Winning in the Heavy Charter Game

Bill Pike always wanted to fly, but there was a certain amount of family pressure on him not to do so, particularly from his mother, as his father had been killed serving with the RAAF during the Second World War. So against Mum’s advice, he joined the Air Force at 19 years of age to fly fighters. But it didn’t work out, and instead, Bill became a transport pilot. He would have liked the fun of flying a fighter, but in retrospect sees his time as a transport pilot as nine of the most interesting years of his life.

‘Even though it cost me a certain amount of seniority in the airlines because time spent in the Air Force isn’t recognised by the airlines, the experience and the things I saw made it all very worthwhile. I enjoyed every minute in the Air Force, and I’ve never been the least bit sorry that I joined. ‘

He had a lot of experience at a very young age, becoming a Check and Training Captain on a C-130 at about 26! In August 1969, he resigned from the RAAF on the offer of flying C-130s in Alaska, but that project did not proceed. A friend who had already gone to Alaska wrote and told Bill that the company was in trouble, that they were paying for fuel with cash, and that he’d be better off doing something else. Sure enough, his friend was laid off shortly after that. And when Bill finished up with the Air Force, he too was out of a job. He was also recently divorced, broke, and 29 years of age.

Shortly afterwards, an opportunity came up for him to join Jet Airlines of Australia in Melbourne, flying DC-3s, and he jumped at the chance.

In those days, they didn’t have a seniority system at Jet Airlines, and Bill had to sit back and watch while mates of the management continually came in and were given commands, out of turn. Finally, unable to take it any more, Bill went to management and asked when he was going to get a chance for command. The answer was ‘We’re not prepared to train you,’ to which he immediately retorted, ‘You don’t have to, because I had a command on DC-3s in the Air Force, and all you’d have to give me would be my licence renewal every six months!’

He then wrote an official letter to the management and was put on the carpet in the office on Saturday morning, and told that his licence renewal was scheduled for the following Monday. He was told that if he passed it to First-Class standard he would be considered for a command; if he failed. . . well, that was it! Put up, or shut up! A friend of Bill’s within the company said to him, ‘Oh, you’re not going to accept that, are you, because if you do, what happens if you fail?’

Bill’s classic reply was, ‘Ah, yes. . . but what happens if I pass?’

And pass he did. On Saturday, he’d been a co-pilot, on Monday he was a Captain!

Bill Pike served with Jet Airlines for three months, and then a position with an Australian international airline became available. He had a lot of consideration to do, because of Jet Air’s general attitude to their own company operations. Bill felt that no attempt was ever really made to run it properly, and all they really wanted was to fly their DC-3s around until they got their airline licence.

No serious attempt at advertising was made, and passenger needs were not adequately catered for. If an aircraft went unserviceable ‘up the track’, nothing was done for the passengers; no on-carriage, they just left them there until the aeroplane was fixed. The ‘rebel’ in Bill was becoming obvious then. He used to carry the General Manager’s home phone number around in his pocket, and if a passenger complained, which wasn’t unusual, he’d hand over the phone number and say ‘Well, I don’t run this company, sir, he does!’ Which didn’t particularly endear him to the General Manager! Nevertheless, Bill’s professionalism was unquestioned, and he was the only Jet Airlines Captain to have turbine experience. He was also the youngest Captain. Most were nearing sixty, and preparing to retire.

Bill mentioned to the company he was considering leaving. They had every reason for him to forget the idea of resigning. ‘They were about to expand, he’d be foolish to leave! They needed guys like him. ‘ But Bill followed his judgement, not their rhetoric, and it was indeed lucky he did. Four months later, Jet Airlines of Australia was out of business!

His move to the international airline was made in 1970, but in the large number of retrenchments in 1972, Bill was stood down. He first joined Masling Commuter Services as Chief Pilot, then served an eighteen-month period with Cathay Pacific. He was still on the seniority list of the Australian international airline at this time and the word for its future was lots of expansion. He decided to leave Cathay and return home, as a Second Officer. He had been a First Officer on Boeing 707s with Cathay, but he didn’t mind the slight downgrading. After all, they were talking of a command in about six years! Twelve years later, in his own words, he’s ‘still on the bottom of the ladder. ‘ Most of his contemporaries with Cathay now have commands on 747s and Lockheed Tristars.

