High Time for Bill

SATURDAY MAGAZINE Winding up for another adventure A quick twirl and she’s ready… …and it’s all system go High time for Bill Ace Australian aviator Bill Benbow was the toast of Canadian flying instructors during World War II but one of his fondest memories is a mission of mercy in outback NSW that won him no honours. He borrowed an Auster aircraft to rescue a grazier and his wife who were stranded on their sheep property by floods in the 1950s. When Bill found a dry strip to land, the station owner yelled: “Don’t worry about the missus and me. Save the rams, they’re more valuable than us.” He managed to get them all out, as anyone who knows him would expect. Former World War Two pilot Bill Benbow is still going strong after a lifetime of flying. History records Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and Charles Ulm as Australia’s favourite air heroes, but “Bushman Bill” Benbow is one of the best pilots ever to strap on a harness. Bill joined the RAAF Reserve at the start of the war and later became one of Australia’s youngest instructors before being sent to Canada under the Empire Air Training Scheme. He trained hundreds of military pilots and later became commanding officer of a bomber and gunnery school. In 1947 he joined the Royal Newcastle Aero Club as an instructor before moving into civil aviation. In 1950 he joined Overland Air Services operating around Condobolin, Temora and Coonabarabran. During this period he undertook numerous bush flying operations, including medical transport and cattle mustering. Bill now flies from Warnervale where he is the flying instructor for the Central Coast branch of the Royal Newcastle Aero Club and spends much of his time training young and old alike. His students include teenagers, professionals, tradesmen, housewives and retired businessmen. Bill believes good flying discipline is the key to safe aviation. “If you’re Benbow-trained you’re properly trained.” (Photo caption) Bill has some expert advice for Noelle Travica, one of his better-looking pupils.