[Dan Harding]

Although I've watched a video that exist of Tim Travers, I do not know the story of/about him????

Are there more videos, what is the time frame of his flying, what were the gliders he flew, who were his flying buddies, that sort of thing.

[TomGalvin]

More info:

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=3858
http://ozreport.com/toc.php?7.130#3

[AirNut]

Hi Dan,

I met and flew briefly with Tim and his main buddy, Peter Brown, during the New South Wales championships at Byron Bay in 1978 and I seem to remember a few other times around that time, mainly at Stanwell. Peter Brown shot most of the footage that appears in Tim Travers tribute video which you're probably referring to. I seem to remember that Peter Brown was killed sometime back then in a motorcycle accident.

Apart from the few times that I met him, most of what I know about Tim comes from various war stories that I heard at the time (late 70's). And there sure were a lot of them; Tim was something of a legend even then. Some of the stories were pretty outrageous and quite 'out there' (which I'm sure you'll hear about from some of his other flying mates). One of the most famous of these, which made the national news at the time, was when Tim sneaked up onto the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the dead of night (illegally). Although you can do that now on a guided tour, back then it was forbidden and a scary thing to attempt. But Tim dragged his glider up onto the very top of the arch and then flew off at sunrise the next morning and landed near Luna Park, an amusement park that was nearby. He got arrested and fined (some nominal amount, from memory).
To my knowledge, it's the only time anyone has flown a hang glider off the bridge.

Another story that I heard about Tim (thankfully not experienced by me directly), was his party trick of taking off at Stanwell with a handful of gravel in his pocket. He'd then maneuver himself above some poor unsuspecting victim parked in the lift and drop a single small pebble onto the victim's sail. There'd then be sound like a pistol shot, followed by very loud swearing and "WTF"s. If you've ever had a foreign noise come from your glider while flying, you can imagine the adrenaline rush that would cause!

On a personal note, I can thank Tim for getting me back into flying after a 22 year break (quit flying in '89). The idea had been hovering in the back of my mind for a while and then about 6 months ago I found out that Time had died of a brain tumor quite a while back (before he even got to his forties I believe). That made me realize that life is short and we have to make the best of what time we have. Tim certainly lived that way.

I'll be fascinated to see what else turns up on this thread! Thanks for starting it.

[NMERider]

[AirNut]

I have a similar attitude to you, Jonathan. Having someone close to you die young, or having a near miss yourself makes you realize just how amazing and precious life really is, and how thin is the thread by which we all hang. I guess that's a privilege of the old over the young; having less of our life left, maybe we value it more.

That outlook probably drives how I make my risk assessment decisions, particularly in flying. On the one hand, life is short, so we want to pack in all the great experiences that we can: that next flight, flying a new site, a new glider, whatever. On the other hand, we don't want to throw away all the great experiences yet to come by a foolhardy risk decision. So live hard, but not too hard! Or, another way of saying it, it's the Goldilocks problem: "not too hot, not too cold, but just right"!

[gasdive]

I saw those "videos" when they were super 8's at an instructor's flat. At the time I had about 12 seconds of air time and was pretty amazed but for some reason thought that in a few years I'd be flying the same (this hasn't happened yet).

One story that has stuck with me about Tim was that he was at a local dance. I gather that it was some sort of folk dance (which were popular around that time). Apparently he did a backflip out the window during the dance, then jumped back through another window and continued the dance without getting out of place.

Even the other pilots (many of whom had started in gliders they'd built out of scraps) thought he was a bit of a mad man.

=:)

Stanwell had a few characters around. Tim was a bit of a standout from a couple of years before I started, but I think Old Bill was the standout from my era. I think he was in his late 60's when I started around 83ish. At the time that seemed very ancient to me. He would fly in anything that was less than about 5 knots over the back. North, South, East or West, he'd still take off. We'd all be sitting around waiting for the wind to change and he'd take off and do a few passes then "topland" with an incredible "SPANG" sound. No-one would move a muscle. Unable to ignore a crash I would go down the hill to find him perched just above the 300 foot cliff, attached to the 60 degree slope by tussock grass. After dragging him and the glider back up the hill I'd collapse from exhaustion and while he'd say "thanks son" and take off again. Moments later "SPANG" would ring out again. He'd do this *all day*. After about 3 cycles I would also fail to move a muscle when I heard the crash sound.

Sometimes he'd sink out too much and go and land in the park below. Where everyone else would carefully roll the glider and pad the sharp bits before bagging it, he would just fold the wings and throw it on his car with a single bungee cord to keep it there (mostly) and drive back up for another flight. Preflight consisted of taking it off the car and unfolding the wings.

After about 5 years I drifted away from flying and when I came back over 20 years later I asked about him. It seems that he'd kept up pretty much the same for 20 years until he died of a heart attack carrying a glider out from Hell Hole.

=:)

[AirNut]

[Dan Harding]

Thanks you for the info, it helped fill in the questions I have.

[gasdive]

[sallycan]

Hey I am Peter's sister and would love any photos or film of Peter please. Pete sadly died in 1980 in California on a motorbike during sad times. We do have an award he won: 2nd Annual tennessee tree toppers cross country classic..1979...81 miles..Cross Country Classic". Pete was just one of those guys - he did everything well! Sally

[Sky]

Dear Sally,

I lived at Peters place in Pacific Palms for a few months in 1979 /1980. He was a fantastic human being.

I do have photoes

You can reach me at

janmorten@yahoo.com
faceBook
+47 95251828

Sincerly,
Jan Morten Schultz