In 1979 Bill Pike started Rebel Air, while still maintaining his position as a Second Officer with the Australian international airline.

Bill, and a partner, Captain Dick Frith, bought an ex-Connair and East-West Airlines Douglas DC-3, ‘VH-PWM’. This venerable ‘Gooney Bird’ had started life as a C-47A-1-DK built for the US Army Air Force in 1943. The constructor’s number is 11970, and the serial number 42-92196. It was ferried to Australia in late 1943 by the USAAF and handed over to the RAAF as A65-21, with the radio callsign VH-Charlie-Tango-Charlie. In 1957, after 14 years of reliable military service, she was purchased by EastWest Airlines, converted to DC-3 standards, and flown as VHEWB, ‘Warwick City’. From 1967 until 1973, she was operated as VH-PWM.

VH-PWM served with Connair in the outback until 1979, at which time she was purchased by Rebel Air for charter operations. The striking red and white livery is now a familiar sight at Sydney Airport.

Bill now owns the airliner totally. He sold up almost everything he owned to pay for it. His partner decided to bail out, and Bill had to buy him out as a result. The aeroplane was originally being leased as part of a finance arrangement, but following the departure of Bill’s partner from the scene, the finance company saw the opportunity to commence a whole new leasing arrangement at new interest rates. Bill Pike was virtually forced into buying the aeroplane outright. He believes that the company cost him 80,000 dollars to set up, including the cost of the paint job on the aeroplane, and the spares that had to be bought with it.

After two years of operation, he had not experienced a mechanical delay. Always, on-time departures on charters. So he had some press releases written up, giving details of the 100 per cent reliability, but the day before the press sheets were sent out, he had an unscheduled engine shutdown in flight and had to divert back to Dubbo. ‘It just goes to show, you shouldn’t tempt fate.

“In the three months from August to November 1982, Rebel Air’s DC-3 flew three to four days weekly, flying something like 40 hours per month. The rest of the year they average about two days weekly in the air. That’s one of the biggest problems the company has to face, as the heavy charter business is very seasonal. The Air Navigation charges are a lump sum, and the Department of Aviation has refused to relate the money they pay to the flying they do. Rebel Air has been refused the right to pay these charges at the airline rate.

For example, if Rebel Air was paying the airline rate to fly from Melbourne, or Essendon to Devonport in Tasmania, the ARF for that route would be 24 dollars and 60 cents. This is what an airline F. 27 pays. Bill Pike is not afforded the opportunity to pay this rate and is in fact slugged to the tune of 390 dollars and 66 cents for the same route. Hardly fair!

Bill says the department states that they believe the airlines pay more than general aviation, but even with the fifty per cent remission he is granted, he is still paying four times the airline rate. ‘I’ll pay the airline rate, but I’ve told them that if they want any more, we can all go to court and discuss it. I deny their right to ask more of me than they would ask of an airline doing exactly the same work. They do allow airlines to do charter flights and only pay on a per-flight basis. They have refused to let me do that, and there’s a very good reason, I have discovered. I would be paying about the same as a Navajo, and that would be an embarrassment to them. Also, they couldn’t afford to charge me the airline rate, because I wouldn’t be paying enough, and that brings in the question of the whole method by which they’ve decided how much money they’re recovering from each sector. I wrote to the Minister and asked if the heavy-charter sector had been looked at on a cost-recovery basis, and the only answer I got was that it is because we place a greater load on the facilities. Now that’s nonsense! Of course, we wouldn’t place a greater load on facilities than a Navajo, and certainly less than a Learjet! Even though the Department has recognised that to some extent by giving us a remission, we still pay four times the airline rate. And I think the Department’s method of attributing costs is faulty.

Bill also cites the case of the Control Tower at Mt Isa, put there by the Department simply because of the jet operations through the place. The Department will not allow jet ops out of controlled airspace, so all the shifts of controllers, all the hours the Tower is manned, the entire cost of the Tower is completely unnecessary and unwanted by general aviation in the area. Part of the cost is attributed to GA, but while there are perhaps 100 GA aircraft daily moving in and out of the aerodrome, there are only about four jet operations in the same period.

