The recent release of the 1976 Cabinet documents reminded me that not all events are recorded that could be of public interest or in this case public amusement.
In October 1964 I was flying a Convair 440 Metropolitan of the RAAF VIP Flight from Edinburgh in South Australia to Perth. Aboard, were the Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies and his wife Dame Pattie. The following day the PM was to travel by Dakota to Albany where he was to unveil a monument to the Australian Light Horse Brigade.
It was protocol for the captain to pay his respects to the VIP by visiting him in the cabin during the flight. On this occasion the weather was fine and I handed control of the aircraft to the copilot while I dropped down the back to see the PM.
I should explain that the Convair had plush seating for VIP's that included two large Rumbolt lounge chairs installed especially for the Queen of England and the Duke of Edinburgh for the rare occasions they travelled in Australia. In front of one of these chairs was a large mirror and at the rear of the cabin a couch that could be turned into a double bed. Members of the media travelled in comfortable seats towards the front of the aircraft with the VIP and passenger compartments separated by a door for privacy.
Saluting the Prime Minister as I entered the VIP area, I chatted on inconsequential matters and asked after his comfort - noting he did not have his safety belt on. The seat belt sign was off because we were cruising in clear skies. I then felt the first ripples of unexpected clear air turbulence and decided to cut short the conversation and return to the cockpit. Hardly had I turned to depart when the turbulence became quite nasty prompting the PM to exclaim that he had better put his seat belt on. Now the old boy had a fair sized girth and clipping the buckle took a moment.
Suddenly the aircraft seemed to drop like a stone leaving both Sir Robert and myself momentarily airborne and weightless. Fortunately I had one hand casually resting on the overhead baggage compartment and tightened my grip to prevent me from falling. The PM however was unrestrained and after almost hitting the ceiling he fell heavily, carrying me with him in a sprawling heap on the floor of the Convair. One of my legs was trapped under his weight as he lay stunned and frightened having hit his neck against the arm rest of his seat. Fortunately the arm rest was wide otherwise he could have sustained serious damage to his head.
The turbulence stopped as quickly as it happened but it had left shambles in its wake. Up front the RAAF stewardess was in floods of tears as the tea and sticky buns she had prepared for the PM was spread over the galley and half way up the walls. The door to the VIP compartment was flung open and the diminutive figure of Dame Pattie appeared. "Is he alright?" she asked when she saw her husband in a heap on the floor with me half trapped underneath him. "I think he has broken my bloody ankle" I replied; a bit cross that she had asked such a question when it was obvious that things were certainly NOT alright.
My ankle was not broken - just a little bit sore, and between us we managed to haul her husband back into his lounge chair. At that point the expression "Grumpy Old Man" was surely born. Dame Pattie was a cautious passenger and always kept her seat belt fastened in flight regardless of the weather. Hence she was able to rush to her husband's aid so promptly. I returned to the cockpit to find the copilot shaken and embarrassed as he had left his own seat belt loose and as a result hit his head on an overhead panel. The rest of the trip was uneventful.
The following day I flew the Prime Minister and his wife to Albany in the waiting Dakota. Two VIP chairs were in the front of the cabin while down towards the tail were a couple of tables with adjustable bench seats. The PM sat at the front of the cabin while his wife chose to use the bench seats down the back. The members of the press followed in another RAAF Dakota and in view of events to follow, this was fortuitous. The trip took just under two hours and we were forced to fly low because of thunderstorms. The turbulence was continuous and the old Dakota swayed from side to side.
Shortly after take-off, the steward reported that Dame Pattie's seat had come adrift during the take-off run and that she had slipped through her seat belt only to be held by her neck against the edge of the table. After witnessing her husband's drama with turbulence in the Convair on the previous day, Dame Pattie was understandably unimpressed.
The Prime Minister was suffering from a bad cold and kept himself rugged up in his VIP chair. His repeated requests for the cabin to be made warmer were answered by the steward who would adjust the various air conditioning controls in the cockpit. In turn the cockpit and the rest of the cabin became uncomfortably hot. Relief from the heat was obtained by default from Dame Pattie down the back who insisted the steward turn the heat down as she was baking! As well as the difficulty of serving refreshments in turbulence, the hapless steward was kept busy pulling and pushing the levers of the antiquated air-conditioning system.
We finally touched down at Albany to be met by local officials and a grand be-flagged Commonwealth car. As the PM stomped down the sloping fuselage of the old Dakota he saw his wife had thrown off her coat because of the heat in the cabin. They had just started a minor domestic over who was responsible for the hot and cold cabin, when the cabin door was flung open from the outside by officials eager to be the first to greet the PM and his wife. Fortunately, their argument was drowned out by the sound of the local band starting up and in a flash scowls between man and wife turned into smiles as the first cameras flashed their welcome.
After the big black limousine had drawn away with its distinguished guests, the steward came to the cockpit and said he could do with a stiff drink. Two hours of turbulence and a cranky old couple was certainly a good reason to approve his request. A few days later a small paragraph appeared in the Canberra Times newspaper saying that the PM has returned to Canberra from Perth after a rough flight and was unwell from a chill. Cabinet documents never revealed the full story!
Read
This... It could save your life!
What
would you do if you have a heart attack while flying?
The Johnson City, Tennessee Medical Centre staff actually
discovered this technique and performed an in-depth study
on it in their ICU. The two individuals who discovered
this then wrote an article on it, had it published and
have had it incorporated into ACLS and CPR classes. It
is true and has and does work. It is called cough CPR.
Cardiologists says it’s the truth. If everyone who
reads this tells it to 10 people, you can bet that we’ll
save at least one life.
Let’s say it’s 6:15 p.m., and you’re
driving home (alone of course) after an usually hard day
on the job. You’re really tired, upset and frustrated.
Suddenly you start experiencing severe pain in your chest
that starts to radiate out into your arm and up into your
jaw. You are only about fi ve miles from the hospital
nearest your home. Unfortunately you don’t know
if you’ll be able to make it that far.
What can you do? You’ve been trained in CPR but
the guy that taught the course, didn’t tell you
what to do if it happened to yourself. In the air this
could get you to the nearest airport, saving the lives
of your passengers. Since many people are alone when they
suffer a heart attack, this article is to be studied.
Without help, the person whose heart is beating improperly
and who begins to feel faint, has only about 10 seconds
left before losing consciousness.
However, these victims can help themselves by coughing
repeatedly and very vigorously. A deep breath should be
taken before each cough, and the cough must be deep and
prolonged, as when producing sputum from deep inside the
chest. A breath and a cough must be repeated about very
two seconds without let up until help arrives, or until
the heart is felt to be beating normally again.
Deep breaths get oxygen into the lungs and coughing
movements squeeze the heart and keep the blood circulating.
The squeezing pressure on the heart also helps it regain
normal rhythm. In this way, heart attack victims can get
to a hospital. Tell as many other people as possible about
this, it could save their lives!
“AND THE BEAT GOES ON !”
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