Ken Wallis and Little Nellie

[asra]

Ben you said,Anecdotally Ken was responsible for a lifting of restrictions on Gyros in Australia when he did the 007 appearances in "Little Nellie" - any knowledge of that?Hi Ben, Ken would have recieved a one of approval for those flights. That was in the mid 60's and gyros became legal in Oz in 1978 due to a fellow called Bob Higgins who was being fined all the time for illegally flying gyros. Bob, I think, annoyed the CAA with his forthright attitude and constant harrasement, that they gave up and implemented legal gyro flying with a max of 300' agl and on your own or authorised propery!!!! You could go as far as the first sealed bitumen road!!!! That is what we started with in 1978, well before ultra lights!!!!![:0]My Dad and I saw the performance near Melbourne. We were very excited. We had driven to Melbourne to see the the film when it first came out. We did not wait until it came to the regional centers!!!!and when the opportunity arose to see Ken perform we flew our little 3 seat Piper Colt to Moorabin, Melbourns secondary airport and a mate of Dads picked us up and drove us to the newly opened Carribean Gardens. I have a pic of a dot in the sky over the man made lake at Carribean Gardens. I will try to find it.Aussie Paul.[]www.firebirdgyros.com

[Echo]

Paul, Do you have any knowledge of JRM Helyplanes( I think thats the name )that were in South Oz ? I remember having some pics of their machines - Wasp Airbuggy (?). Oops, getting off the topic... Eric

[asra]

Hi EchoYeah quite a few of those machines made it over here (NZ) but they never were any good until the owners got rid of the VW's and put on Rotaxes when they became available. John Maurus (sp) was the 'JRM'.