"The motors are droning now with quite a merry note. Their roar no longer worries our ears. Ahead somewhere along the rim of the sea lays our goal. We are on the threshold of triumph..."
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It's June 9, 1928, 90 years ago on Saturday, and Charles Kingsford Smith, later Sir Charles, is describing the last few hours of his and co-pilot Charles Ulm's history-making flight across the Pacific from America to Australia, never before done.
Their vibrating, noisy and cramped three-engined Fokker monoplane, the Southern Cross, had withstood a merciless battering by storms but crew members were elated they were about to achieve a dream.
They crossed the coast over Ballina and then landed at Brisbane before flying on to Sydney the next day to be given a heroes’ welcome by 300,000 excited people.
The flight brings back memories of another historic feat when Orange pilot Jim Hazelton back in September, 1964, became the first Australian to fly solo across the Pacific in a single-engined aeroplane.
He couldn't get permission from the horrified Australian Civil Aviation authorities for the flight and had to take out an American pilot's licence as well as pass an American course in instrument flying.
Later he made the ferry flight more than 50 times without any major incidents.
His last was in 2010 when with co-pilot Jeremy Rowsell he took off in a single-engine Beechcraft from Oakland in California to re-enact Kingsford Smith’s triumphant 1928 Pacific flight to raise money for the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
Total flying time for Smithy was 83 hours 11 minutes. It took Jim Hazelton around 45.
Jim died four years ago this Sunday on June 10, 2014, but his aviation feats will always be remembered.
Bird Brain
Orange people are lucky to wake up to the trills, tweets, twitters, chirps, coos, cackles, carols, whistles and screeches of the dozens of species of birds that live here.
They’re looking for breakfast, advertising their territory, attracting a mate, deterring predators or, who knows, just plain happy.
But there’s a new bird sound in Orange now and it’s the raucous cry of crows.
Although crows are found in a wide range of habitat from forests to bushland, they’re rarely seen in urban areas.
They’re pretty smart birds so they’ve probably worked out there’s lots of good tucker to be found scavenging in rubbish bins in Orange parks and backyards, which probably beats road-kill any day, although crows will mostly eat anything.
Their loud raucous cry no doubt annoys some people but it’s certainly a rare sound in town.
There’s nothing new under the sun
The NSW Government is trialling new technology fitted to trucks that sends signals to traffic lights to extend the green to avoid so much stopping and starting.
It’s designed to give trucks a free passage at 99 intersections rather than being stuck at red lights and that would help speed up commuting time for motorists.
Ho hum.
Orange Fire Brigade simply presses a button at the station and a fire engine on call gets a green light run all the way down Summer Street.
They’ve had that capability for years.
So what’s all that Sydney ‘exclusive’ stuff about pioneering technology?
