Squadron Leader Brian Young in the office of Trojan 753

A Day in the Life …

Squadron Leader Brian Young C-13OE Captain

Our desire to examine the working lives of interesting people who make their living in aviation leads us at 5. 40 am to Sydney’s Richmond Air Force Base, on a cool Friday morning. We are travelling on a scheduled RAAF transport mission, in a Lockheed C-130E Hercules aircraft from No37 Squadron at Richmond.

No37 Squadron was formed at Laverton, Victoria in July 1943, being initially equipped with Northrop Delta, Lodestar and Dakota aircraft. In September 1945, No37 Squadron assisted in the evacuation of released prisoners of war from Singapore. After later courier missions to Japan and New Guinea, the Squadron was disbanded at Schofields in 1948. It was later reactivated in 1966 at Richmond to crew the first Lockheed Hercules C-130E aircraft. In 1979, the first of two Boeing 707- 338C jets were added to the Squadron for VIP and specialised transport duties. These were later to become part of No. 33 Squadron.

Today, we are flying with Squadron Leader Brian Young, who will Captain the aircraft, Copilot Simon Henderson, who holds the rank of Flight Lieutenant, Flying Officer Bill Pike, our Navigator and Flight Engineer Dick Stone, who like our Loadmaster Greg Bushnell, is a Flight Sergeant. (Bill Pike the Navigator is no relation to the founder of Rebel Air, who at one stage was also on Hercules). Our mission on C-130E A97-167 is the southern service, a regular scheduled task from Richmond to Edinburgh via Canberra and Laverton, then return to Richmond via Laverton and Canberra.

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