RAAF Radschool Association Magazine

A decade of hard work establishing the Caloundra RSL memorial garden will soon be all for nothing. The Bob Mclnnes Memorial Garden was renamed earlier this year in honour of the late RAAF veteran and RSL sub-branch club president. It is home to many monuments including the restored Iroquois A4-1022 and was soon to be home to a memorial for indigenous soldiers. But that all hangs in the balance because of a Sunshine Coast Council decision to cut the main memorial garden by about one third to make way for a four-lane road, bike lane and footpath.

RSL secretary Heather Christie said the council planned to take 7.5rn from their fence line on Third Ave for the project, hoping to alleviate congestion on the Caloundra Rd and Nicklin Way roundabout. “They said they had eight options and they’ve chosen the one where they’re destroying a memorial,” Ms Christie said. “It makes me disappointed that they don’t respect what we’ve done for our departed and living veterans.” RSL sub-branch president George Harris said the flag pole, grey masonry walls, six manicured garden beds and trees would be removed. “It’s a lack of respect for what it is a memorial garden,’ he said. Sub- branch committee member Cathy Stamp said the council didn’t recognise what the garden meant to them. “I won’t let them take it, even if I have to chain myself to a tree,”

Ms Christie said the RSL’s plans to establish more pavilions, gardens and memorials would have to be put on hold until the council provided them a time frame for the project “If they don’t give us a deadline as to when it’s going to happen we’re still going to add to our garden, so we’re putting money into something that’s going to be stolen off us, so virtually we have to put the brakes on, and how long is that going to take?” Ms Christie said. She said the resuming of the land was not only harmful to the garden. but Anzac Day and similar ceremonies might have to be cancelled. She said they were in the process off forming a “Save the Bob Mclnnes Memorial Garden” committee. Mr Harris had no doubt the 1400 sub-branch members would be on their side. “The biggest thing is that Bob had a huge part to play from the very beginning and Judy (his wife) felt so privileged when we changed the name that she felt comfortable to lay his ashes here.”

We can’t let that happen, the RSL has launched a petition in a bid to stop it, they need our support. If you would like to help, please fill in the form below and send it.

The petition will be sent to the Sunshine Coast Regional Council, and data collected will be used for no other purpose. Any council response will be published on the Caloundra RSL Sub-Branch website at www.caloundrarsl.org.au

We, the undersigned respectfully petition Sunshine Coast Regional Council to review the remaining seven options that were tabled regarding the proposed Oval Avenue/Third Avenue Traffic Corridor Upgrade. The Motion approved on the 31 January 2019 involves the resumption of land from the Caloundra RSL Registered War Memorial Garden, including relocation of the restored RAAF “Huey” Helicopter, destruction of a number of manicured gardens, together with large shade trees, and relocation of our flagpole and two Bofors guns. The Caloundra RSL has no additional land available to cater for the relocation. Out of respect for both living and departed veterans, we request the Sunshine Coast Council consider another option from the seven that were made available for their review and remove the Oval Avenue and Third Avenue option from their plan.
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Climate Change (again).

Recently Australia experienced a bunch of (mostly) young people who took a day off, marched through the streets protesting against climate change and made a complete nuisance of themselves... We just wonder how many really believed in what they were there for or was it just for “a bit of fun.” We suggest in a majority of cases it was the latter.

Although it was a while ago now, we can remember our youth, it was a time of rebellion, it was a time to buck authority, a time to try new and dangerous things, we all did it, we’re all hard-wired to do it and long may it be so.

We all did things without thinking of the consequences, we hung onto buses while riding our bikes, we piled a dozen people into a car and headed for the beach, we leapt off cliffs into deep water, we tossed rocks onto someone’s roof, we blew up letter boxes with crackers, all silly things and all things that we wouldn’t dare or even think of doing after we had a few years on. In nearly all instances it was a case of follow the leader, someone would suggest something then we all did it. It’s called peer pressure. In the recent protest the leaders were the left leaning teachers egged on by the left leaning press, mainly the ABC. We reckon if we were their age, we’d probably be in it too.

We wouldn’t mind betting though, that a vast majority of the kids that took part in the protest wouldn’t give it a minute’s thought after they had a few years under their belts. In a lot of cases the old NIMBY effect was very evident, I’m alright but I want you to change. My SUV, my phone, my air-conditioned house – they are alright, you’ve got to change yours.

Have a look at THIS.

We’re also wondering what the thinking is behind all this as anything Australia does will not make the slightest difference to the way the world is changing. It’s a bit like King Canute, he couldn’t stop the tide, neither can we affect the change in climate. Like the tide, the climate has been changing since time immemorial and until God calls time, it will continue to so do.

