A day of contrasts

[Keith Webb]

Not really sure where to put this as it encompasses flying, armour and softskins.

I spent an amazing few hours with a man who is one of our most significant living WW2 pilots - Tony Gaze, DFC**. The two asterisks mean he was awarded the DFC two more times. He was credited with 12.5 enemy aircraft, flew an amazing variety of both allied and German planes including various marks of Spitfire, Typhoon, Mosquito and Meteor. He was the first Australian to shoot down a Me262 and Arado 234. He flew both the Fw 190A and the Fw TA152.

The softskin part of the story is because I also photographed his photo album (will be able to scan it later) and there was an intriguing pic of some Fordson WOTs with the interesting caption of "Virgin hearses". I asked him why but he couldn't (or wouldn't) quite recall.

The second half of the day was spent roaring around a motocross course in Ron Fry's just finished (wet paint) Stuart which he has built around a derelict hull. The original engine needed rebuild so as an expedient Ron has fitted something which is quite collectible in it's own right - a Commer Knocker diesel which I must admit sounds quite amazing.

Driving around there was a lot of dust coming in - sort of like Saturday at Corowa 08 without the heat.

Ron was unable to attend Corowa due to work commitments but this tank would have been at Corowa if he'd been able to be there.