by Charles Eather Pacific Century HK$180
It was a fine July morning in Cairns in 1982 when I and the skipper of a yacht I had joined rowed a shaky dinghy up the harbour. We were checking out the other boats, while casting a bleary eye out for crocs, when a rarer beast lumbered into view. With a throaty chug-chug, a veteran twin-prop Air Queensland freighter climbed slowly above us before heading out over the Coral Sea. 'Douglas Dakota,' beamed the skipper, a man who knew aircraft as well as boats. 'I bet she's got some stories.'
Indeed. Not until many years later, in Hong Kong, did I learn that this old workhorse was Betsy, Cathay Pacific's founding aircraft, who at the time I saw her was still earning her keep in the sunset of a remarkable career. She had started her Cathay stint as a US army surplus C-47 Skytrain, as the military version of the DC-3 was known.
The 'aircraft that changed the world' were known as Dakotas in the Commonwealth. The reason I and so many others know Betsy's story today is because one of her earliest pilots at Cathay, Captain Charles 'Chic' Eather, has spent much of his retirement publishing his memoirs, gathering memorabilia and giving lectures on this golden era of aviation.
A sprightly 88-year-old, Eather is well known among pilots and 'anoraks' like myself. He signed on with Cathay in Sydney in 1946, about six weeks after the company was formed. He was in Hong Kong again recently to introduce his latest book, The Amazing Adventures of Betsy and Niki (Niki was Cathay Pacific's second DC-3).
The text of this handsome little volume can be described as 'Chic lite': condensed and sanitised versions of some of the more jaw-dropping pilot yarns of his earlier books, Syd's Pirates, Airport of the Nine Dragons and We Flew in Burma. This shortcoming, if indeed it is one, is more than compensated for by a layout crammed with gorgeous photographs, flight maps, illustrations from original DC-3 flight manuals and useful sidebars of information. Particularly impressive is the book's attention to detail, including a sleeve complete with embossed rivets.