Have a look at THIS and THIS too.

And don’t believe all that you hear about CO₂ being the cause of it all – see HERE

But there's this

Planet is getting hotter, oceans rising quicker and glaciers melting faster: UN

Global warming is already eroding Earth’s ecosystem in ways that will release misery on a global scale if it is not mitigated soon, a landmark UN report has revealed. The past five years were the hottest since global temperature records began, the report, compiled by the world’s leading scientists for the United Nations Climate Action Summit, revealed.

It comes as Australia’s Energy Minister Angus Taylor has shrugged off climate rally concerns, saying the country is on track to deliver its 2020 target.

The report stressed the need for immediate action to rein in out-of-control emissions, noting that the average global surface temperature for the past five years has been 1.1 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial baseline levels. For context, the Paris Agreement’s goal is to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Not only are we experiencing unprecedented levels of warming, but our oceans have risen at an accelerated pace and the world’s glaciers have melted more quickly in the same period than any time on record.

“Overall, the amount of ice lost annually from the Antarctic ice sheet increased at least six-fold between 1979 and 2017,” it reads. “The observed rate of global mean sea-level rise accelerated from 3.04 millimetres per year during the period 1997 to 2006 to approximately 4 millimetres per year during the period 2007 to 2016.” The report concluded that across the globe, countries and communities must overhaul how they produce, distribute and consume almost everything to avoid the worsening environmental and economic disaster. It called on governments to urgently heed these warnings and act to significantly reduce their countries emissions.

Dr Pep Canadell, the executive director of the Global Carbon Project and a contributing author of the report, called the findings “sobering”. “This new assessment is another sobering reminder of the critical state of the climate crisis and a call on governments, businesses and civic society to act more determinedly and aggressively in reducing greenhouse gases emissions,” he said.

“How many climate records does it take to accept the unprecedented nature of what we are living and to act upon it?”

The report names and shames Australia as being one of the world’s highest emitters per capita. “The highest-per-capita emissions are found in the USA, Australia and top oil producers such as Saudi Arabia,” it reads. “Despite extraordinary growth in renewable energy over the past decade, the global energy system is still dominated by fossil fuel sources. “The annual increase in global energy use is greater than the increase in renewable energy, meaning fossil fuel use and CO² emissions continue to grow.”

Australia plays a large part in the global fossil fuel industry, being the world’s third-largest exporter and the largest among the OCED countries. Despite this, the minister for reducing Australia’s pollution levels has shrugged off calls for stronger climate action. Speaking to Insiders on Sunday, Mr Taylor said the nation was on track to reduce greenhouse emissions in line with the Paris target, which is a 26 to 28 per cent reduction on 2005 levels by 2030. “We entered into a commitment under Kyoto for 2020, which we will beat by 367 million tonnes,” he said.

But many have disputed this claim, saying Australia is not on track to meet the target, which, they argue, is insufficient anyway. “The Paris targets are themselves hopelessly inadequate,” said Dr Jon Symons, senior lecturer in politics and international relations at Macquarie University. “Even if fully implemented, global emissions would actually be higher in 2030 than today. “Australia’s political debate seems entirely disconnected from the scientific realities captured in the report.

“It is not only that the Morrison government lacks effective mitigation policies, it is failing to honour even some of its key promises.”

Denis (Ned) Kelly.

David Graham advises that Ned Kelly passed away recently. He grew up in Australia and joined the Air Force aged 19. He flew operations as a wireless operator/air gunner with 467 Squadron during WW2.

Returning from his 30th and final bombing mission over France in July 1944, a German night fighter attacked, the rear gunner was killed, the pilot also died. Dennis Kelly and the others had to bail out or die. His is a remarkable story of survival and evaded capture with assistance of the French resistance. He was the recipient of the French Legion of Honour.

Click HERE to read an interview taken with Denis some years ago and click the pic below to watch a video below done by the ABC showing Denis on return to France to visit some of the places in which he spent time during WW2 and to say “Thank you!”..

Electric cars are simply a carbon con.

The carbon efficiency of electric vehicles has been greatly exaggerated and Labor’s pre-election pitch of radical energy reforms can finally be exposed as a flurry of multi-billion-dollar bullets narrowly missing the arteries of Australian industries.

Bill Shorten was quick to blame his election defeat on the public being too stupid. Too easily manipulated by the “corporate leviathans,” as he put it. This writer would pose that Australians were far smarter than Mr Shorten gave them credit for. And those voters abandoned him after he failed repeatedly to give coherent economic projections on his policies. “This issue about ‘give us one number’ … I don’t think that’s possible to do,” he said during the first leaders’ debate.