Bill gets visibly angry as he speaks. . . ‘the Department says “We’ll only attribute 50 per cent of the cost of the Tower to general aviation, now aren’t we kind, isn’t that generous!” We don’t want any of it. . . we don’t want to pay for any of it. That’s the area in which their statistics start to become distorted!’

And you have to see the sense in the argument he’s putting up.

If you don’t need or want a service, and the Department says you’re 90 per cent of the usage, perhaps they’ve got the terminology a little upside down. Maybe you’re stuck with it 90 per cent of the time!

Rebel Air has experienced problems at Sydney Airport in the past with parking allocations made by the Department. Origin ally, they were going to put many restrictions on Rebel Air operations by requiring them to have an escort to get to-and from the aircraft, and everyone needed an identity card. It was almost impossible for the company to do business where the aircraft was parked, and they couldn’t meet customers there. Following the extension of the Ansett hangar, the Department moved Rebel Air to an area once considered ‘unsuitable’ bf DofA, an area Bill Pike had requested in the first instance!

Under the present Airport Director, Bill hopes to resolve most of his differences, saying that everything in that area seems to be working reasonably well. It’s not before time, as I remember him saying at one stage that he had been allocated a parking area with a taxiway that was too narrow for the aircraft, and he would have been surrounded and hemmed in by private aircraft. It would have been his responsibility to arrange for obstructing aeroplanes to be moved every time he wanted to get VH-PWM either in or out of the parking area!

Bankstown Airport is still a problem for Rebel Air operations under the existing restrictions.

Every time the company wants to go there, Bill has to ask for a ‘pavement concession’, which is a bit of a drama. If it hasn’t been raining, the DC-3 is allowed on certain taxiways at certain times of the day, under certain limitations. But they have to park in the middle of the airfield, and bus passengers in and out! As a practical operational aerodrome for Rebel Air, Bankstown Airport is O-U-T!

The aeroplane is in top condition, and at the time of writing, VHPWM is due to undergo its major inspection at Bankstown. Rebel Air’s Chief Pilot is a retired Qantas Check and Training Captain who wouldn’t be associated with a sub, standard aeroplane. Bill Pike and his family fly in the aeroplane, and Bill thinks that it is perhaps looked after now better than it ever has been before.

In the past, there has been a spate of four unscheduled engine removals, involving overhauled engines, all fruity) the one supplier. The inspections of those engines haven’t been completed yet, and so Bill is unable to say exactly why those problems were encountered, but can only speculate.

At the time, Rebel Air actually ran out of engines. There were two spares in an overhaul facility in the United States, but Bill couldn’t get them out here in time to get the aircraft back in the air. Remembering that the first two years was a time when there were no mechanical delays, there have been two occasions when charter groups were let down in the past twelve months. But twice in three years . . . that’s a pretty impressive record of reliability. The aeroplane is still around and giving faithful service after . 40 years simply because it is a simple, reliable aircraft. They still do a good job today.

The aeroplane is not ‘up-for-sale’, as was rumoured in the industry some months ago. ‘I’m not actively engaged in selling the aeroplane right now, but if some of the prices that were rumoured in the industry some months back were offered to me, then I might sell,’ says Bill. One person who most definitely would be most upset to see the aircraft go is Trevor Martin, Crew Chief at Rebel Air. Trevor works for another airline and has an interest in the DC-3 in his spare time. He does the 1001 jobs that need to be done, like oiling it and cleaning it . . . he loves the old aeroplane, and just wants to be associated with it. Maintenance on the DC-3 with its Pratt & Whitney 1830-92 engines is handled by Brian Chadwick, a very well-respected engineer. Christina Pike, an ex-airline hostel, Is Operations Manager, and acts as Flight Hostess on charter trips, serving light snacks, biscuits, tea, coffee and liquor.

