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Mornington News 18 August 2015
Stephen Taylor steve@mpnews.com.au POLICE are investigating whether any video footage was taken by a gyrocopter pilot before his fatal crash at Cannons Creek on Sunday last week. They are also seeking anyone who may have witnessed or filmed the incident. Carl Solomons, 59, of Patterson Lakes, died when his Cavalon twin-seater aircraft hit power lines and crashed into shallow water on a flight between Tyabb airfield and Tooradin. His passenger, 37, of Hampton Park, was taken to the Royal Melbourne Hospital with serious injuries. Neighbours waded and paddled out to assist the stricken men despite the risk of electrocution from the fallen power lines, prompting Casey CIU Detective Senior Sergeant Terry Rowlands to describe them as “heroes”. Minimum flying heights for gyrocopters in Australia are 300 feet – much higher than the power lines – but Australian Sports Rotorcraft Association president Paul Campbell said “extenuating circumstances, such as engine problems or illness to himself or his passenger” – may have necessitated the lower altitude. Mr Solomons was a member of the association
Death crash: The stricken gyrocopter at Rutherford Inlet, near Cannons Creek. Picture: Donna Oates, Pakenham Gazette
as well as Peninsula Aero Club’s only gyrocopter pilot. He regularly posted videos of his flights online, raising speculation that he may also have recorded his last flight. Detectives say videos “are one of the lines of inquiry that need to be canvassed”. Any footage found may contribute to finding the cause of the 12.15pm crash. In one recent flight, Mr Solomons appears to be flying at low altitude over beaches at Inverloch and Venus Bay. Attached dialogue suggests he was “trying to warn swimmers of five rips” in the area. A post mortem last week was reportedly assessing whether the grandfather was experiencing any significant health issues in the lead up to the crash. Casey CIU can be called on 9705 3111 or Crime Stoppers 1800 333 000.
Just a small jar – that takes the biscuit! By David Harrison FOR council watchers, the shire’s austerity drive is plain to see. It’s the biscuits. Now only a small jar accompanies the pre-meeting tea and coffee, a small jar bereft of cream treats. The gallery arrives at an hour where dinner merely beckons from the distant other side of the meeting closure, to find entry barred. And, once inside, not a cream bikkie to sustain oneself. One shivers in the cold, dark and rain, beating futilely with whitened knuckles on the locked armoured glass door (CW tends to gaudy prose when hypothermic), callously ignored by those inside luxuriating in the warmth, who at the 10 August meeting including Fred Crump of Mornington, world traveller and veteran inquisitor on the state of the Mornington clock on the Barkly St roundabout. So there was Fred, on the other side of the glass, questions in one hand, gesturing with a shrug that he could not help us accomplish ingress. Was that a triumphant smirk? Was that a half-devoured biscuit he was hiding in his other hand? We discovered he was gloating over the English Ashes victory. But CW is not one for lingering bitterness, unless deprived of a cream biscuit. (Did he mention the small, poorly stocked jar?) The size of the meeting agenda drove such matters from his mind. As did the prospect of Fred’s questions. Meeting under way, CW decided that the prayer needs a rewrite. The “Thys” must go, as verily they have been banished from the New English Bible. And we need to know what the evacuation alarm sounds like, in case a speedy egress from the chamber becomes necessary. Perhaps we should have a practice evacuation once a year. Briefings and petitions out of the way, we came to questions. Sure enough, Fred Crump weighed in, on the local government federal conference held in Canberra, which was attended by the mayor Cr Bev Colomb. What “good tidings” had she brought back to the peninsula, he asked, or had it been a “futile junket”? It was a cornucopia, the mayor replied, comprising environmental, social and economic goodies, plus national broadband network tidings of great joy, and other bits and pieces including carbon neutrality initiatives and news on the arts, “which we were hoping to attract more funding to”. CW frowns on sentences that end in preposi-
tions. Up with them he will not put. Then the second Crump question, on the topic of war pigeons, 33 of which were awarded the Victoria Cross. Could a war memorial be built in Mornington at shire expense to commemorate them, he asked, as the RSL says it has no money. Two pigeons were Australian-bred. Cr Colomb said she would take the matter up with the RSL. Would the pigeons prefer the “For Valour” medal – made from Crimean War cannon bronze and massively hindering their flight – to a bonus bushel of bespoke grain for the lads in the loft? There was once a Melbourne broadsheet that had a loft atop its Collins St building to receive carrier pigeons that flew from ships arriving at Queenscliff with the latest news stowed in canisters attached to their legs – the new technology of the 19th century. They beat their rivals by a day with this system. Now news flies across the globe in milliseconds. Four questions on the Skylift gondola project followed, on trees, explosives, emergency plans and loss of flora and fauna. This topic, and elements of these questions, appear in a report elsewhere in these pages. The shire played a straight bat, referring to VCAT’s approval of the Skylift plans in a solid defence invoking the “it’s all their doing” line. The councillor arc was substantially depleted, with David Gibb and Anne Shaw missing from the conservative ranks and Lynn Bowden, absent from the progressive-ish side. Meeting chair Cr Colomb used her casting vote once or twice during the meeting, which covered the shire’s carbon neutrality policy and, again, the never-ending and testily contested Skylift saga. Hunger gripped CW’s vittles when Item 5, Councillors and Delegates Reports, was announced. He made no excuse and left; hot homemade soup and toast awaited.