We now know that it was indeed possible to provide those numbers. It is more likely Labor knew the numbers and simply lied to avoid the deathblow their existence would have provided. Engineering firm ABMARC released a report which analysed the cost of Mr Shorten’s bid to artificially influence motoring industries to ensure half of all new car sales would be electric by 2030 and despite Labor insisting the cost could not be calculated, ABMARC did the maths. The policy would have cost Australians up to $7 billion in infrastructure alone, including “switchboards, transformers and poles and wires”.

In Norway, which was sold as a case study for the policy, the cost of cars has exploded due to the totalitarian tax measures getting people to use electric vehicles. They have reached Mr Shorten's target but the Norwegian budget loses around $500 million a year due to subsidies. Taxes, which are being used to make up the difference and artificially reduce the cost of electric vehicles, have also played a role in fuel costing $3 a litre and, as The Australian’s Geoff Chambers pointed out last week, the cost of a “Hyundai i30 in the Scandinavian country is $54,204 compared with about $20,000 in Australia”.

Welcome to the future. No combustion engine vehicles are being sold simply because they are now too expensive. I expect Norwegians will be doing plenty of walking. It should also be noted that the transition was only possible because Norway amassed a $1.4 trillion sovereign wealth fund - the largest in the world - by exporting oil and gas to countries all over the world. So green. So brave. Granted, Australia should have done the same thing with its coal money, but only a fool would argue Norway is a comparable economy to hold up as a utopia. The country barely has more people than Sydney.

The cost of electric vehicles would not be as bad if Australians were getting what they paid for, a new mode of transport which produces less carbon emissions than their combustion-engine counterparts. Unfortunately, the ABMARC report found that in Australia’s case, electric vehicles may end up producing more CO2 than traditional vehicles. So why would these vehicles of the future produce more C02 than their makers and Labor, originally told us? Well, it depends which country the vehicles were tested in. Take the great German company Volkswagen. It claims their new e-Golf only creates 119g CO2/km. Now that is slightly better than an entry-level Hyundai Getz which produces 130 g/km, albeit at a significantly greater cost. But even those figures are deceitful. In Germany, 38 per cent of the energy grid is derived from the burning of coal and it is bolstered by nuclear. Most of what remains is the country’s 35 per cent renewable energy split.

In Australia, 84 per cent of our energy comes from fossil fuels and roughly 15.7 from renewable sources. Plugging the e-Golf into an Australian socket would mean the disappearance of that 11 g/km advantage. Turns out drivers of the mighty Getz are far more awake than you first thought. It should be illegal for companies like Volkswagen to use universal CO2 per kilometre figures that ignore the carbon footprint reality. It is simply lying and those lies are being used by leftists to push for policy reforms. This is evidenced by the claim on VW’s website: "If electricity for driving during the use phase is obtained exclusively from renewable sources" the average CO2/km "will drop to just 2 g". If indeed.

A pity that economy does not exist. And can you imagine the strain on the energy grid if everyone drove these planet-saving cars? In a country like Australia, which is already struggling with baseload power shortages, I imagine it would mean burning more coal to meet the new demand. Think about that every time an activist on Twitter uses electricity to fire off a Tweet about shutting down coal-fired power plants. Blissfully unaware they create the very demand they despise. Consumers also have no way of knowing whether Volkswagen is directly lying about carbon capabilities of vehicles, as the company did in 2015. One former executive is currently rotting in jail over the scam to evade pollution limits on nearly 600,000 diesel vehicles. So green. So woke.

What most well-intentioned advocates of EVs fail to grasp is that their prized vehicles are better at signalling the virtue of their owners than saving the planet. I think I’ll stick to my old Hyundai Getz for now.

A diesel van with a petrol powered generator charging an electric car. The future is bright!

If you want renewable energy, get ready to dig.

Trevor Rigby sent us this.

People dream of powering society entirely with wind and solar farms combined with massive batteries. Realizing this dream would require the biggest expansion in mining the world has seen and would produce huge quantities of waste.