What does it cost to charter VH-PWM? ‘Champagne and chicken flights around the harbour work out at about 25 dollars per passenger, but we can supply a day in the Hunter Valley with lunch, bus, wine-tasting, and the flight up and back for about 65 dollars’ ahead. Usually, the aircraft is chartered, and the person arranging the charter sub-divides the cost himself between all the passengers making up the group. The charter rate for 1983 is going to be 720 dollars per hour, depending on where you’re going, and I have to write in crew accommodation, stand-down charges, and a component for holding coming back into Sydney. ‘

Speaking with Bill Pike on the subject of Air Traffic Control at Sydney could develop into a one-day event, but basically, he sees the younger Australian controllers as amongst the best in the world but hampered by a restrictive system. ‘Sydney is not a busy airport, on international standards, it’s just a country cow pasture. The problem is runway availability. The only reason the Department can discriminate against charter aircraft as opposed to airline aircraft is because the isn’t too much traffic. It’s only because the place is quiet that they can discriminate and pluck people out of holding patterns. I’m very critical of that. I think it’s unjust. I think it’s wrong that people who choose to charter an aircraft be discriminated against in favour of people who choose to travel in an airliner! The reason is the airlines have the most political pull. It’s just a matter of catering to the guys with the pull, and neglecting the needs of those without it.’

And what is Bill’s nutshell opinion of the Department of Aviation?

‘At the workface, the guys do a great job, but the further up the line the go, the more difficult they are to see, the harder it is to get a decision out of them!’

Rebel Air is forced to abide by a system that sees it getting restricted traffic priority into Sydney Airport. It’s not uncommon for Bill Pike and his crew, and a complement of 32 passengers, to have to hold for an hour in a pattern, while a commuter, with perhaps five or six passengers on board, gets priority to join the landing sequence. The Department feels that their priority system is an appropriate one, but Bill does not. ‘My passengers in no way feel inferior to those on the commuter aeroplane; they feel as though they’re every bit as important. You can just imagine how this entire company feels When at the end of a trip on which we’ve worked very hard, the result is an hour’s holding. It blows all our profit, annoys our passengers, and yet other smaller operators paying less are given 15 minutes holding! You can just imagine the anger which is around this company!’

Some of Bill Pike’s remarks about the Department of Aviation aren’t complimentary, but I think I can understand why. The Department charges him too much and gives him too little.

The main groups who charter ‘Papa-Whiskey-Mike’ are Lawn Bowling Clubs, and flying bowlers. They’re flexible in their numbers and have compatriots in every NSW country town. They want to go away and play bowls, so they have a reason to go somewhere, and a group of people to meet them and look after them when they arrive. Bill doesn’t get many football groups, because there are usually too few or too many who want to get on board the aeroplane. With a Bowling Club, the persons chartering the aeroplane just keep selling tickets until the aircraft is filled! The drought is affecting operations, with not as much work being available from people in the country wanting to fly back to Sydney. Although activity is down due to the drought, the Department is increasing Air Navigation charges. Bill considers this totally unfair.

‘The only fair way is a fuel tax, and a movement charge. The Department claims that the GA community refused a movement charge, but it’s not the complete picture. They wanted to charge a lump sum and the movement fee at the same time. They never even suggested charging a movement fee to the airlines! They just wanted to shaft general aviation two ways at once!’

Perhaps if a fuel tax was imposed such as Bill is suggesting, along with a movement charge imposed on operators using the major capital city airports, the system would be seen to be more fair. If an operator in the country doesn’t use city facilities, why should he pay for them?

Bill has made enquiries with the Department of Motor Transport in NSW regarding the cost of registering a 32-seat commercial bus. Stacking the cost of 350 dollars against the cost of registering a little Cessna 172 for purely private usage, the registration of the Cessna amounts to 700 dollars, not including Third Party Insurance.

Bill Pike believes that the DofA is being faced with a problem where aviation is expanding too rapidly for them. ‘They’re getting a lot of flak from people who may have bought houses under approach paths, and now enjoy the publicity they get by complaining about the aircraft flying overhead. I have a house near Maroubra Beach. I don’t ring up the Premier and complain, and ask will he shift the ocean because my car’s going rusty! I see no reason why people who have openly and consciously approached a path to an airport should build a house under an receive the slightest amount of attention when they complain about aeroplanes flying overhead. It’s just because they get the attention they do that they’re able to exert so much influence!’