‘Few people, if any had seen an aeroplane at Albion Park until ex-Flying
Corps pilot Bob Potts of Sydney arrived for the 1920 Albion Park Show, offering
'joyrides' at $2 a head for four minutes aloft.
Using a DH6 wartime biplane powered with 90hp RAF motor giving it a top
speed of 75 mhp, it was nicknamed the 'Clutching Hand' in flying circles and
reputedly went backwards if headed into
a stiff breeze.
Bob operated out of Ned Sawtell's paddock under no safety conditions,
which would give a modern pilot the cold sweats, and gave ‘Parkites’ their
first experience in being airborne. Some were thrilled, some landed in a state
of near collapse, but all survived.
Sometime later Lieutenant Barkell landed an Avro in Stapleton's paddock
and bent the axle on a hidden stump. Typical of aviation in those days, he dismantled
the undercarriage, put the damaged axle on his shoulder and humped it to Moods
smithy shop to be heated and straightened’.
‘Albion Park Saga’, Bert Weston, The Tongarra Heritage Society, 1996.
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| Albion Park Showground 1972. Shellharbour Images, Shellharbour City Libraries. |
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