"Renewable energy" is a misnomer. Wind and solar machines and batteries are built from non-renewable materials. And they wear out. Old equipment must be decommissioned, generating millions of tons of waste. The International Renewable Energy Agency calculates that solar goals for 2050 consistent with the Paris Accords will result in old-panel disposal constituting more than double the tonnage of all today's global plastic waste. Consider some other sobering numbers:

A single electric-car battery weighs about 500 kg. Fabricating one requires digging up, moving and processing more than 250,000 kg of raw materials somewhere on the planet. The alternative? Use gasoline and extract one-tenth as much total tonnage to deliver the same number of vehicle-miles over the battery's seven-year life.
When electricity comes from wind or solar machines, every unit of energy produced, or mile travelled, requires far more materials and land than fossil fuels. That physical reality is literally visible: A wind or solar farm stretching to the horizon can be replaced by a handful of gas-fired turbines, each no bigger than a tractor-trailer.
Building one wind turbine requires 900 tons of steel, 2,500 tons of concrete and 45 tons of nonrecyclable plastic. Solar power requires even more cement, steel and glass-not to mention other metals. Global silver and indium mining will jump 250% and 1,200% respectively over the next couple of decades to provide the materials necessary to build the number of solar panels, the International Energy Agency forecasts.
World demand for rare-earth elements-which aren't rare but are rarely mined in America-will rise 300% to 1,000% by 2050 to meet the Paris green goals. If electric vehicles replace conventional cars, demand for cobalt and lithium, will rise more than 20-fold. That doesn't count batteries to back up wind and solar grids.

Last year a Dutch government-sponsored study concluded that the Netherlands' green ambitions alone would consume a major share of global minerals. "Exponential growth in [global] renewable energy production capacity is not possible with present-day technologies and annual metal production," it concluded.

The demand for minerals likely won't be met by mines in Europe or the U.S. Instead, much of the mining will take place in nations with oppressive labour practices. The Democratic Republic of the Congo produces 70% of the world's raw cobalt, and China controls 90% of cobalt refining. The Sydney-based Institute for a Sustainable Future cautions that a global "gold" rush for minerals could take miners into "some remote wilderness areas [that] have maintained high biodiversity because they haven't yet been disturbed."

What's more, mining and fabrication require the consumption of hydrocarbons. Building enough wind turbines to supply half the world's electricity would require nearly two billion tons of coal to produce the concrete and steel, along with two billion barrels of oil to make the composite blades. More than 90% of the world's solar panels are built in Asia on coal-heavy electric grids.

Engineers joke about discovering "unobtanium," a magical energy-producing element that appears out of nowhere, requires no land, weighs nothing, and emits nothing.

Absent the realization of that impossible dream, hydrocarbons remain a far better alternative than today's green dreams.

If an airplane is bung but is still in one piece, don't leave it; ride the damn thing down.

Tony Smith writes:

I've been thinking about RADTECHITIS and decided that it was time that there was some sort of equaliser. So here goes.

Telegraphasis Magnificus

The good lord in his wisdom,

To create peace upon this earth.

Made a list of occupations,

Their relevance and their worth.

From the lowest to the highest,

From the meanest to the best.

A straight ascending order,

That has stood the acid test.

The wily politician,

Was bottom of that list.

The used car salesman followed,

He won’t be sorely missed.

Air force people generally,

Were well up on that tree.

Though some musterings were higher,

Let's have a look and see.

The Radtechs and the Telstechs,

Were ALMOST at the top.

Followed closely by Telephonists,

And stalwart teleprinter ops.

But I'm sorry Lads and Lasses,

The name right up at the crest.

Was the single name TELEGRAPHIST,

Adjudged the very best.

Sexual Identity.

One of life’s little conundrums these days is determining what sex you are. Seems it’s just a matter of choice. Once upon a time it was very straight forward, people with long hair were girls, people with short hair were boys. Simple. Now, if you want, you can be a male on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday and a female on the other days. Damn handy if you’re on a sinking ship, I’d be a female straight away, women and children first, get a spot on that life-boat. If you’re a female at the footy and the girl’s toilets are full, just change and pop into the men’s. It’s a shame this selective sex identity didn’t come in years ago, I can remember sharing a room at Richmond with 3 other blokes, one of whom snored terribly. I could have just tossed the overalls, bunged on a dress and popped down to the WRAAFery and moved in with the girl girls.

I can see lots of benefits here, if you’re a bloke just change and you’ll get a seat on a crowded bus, if you’re a blokette and would like to have a beer with the boys in the pub after work, just pop on the RM Williams and you’re in.

Wonder what’s next?

Kel Davy.

We have quite a few ex-Raafies here in Rockhampton Qld. Mary Scully, ex-dental assistant is the Rockhampton and CQ Legacy admin officer where I've been volunteering for the past 2 years assisting veterans’ families in this area, south to just past Gladstone, north halfway to Mackay and west as far as Sapphire west of Emerald. Since December 1016 I have been retired after 57 years working, 16 of that in RAAF as RAdtechA followed by 12 years as a contractor on the F-111 mods from 1992 until 2004 with HdH and Boeing and then 2 years as a Techwriter with Boeing on Wedgetail project.

