VALE: David Black On 24 October David Black, a contracted pilot, died while fighting a fire in a remote region on the South Coast. This moving eulogy and photos were provided by David’s widow Julie Black.
May 2014 24 October 2013 Afternoon all, This afternoon Police have confirmed the death of one of our valued fixed wing water bombing aircraft pilots. At approximately 10.00am this morning, a fixed wing turbine dromader aircraft crashed whilst working on the Wirritin fire some 40kms west of Ulladulla. The crash occurred in remote and rugged mountainous terrain. Police and rescue services responded to the scene and the aero medical team had some difficulty in winching into the crash site due to weather and terrain. This is a tragic accident and tonight there is a wife and young family who will not have the benefit of welcoming home their husband and father. The RFS, the firefighting community and more particularly, a young family has lost somebody very special today. Regards Shane NSW RFS Commissioner
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By Kathy Mexted. With thanks to Phil Hurst and Julian Fraser
As winter sets in across the southern hemisphere, David Black’s (Blackie’s) family try to make sense of a life without him. Christmas came and went, back to school, birthdays and an anniversary. They say the first six months will leave you numb, and while privately, families would be carefully pasting photos into an album and maybe, if she can bear it, a widow might carefully fold away his clothes, Julie Black has continued to run the business that she and Dave had only owned for a couple of years. Blackie’s aircraft went down on 24 October 2013 while fighting the fires west of Ulladulla. It is little wonder that RFS Commissioner, Shane Fitzsimmons had to fight back
the tears while making the announcement of David’s death to the media. Dave was born in Adelaide and completed Year 12 at St Peters College. After completing a degree in Mechanical Engineering in South Australia, he bartered with his parents to trade farm work for flying lessons. Aviation became a central part of his life and he pursued a career as an agricultural pilot – one that took him from Adelaide to Griffith to Borneo. It was not only his broad smile and laconic personality that made him popular and immediately put people at ease, but his natural flying ability and continuing quest for improvement that saw him admired as a pilot and later, a business man. Life took a turn when in his early twenties Dave walked into the aerial agricultural office in Moree and met Julie who