir-sidney-6948

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The Kidman Way #4
The Town of Cobar.

Cobar is a town of about 4,000 people about slap bang in the centre of NSW. It is said to be in Western NSW, but everything west of Sydney is said to be in the West. Many Sydney folk have never left Sydney and indeed many folks living on the seaboard have never ventured west of the Great Dividing Range. Many have never driven on a dirt road and mostly they don’t know how to vote.
Cobar is a mining town with 4 major mines. Gold, copper, silver, zinc and lead. The town name is aboriginal word derived from the words copper and red earth. I can’t see any similarity to either but that’s what Wikipedia tell me. There are almost no aboriginals in the area for there is no natural water course thus it's a dry area. The average rainfall is 15 inches. Today the water comes from Burrendong Dam which is 260 miles direct ESE of Cobar via river, open channel and then pipeline.
The average temp is high. Average for the year is 77F and the lowest average is 25F. It has some pretty high extremes, 7 months exceeding 100F whilst the lowest extreme is -2F.
I like Cobar and spent several months there flying for the State Emergency Service (SES). That opened my eyes to see how government could trash money and SES aren’t the only ones good at that.
All of the above was not how this story was intended so here goes. Patsy and I arrived there one evening last week and booked into a motel. The conversation with the receptionist went something like this.
Good evening. Do you have accommodation for tonight and if so how much is it?
Good evening, yes, it’s $145 a night.
No, that’s too expensive.
Well how about $125?
No, how about $100.
Okay.
The only other place I have experienced such a large drop in prices when I was bartering was Tijuana and also Kuala Lumpur where I bought a genuine Rollex watch (made locally) for 25 Ringit (7 USD). I gave this to my friend Gerry who was not to know it was genuine Asian. I told him much later what I had paid and we both had a good laugh. It was still keeping time.


The pictures displayed here are representative of the past wealth of the town. Today whilst the buildings still exist and are in good condition much of the towns wealth leaves because miners and other workers are more itinerant plus the owners of the mines are non residential as they are public companies. But Cobar is still a good town.

[katy]

genuine Rollex watch

Over the years I've seen various "luxury" watches including Boulevard and Longreen

[woofa.express]

Originally Posted by katy

Over the years I've seen various "luxury" watches including Boulevard and Longreen

Hi Katy.
Do you like these large and heavy show pieces?
My simple Timex runs on a battery and has no extra features to confuse me and I just love that aspect. I don't wear jewellery, necklaces or bangles nor do I have tattoos but do acknowledge just some of these add-ons could well improve my appearance. Well maybe.
I always ask the wearer of multi face watches if they are astronauts or Sunday pilots.

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How much kero do you burn Moo?.

Myself and second son we call Moo were at the supermarket to get groceries and amongst other items on our list to buy was a litre of kerosene.
Well it had been removed from the supermarket shelves for some health, welfare or safety reason. No kerosene. Question to readers. Who went to the cupboard and why, only to find it bare? You’ll need to think for I am not furnishing the answer.
I turned to Moo and asked how much kero do you burn in a day. Moo thought for a moment and said on a big day about 100,000 litres which equates to a little more than 26,000 USG.
About 6000 kg per hour. At a specific gravity of 0.78 or .78kilograms per litre that equates to 7700 litres per hour. And all his mother wanted was 1 litre.
Well who went to the cupboard and why?
Australians will see humour in this funny that readers from other nations won't.
Kidman Way will continue in the morning. Our morning that is.

[katy]

Hi Katy.
Do you like these large and heavy show pieces?

No, methinks that they're actually kinda ugly. I haven't worn a watch regularly for about 50-60 years, they were a safety hazard in my working life, same goes for rings. I used to carry a pocket watch but gave up on that because most trousers don't have a watch pocket anymore and carrying the watch in my pocket w/other junk was hard on the watches. Nowadays my flip phone also seconds as a timepiece.

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Unique Steel Badge on Kidman Way.

Along the Kidman Highway is a unique badge made by RonClarke. Here it is, do enlarge it and check it as it is unique. The story continues immediately following this.

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Kidman Way #5.
Artist Ron Clarke.

