Back in the 1980’s a few of us owned a multi-purpose business in the Territory, which I managed. One of the operations of the business was the PB fuel agent. Therefore we were the airport re-fueler, this made life interesting at times as all Avgas was in 200 litre drums and was pumped by hand, using a high speed McNaught gear pump. The biggest job in my memory was an aero club job where 24 machines were refuelled. Mostly you stood on the deck of the rattle back Cruiser next to the drum and wound the handle on the McNaught as hard and as fast as you could. Some did this with such haste that their feet lifted of the tray at the top of the swing. This took practice and getting the arm as fit as was required. We even did a float plane out the back on the river.
One thing about having a reliable source of Avgas/Avter including a VHF & HF set in those days were the visitors from time to time:
We also had aircraft for charter, these consisted of a Bell 47ZGA, a 206, a 179 Skylane with extended range tanks, a Queen Air with retro fit V8’s. We even had a Jet Ranger there for about six months, however we sent it south as we couldn’t get enough work for it.
Had a young bloke working around the place as pilot, a number of the partners were pilots as well and the 47 spent a fair bit of time mustering cattle.
Anyhow, in the ‘84 – ’85 wet we launched the 179 Skylane south to north down the strip, it lifted off ok, got to about 250 feet……… and the fan stopped. It was a job from Isa, Qld to Kathrine, NT. The young bloke did a gentle left turn and tried to get back to the strip, didn’t make it and it fell down into the extremely wet black soil plain beside the strip.
So it lost the nose wheel, and had some under body damage, the prop stopped at 9 to 3 and was ok.
The local Copper who was also the local SES boss commenced salvage using the Cop Tojo & his box trailer. He burned out the winch on the Tojo getting the 179 out of the worst of the mud.
The attached photos show some of the recovery/salvage which was wasted as a cyclone destroyed the wreck a month later, just after the accident investigation was completed.
Seems in-spite of best practice, particularly in the tropics with fuel handling and pre-flight checks, it turns out there was water contamination which caused engine failure. The investigation found the cause; the bottom liners of the tanks had lifted in places causing corrugations, trapping water, this then spilled over into the fuel pickup in the tank….. and then, you’re a glider!
New inspection rules came about as a result of this accident.