One of our
leased Sydney Morning Herald Hudsons had to go from Adastra to
its base at Camden regarding maintenance paper work, Jack McDonald
asked me to accompany Keith Cooper (the pilot) for the flight.
After completing the task we left Camden for the return flight
and had barely got airborne when the port engine propeller began
to feather and unfeather automatically, Keith stopped it by switching
off the main battery and we continued without much bother. As
we approached Liverpool, Keith had to switch on the battery to
call Mascot tower for landing instructions and the propeller did
its tricks again, unfortunately we were told to hold until landing
was available, Keith under these conditions had to inform the
tower of the problem and was given instructions to come straight
in, this he did and only switched the battery off after the gear
was down before landing. At Adastra's terminal, Les Sheffield
and I commenced to pull out the relay, but the DCA people were
around in quick time and quarantined the aircraft.
Maurice
Miller
April 2003
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