Ron Clarke was a resident of Darlington Point and lived in a disused motel adjacent to the Waddi service station. Below is an internet page on the town which I copied directly from an internet site.
Darlington Point. A quiet and attractive town on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River
Darlington Point is a sleepy little town of about 1000 people 621 km west of Sydney via the Hume and Sturt Highways. 33 km south of Griffith in the Riverina district it is situated on the banks of the Murrumbidgee where the riverside beaches are ideal for camping, picnicking, fishing and swimming. The town is surrounded by a tranquil red gum forest which is home to numerous birds andanimals. The local economy is sustained by saw milling, egg and poultry production and the more traditional pursuit of grazing. I might add sustained also by welfare because there are many work shy folks residing at Darlington Point.
Ron was born in London and could remember the Luftwaffe bombing and strafing the city. What bought him to Australia and Darlington Point I do not know. He lived in a disused motel adjacent to the Waddi service station. The motel was a bit overgrown and lacked a bit of upkeep. I remember he was pleased he had acquired a business opportunity in setting up a laundry mat. He showed me some commercial size washing machines and dryers and had clean white sheets on a large wooden table. Above the table,strung from the rafters was an old Jaguar car with a very oily underside and below the table was a dirt floor. Ron was certainly a character but none of the above is what made him well known or I reckon I could well say famous. He was an artist. A very talented artist with an unusual medium.
He cut portraits, badges, scenes, machinery, anything out of steel with an oxy torch. For me he cut 2 aeroplanes, one of which was stolen, and a weather cock. He said everyone had cock roosters and suggested a yacht or aeroplane or anything. I stuck with a rooster because it was Patsy’s wish for one and her birthday was approaching. I betcha you have never seen a rooster with a tail just like this one. Compare the aeroplane photograph to the cut out.
Much of his art can be seen around the Riverina and he has his name cut into the steel. Others have tried to emulate his work but just don’t make the cut.
I have a great picture of my Model A ute on my wall and wanted Ron to cut a copy for me. I couldn’t find his at his home/motel so asked at the service station. Sadly Ron had been electrocuted a few days before. Sad that he should have been killed and sad the world lost such a great talent.

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Kidman Way #6.
Breakfast in the Town of Cobar.

Patsy and I called by Cobar one morning for breakfast. A new cafe/restaurant had opened so we tried it. Beautifully built, genuine terracotta floor tiles, heavy wooden tables and chairs, wooden ceilings and a great outdoor dinning area again furnished the same way except but didn’t have the wooden ceiling of course. It had shade in the form of large umbrellas made of natural fibre. Everything appealed to me because I like wood and natural products.
I went to the counter and asked for a bacon and egg roll with coffee. The young bloke who was taking the order looked at me curiously so I asked if there was something wrong. Yes he responded, we don’t have bacon and egg rolls. Okay, do you have bacon and eggs? That seemed to please him and he replied yes. Good I said and do you have bread rolls, again a smile with yes. Well I said, you have bacon and egg rolls. No he replied, the bread rolls are for lunch. There are some people who just shouldn’t be in business aren't there. Sometime later I called by the same shop which had been sold and now become a nic nac shop that smelt of soap, incense and cheap Asian products.
Some years later I was dining at the Cobar sports club. I asked at the bar for a 15 oz beer. The barman took 15 glasses and lined them up to fill them up. He had never heard oz or any imperial measurements. Most bar staff know oldies talk oz. For you American readers Australia moved to metric some years back.
In different locations locals talk of ponies, glasses, pots or middies, schooner and pints. Only pints (20oz) are imperial and I always reckon these fall short of 20 genuine oz. Pots and middies are both 10 oz. These names vary from state to state. In oz they are specifically, 5,7,10,15 and 20. End of story. The younger generation think in metric and it is easier but when one learned imperial measurement at childhood, it is implanted in one’s mind for a lifetime.
Cobar does have a really great bakery with bacon and egg rolls for breakfast plus excellent steak and kidney pies. It's a good place to have a good tasty and quick breakfast.

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Kidman Way #7.
Doris Golder is a fine artist and dear friend.

