Missing Pilot
 

G'day All, From the local news it is assumed that Col P*** from Scone is deceased after a plane he was piloting crashed into Lake Liddel during some type of exercise, i do hope they are wrong, nice bloke sadly cheers Dennis :sheep:

I saw the report, didn't realise that it was Col though :(

G'day All, From the TV news at 1700hrs sadly it was Col Paye from Scone, he was apparently practising with some type of water pickup in a plane to do water bombing, in readiness for the forthcoming bush fire season :salute: :salute: cheers Dennis :sheep:

Col
 

Yes, I had a call from the museum this morning - a very sad thing to have happened.

I've shared a room in the bunkhouse at Temora with Col, formated with his Kittyhawk, and yet never really knew him - he was a fairly quiet chap.

For those who don't know him, Col was responsible for the restoration of many Warbirds including two P-40s, P51 and of course the MkVIII Spitfire now owned by the Temora Aviation Museum.

I saw Col last flying weekend taking the Spitfire for a play - he must have been very happy then and that's how I'll remember him.

RIP Col.

Link
 

Here's a link to the story on the ABC.

There were early reports that three were on board - the two in the water were part of Pay's ground crew who were in a boat observing the exercise and went in to try to help.

This item of news made it to the Canadian media, reported today.