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By Charlie Romeo
#402000
While i am on holidays and enjoying a chin wag with you all i thought i might finally post a poem i wrote in July 1986....the hg pilots always enjoyed my rendition at the July monthly meetings however it always brought back a cold sweat for me!. In those early cb radio"s days we called each other by our phonetic radio names , with a little bit of customisation, indeed some still call me Charlie for Col or with two Mikes one guy became Mango etc.The vehicle was a Landcruiser ute with an open wire cage on the tray. Anyway i digress so .... enjoy the ride from hell!
A LESSON FOR ALL
Here is the tale of a flying crew of seven,
Who never left the ground but nearly got to heaven,
Heading up the mountain in a 4wd Cruiser,
Little to suspect the drive down will be the bruiser

Too strong to fly today, the tempting cu"s just that,
So we hung around anyway with a cuppa and a chat,
All aboard, heading down-the wind it fairly blew,
And this is how we nearly lost the Byron Bay crew

In low range 4wd we came upon the steepest part,
A clunk was heard and suddenly we were a billycart,
Mike, Golf and Mango-the boys realized quick,
Baled out the back, but not poor Nick

Along with Charlie, Bravo and the driver Delta,
The four of us rode it out just like helter skelter,
With sheared off racks and steadies, the gliders thumped the ground,
A nightmare coming true, a catastrophe of sound

The screaming panic from the cabin-the truck it paid no heed,
Became a deathly silence with the now lethal speed,
A lot goes through your mind at times like these,
But i remember staring past telegraphpole size trees

Up ahead the track, it turned about,
The final crunch coming, there was no doubt,
Like a squeamish movie not wanting to recall,
I closed my eyes and tightened to a ball

The sliding sickening roll as over we went,
Hope we hit small one"s, hope our luck"s not spent,
The final lurch, silence-and a dusty awake,
Climb out the windscreen, do a stocktake,

All finally gathered around, bruised and sore,
The truck a wreck our gear all tore,
But all agreed after what had been,
The sunset that day was the best ever seen...
:cry:
#402002
Thanks Felix, when it finally stopped and a dusty silence ensued and i was getting slowly stabbed by the window winder because my brother and the driver were squashing me into the door because we stopped on its side, i will never forget a voice slowly shouting louder and louder "i am alive,i am alive, again and again. The pilot who never "baled out" in time, Nick because it was travelling too fast had hung on and the wire cage had been crushed to a little space just big enough for him to remain untouched!...Yeh,the seven of us were really lucky that day we figured the jack came loose and under the brake pedal, the driver in the BORROWED ute was"t familiar with the handbrake location....
#402012
I found a few of the photo"s from the day and because i found this postcard amongst them, here is a scan too of our biggest eagle, the Wedgetail.....we knew the truck must have came out of gear on the first steep area,because of the grinding from the gearbox as the driver was unsuccessfully trying to get it back in gear...There was some silence...on the airborn parts :lol: . When the guys who got out early saw the truck finally roll over and disappear down the side, they thought the worst. Limping and bruised,when they finally got to where we had rolled off ,we had just struggled back up to the track, passing harnesses with chutes ripped open and other gear.the relief to find not a broken bone between us was really great.The mental scar remains :wink:
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