Smoking can be dangerous

In today’s The Australian, the Aviation section has an article on a book soon to be released by author and former Qantas director of public affairs Jim Eames, entitled The Flying Kangaroo. An extract

Then there was s humour and a larrikinism that Eames noted would not be tolerated in today’s highly regulated, closely scrutinised environment. These included the exploits of former RAAF transport pilot Ross Biddulph. Biddulph’s legend was born flying a DH-84 Dragon from Kainantu to Lae in New Guinea. After realising he’d left his Craven A cigarettes in the back of the plane, Biddulph, desperate for a puff, decided he would set the aircraft on a level cruise and dart through the cabin to retrieve them. “Apparently Dragons dislike people rapidly appearing behind the centre of gravity because the wretched plane reared up like a Wodehouse salmon and set course for Jupiter,” Biddulph wrote in a letter. “Almost immediately it stalled and, forgetting all about Jupiter, screamed straight down towards Nadzab (a PNG ­village). “Shortly afterwards I arrived in the flight deck area, spreadeagled against the instrument panel like a butterfly and covered in thousands of Craven As.’’ Worse for Biddulph was the fact that Qantas’s chief pilot in the region, Bill Forgan-Smith, was flying a DC-3 1000ft behind and above him.

It’s behind the paywall but if you subscribe go read the piece. It is entertaining and a window into an earlier life