This is a fairly long story but stick with it for she is a skilled artist who uses a rare form of art medium and she is such a delightful person. I think you will enjoy reading it. I will publish it over 2 or 3 days.

Doris now widowed and lives in a retirement home in Lockhart on the west side of Wagga Wagga which is known simply as Wagga. The name is aboriginal for crow, well that’s the most considered opinion. Wagga Wagga means many crows. But I have gotten away from the story I intend to tell.
Doris married Geoff Hopwood when he returned from the war. Geoff was a fighter pilot and survived only to be killed sawing wood with a swing saw. The wood pierced his forehead. They had only one child who was born after his Dad’s death and he too was named Geoff. (This Geoff also became a pilot was killed in New Guinea in an aeroplane crash).
Doris now a widow married George Golder who also was a farmer. They lived their life at Boree Creek only a few miles from where she and Geoff Hopwood had farmed. Both Doris and George were very cherished oldies in the community. They did considerable good work including accommodating a cropduster pilot when he worked in the area. in 2106 Doris was awarded the OAM or Order of Australia medal for services to the community. It was well deserved and appropriate.
Doris was an artist who had talent like few others possess.She crafted portraits and just a few scenes from the medium of wool. Very slow to construct, some taking her several months because she was a perfectionist.
I have many photos of Doris and George with this art work but they are at home in the form of hard prints and I am presently many miles from home. Maybe I will post them at a later date, but I can get some copies from the internet. They do not do Doris’s art justice because they are not sharp images. But you maybe able to appreciate her talent.
The next story will be more of Doris and I will pull part of this from an upmarket monthly magazine named “Outback”.

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Kidman Way #8

Faces in fleece from Outback Magazine. #73


Doris Golder, from the tiny New South Wales town of Lockhart, is thought to be the only person to create portraits from wool.

Story By Kathy Mexted

Doris Golder dives into her ‘paintbox’ – a suitcase full of washed, combed, undyed wool. She comes up with a chunk of fluffy white fleece, tears off a piece about the size of a 10-cent coin and rolls it between her palms. “To make the eyes, I take a bit like this and roll it, cut it to shape, and keep adding until it’s exact,” Doris says.
For years, Doris has worked from photographs to create portraits out of layered sheep fleece. She was thought to be the only person using this medium for portraits and her collection, which includes 16 portraits, was created between 1980 and 1992.
No stranger to wool, Doris was raised on a sheep and cropping property near Boree Creek in the Riverina, NSW. In 1945, after six years away at school and working, she came home to the family farm and later married Geoff Hopwood, a returned war pilot. Just before the birth of their only child in 1953, a tragic farm accident left her widowed. In 1960 Doris married local farmer George Golder and together they worked their sheep and cropping farm at Boree Creek for 36 years.
“I’ve always preferred to express myself using my hands, and at 46 decided to take oil-painting classes with Heather Bell in Wagga,” Doris says. Two rich 1975 oil paintings in her lounge room reflect farm life. One shows ochre earth, dry grass and tall gums dwarfing McKay gates on a neighbouring property. The other, painted in a similar style, is of Boree Creek. “These paintings were before the great wool invasion,” Doris laughs.
In 1980 Heather sent Doris a newspaper clipping about a woman in Queensland who created landscapes using wool. “I looked at the work and thought to myself, ‘Well, if that woman can do it, I’m pretty sure I can too’,” Doris says. She began with landscapes and animals, but it is her foray into portraiture that has left its mark.
“The first portrait I tried was of our local member for Farrer, Wal Fife,” Doris says. “During the 1983 election I saw a poster of Wal and decided to have a go at it in wool.” She continued with a portrait of former prime minister Bob Hawke. “I felt it was important to choose well-known people so the public could be critical as to whether or not I’d got the likeness right, and Hawke’s face lent itself to portraiture,” Doris says.

The pictures starting at top left thereafter bottom left are-
Former Au prime minister Bob Hawke, folk singer Slim Dusty, golfer Greg Norman, Doris posing with art and wool, Ita Butrose publisher, and the bloke who writes this stuff. Doris's work is much sharper than the pictures portray. I am away from home and can't access my hard copies which are better.