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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 1685.PDF
DARWII PORT HEDLAND ROES ONSLOW YIRKALLA VpBRlSBANE rSYDNEY YMELBOURNE , ADELAIDE NORTHERN TERRITORY BRISBANE SYDNEY MELBOURNE ADELAIDE 804 FLIGHT (Left) The Mac Robertson - Miller network. The thin- ner lines are the feeder and connect- ing services. (Right) Loading beef from a conveyor on to an M.M.A. freighter at Glenroy. The pilot is Capt. Jack Murray, ilc flying operations Air Beef Pty. Ltd. NORTH-WEST AUSTRALIA'S PIONEER AIRLINE... aircraft comes into the hangar, the cleaners continue from wherethey left off when they were last on the job. Flying conditions along the north-west coast of Australia aregenerally very good; in fact, tests taken with a gust recorder installed in M.M.A. aircraft on behalf of the Department of CivilAviation revealed that the coastal route was one of the smoothest flying areas in the world, particularly at night. However, duringthe cyclone season from December to April, pilots have to take particular care. They always have advance information on thepath of a cyclone and normally have ample time to take evasive action. The main danger is in getting caught on the ground andhaving their aircraft severely damaged. Under normal conditions, the DC-3s cruise at 165 m.p.h. atheights varying from 2,500 to 10,000 ft, depending on the winds encountered. Navigational equipment includes radio compass,V.A.R., D.M.E., drift recorders for the longer flights, and V.H.F. and normal H.F. two-way communications. Another modification undertaken by M.M.A. engineers toincrease safety margins is modification of the hydraulic system to provide double speed retraction of the undercarriage duringtake-off. The DC-3s are called upon to carry out many duties but theirmain purpose is to operate a passenger and freight service between Perth and Darwin, a distance of 2,028 miles. The longest hopregularly flown is 445 miles from Carnarvon to Port Hedland but die aircraft are also used on what are known in Australia as"station flights," serving a number of cattle stations. For ex- ample, in the far north of Western Australia where the popula-tion is very small, one DC-3 and the Ansons operate a "station service" in the Kimberley district which involves flying a totalof 1,882 miles with 23 stops. (The flights between some stations are as little as 18 miles.) On occasions, M.M.A. has operated its DC-3s outside Australiaon charter. The longest such flight was to Calcutta to bring the Indian cricket team and officials to Australia, while several flightshave been made to Koepang in Timor to bring native divers for the pearling grounds at Broome. Over recent years, the company has paid increasing attentionto air freight. There are no railway or road services in the north of Western Australia, but only a shipping service operating upand down the coast. Consequently the residents rely heavily on M.M.A. for the carriage of urgently required goods.In 1934, the first complete year of operations in Western Australia, M.M.A. carried 21,184 lb of freight. This increased to65,553 lb in the year before the war, and by 1953 die total had risen to 2,220,000 lb. Since then, there has been a very sharpincrease in the demand for air freight and the total carried during 1954 was 5,840,000 lb. A feature of M.M.A.'s freight service is their own "Air Beer'operation in the Kimberley district—an industry that has aroused world wide interest among cattle raisers. Towards the end of1948, M.M.A., Australian National Airways and a group of pas- toralists in die Kimberley district contributed capital for theformation of Air Beef Pty. Ltd., and an inland killing centre was established at Glenroy station, an area inaccessible to road trans-port. Cattle are slaughtered at this abattoir and the carcases are then flown 186 miles to Wyndham, where they are put in thefreezers of the Government-owned meatworks to await shipment overseas. Air Beef really proved its worth in 1952 when the Kimberleyswere struck by a disastrous drought. The kill at the Wyndham meatworks fell off by some 40 per cent, but the inland abattoirwas unable to cope with the demand to slaughter cattle which could not be driven to the coast because of the drought. Thekill in that season reached 5,186 head and the area around the Air Beef abattoir was the only part of Northern Australia toincrease production during the drought. An essential part of the Air Beef scheme is the backloadingin the freighter of stores, fencing wire, machinery and other requirements for Glenroy and several nearby stations. In thisway, the scheme is made economically practicable. It was the growing demand for air freight and the Air Beefventure that prompted M.M.A. to buy a C-47B from the Pakistan Air Force at die beginning of 1954. Its auxiliary fueltanks, heating system, glider tow gear and autopilot were re- moved; cockpit/cabin bulkhead moved forward; bonded-woodfloor installed; toilet compartment eliminated; undercarriage strengthened; and taper-blade airscrews and special lightweighttailpipes fitted. This brought the empty weight of the freighter down to 15,100 lb and permitted a maximum payload of justunder 10,000 lb. During the last Air Beef season, the freighter remained in thenorth for 17 weeks transporting beef from Glenroy to Wyndham. In that time, it made 209 flights, carrying 2,017,829 lb of beef.It was serviced by a ground party at Glenroy working in the open air and throughout die long season. Another specialized service undertaken by M.M.A. is aerialphotography and the necessary equipment has been fitted in the freighter. The aircraft can be converted from freight tophotographic work in only 30 min. The latter duty involves die installation of oxygen, heating and inter-communication forthe captain, first officer, navigator and cameraman. The camera used is an Eagle 24. The aperture is placed on the right-handside of the floor between stations 390J and 4111 while the drift sight is installed at station 94 on the starboard side of the fuselage.Oblique photography is done through the right-hand rear window. Ways of improving the existing services to the north ofWestern Australia are constantly exercising the minds of M.M.A. executives. The population in the areas served by the companyis somewhat limited, a fact which would make it difficult to operate larger type of aircraft as an economic proposition. Themain advantage of newer equipment would be the provision of a faster service over the long route. This article may fittingly conclude with some brief statistics:M.M.A. has an unduplicated route mileage of 13,475 miles; its aircraft fly 31,000 miles a week. In 1954 it carried 28,143paying passengers (the population of die area served, excluding Perth, is about 20,000). In die same year M.M.A. carried6,000,000 lb of freight, which represents some 300 lb for every person in the area served. A recent photograph of MacRobertson-Miller Aviation's fleet of five DC-3s outside the company's hangars at Perth.
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