In retirement I am also collecting unwanted mobility aids and restoring them for the needy here. My pet project is to develop a hybrid drive 4 wheel mobility scooter/quad bike style scooter for indoor use with electric motor and a 125cc motor and go cart wheels for on the beach and outdoors. To fund this, I have to sell off unwanted tools and goods as the pension is insufficient and the government won’t assist with any grants for this project and advised me to find sponsors. No matter I intend to go ahead and it may eventually help other vets who need outdoor access without worries of flat batteries as I have a system to recharge them when outdoors. I hope to get some vets to assist as a means to help them cope with PTSD and other problems by focusing on restoring mobility aids.

Maybe you could send out a message in RAM for any vets in Rockhampton area.

If you can help Kel, let us know and we’ll put you in touch with Kel.

Globalisation.

Ten or so years ago, Australia had five car manufacturers, Ford, GMH, Toyota, Nissan and Mitsubishi. Now we have none. All gone overseas and the reason given? Costs were too high. Funny in that the cars we are now importing (Malaysia etc) are no cheaper.

I remember back in 1968 living in Brisbane, when the 3 major cities back then were Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide and Adelaide was the Industrial City. Adelaide - South Australia, was where you went to work in the Iron Ore Industry, or where you could get a job making railway tracks for B.H.P. You could get a job building ships, submarines, cars, washing machines, fridges, TV’s, Hills hoists, Victa Lawn Mowers or make tyres at Bridgestone tyres.

The Lightburn Washing Machine Company even made a car called a Zeta. It was not much of a car, but at least it was Australian and we built it. I worked at Stanvac where we made our own Petrol, Diesel, Kerosene and Oil. We had Oil Rigs in Bass Straight, North West Shelf and the Timor Sea. We even had Australian owned Service Stations like (H.C. Sleigh) Golden Fleece and many of us young wanna-be mechanics back then worked as a driveway attendant. (Just like Stanley).

I remember catching a train from the city to Gawler and then on to Freeling, Hamley Bridge, Stockport, Riverton, up to Clare, Gladstone, Laura etc. And all these towns were bustling with activity, and on the weekends they were all open for business. Our shops were filled on every shelf with food and products all proudly made or grown, in Australia. Our fridge was full of Lamb Chops and Steaks because it was cheap as we were a huge Lamb and Beef growing Nation, and once a month Mum would make us all a delicacy! It was called a Sunday Roast Chicken.

I remember when we all had trade skills and high-quality tools that would last and last. But most of all we had Mates. We as Australians watched each other’s backs even if we had not met yet, and we all said g’day to everyone with a smile. Our kids could go anywhere they liked on their bikes, just as long as they were home before dark. Australia was pretty safe back then. Yes, Australia was once a self-supporting nation that had it all. It had Farms that produced our dairy, fruit & vegies and meats etc, and Politicians back then were known as Statesmen and they were voted by the people, for the people, on behalf of the people and did what the people wanted. We had public utilities owned by us the people, that guaranteed our Electricity, Water and Sewage forever.

No one knew how much the Snowy Mountain Scheme cost, we just built it.

No one knew how much the Sydney Harbour Bridge or the Indian-Pacific railway cost, we just built it!

Then came corporate greed.

Now everything above has gone.
Now we don’t watch each other’s backs anymore but watch each other through security bars, burglar alarms, and security screens.
Now we dob each other in.
Now we import poor quality processed food.
Now we import cheap tools that break just taking them out of the packet they come in.
Now we rely on ships to bring in our fuels.
Now we can’t afford our own Lamb or Beef anymore.
Now we eat steroid pumped chicken just about every day.
Now we import trade skill workers on 457 Visa’s.
Now we have high unemployment as nearly all of our Industry and Manufacturing has gone offshore.
Now we have that many Laws that we have just about outlawed ourselves.
But I guess we need even more laws, so now we will have Sharia Law as well. We now pay for water that falls out of the sky at $3.80 a litre.
Now we have taxes for everything, taxes for carbon, taxes for sake of having taxes, (They call them Levies).
And don’t forget the newest tax is the ISLAMIC TAX (Halal Certification)
Now here in South Australia in our towns we have Railway Stations and railway tracks, but no trains.
We have Public Bus Stops in our Towns but no buses. We have Hospitals and Clinics but very few Doctors or Nurses.
We all have Mobile Phones and have little to no reception.
We have Digital TV’s with Bugger all Signal in the country.
And the worst of all, is our once great nation is being sold off, piece by piece to every other country on earth, except us.

Tis very sad but very true! Enjoy what’s left while you can? The Australia we knew when growing up is now STUFFED!!!

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