Wow, Goodaye Rhino, I just saw this interview now, exactly 36 years and 9 months since we last went flying together ie 3rd August 1987. (Dam, we have both aged a tad since those photos of us in Aug 1987) 😅 Nice to hear your story and hope you are going great! Naturally the interview brought back massive memories of our last Hoover flight together, the survival phase and the following mountain rescue. I remember the NSCA pilots very well ie Andy Hudson (chooper skipper) and Dave Barnes (the other chopper pilot and the legend that a) first found me in the bush 200m from the main dirt road (due to my flares that you laughed at 😃) and b) the genius behind your famous ‘tree ladder’ that hugely assisted your personal tree rescue and then c) they all (with the other awesome NSCA crew) returned us back to Willie, otherwise we were both in for one very long and cold night! 👍👏 Awesome interview and thank you very much to everyone that saved us 2 knucks! 👍👏 Cheers Brendan (Hezo)

Glad to hear directly from a pilot ejection because nobody told us anything except if the pilot survived and if the aircraft was lost, I am a retired Armament Fitter (Gunnie) and serviced AU04B (macchi seat), OM6 (Mirage) and later, SJU-10 and -11 seats (F/A-18) during my career. When the incident happened I was working at Banner Prep which was right next to SAR flight helipad. Many takeoff and landing, sometimes medical waiting for the aircrew.

Glad to hear you pulled up from it well and continued unheralded with your career I witnessed a macchi ejection at Pearce upwind of runway 18 I was working at the local garage at the time and only saw a part of it from memory the pilot was Pulford ? (Pulley) I later when on to work at 2FTS through Airflire and witnessed another one with the Singapore airforce

Onya Rhino! Quite the adventure. I seem to recall that it was perhaps the unheated P1 probe icing up on the Viper engine affecting the Barometric Fuel Control Unit: Thus causing stoichiometric overfuelling in the climb.

Good story mate and wonderful outcome...... Spent time on 76SQN and 481SQN as an ATECH...... Spent MANY days getting the canopy lock systems withing specs after a change... Big job, but stories like this make the efforts worthwhile. I always said if I fly, it has to have 2 engines or an ejection seat ! :)

I remember being Man B on a crew seeing Rhino off in a Mirage in Darwin at 75 Sqn. I was standing next to the port air-intake with a blower-motor ready for the start, when I saw Rhino reach up and grab the ejection handles on the face blind. I almost crapped myself. Then I realised he was just bending the handles away from his helmet, and my heart started beating again. 😀

Peter and Rhino Great discussion.

100% more please

Great story

Good interview.

The Macchi parachutes at East Sale should have been fitted with the tree escape system rather than sitting under a parachute table.

More please😁👍

It appears an inate trait, for pilots to want to save their aircraft universally. This is not out of concern for money, Rather it is a concern for their personal skills, unfortunatly, this often leads to the trsgic death of too many fliers. I am very pleased to hear that a well seasoned flyer such as Dennis did not go down this route. I remember a casT-34, where it was avoidable.( In this instance, it was a matter where the student had repeatedly failed his approaches, by flying too far below his sensible glide slope, which he repeated for the last time.)

This, this is brilliant.

Thanks Rhino, I hope you are well….👍