A tribute to Col Pay

[<simon>]

I know this is a bit late but i havent seen any other threads on this subject.

On the 7th December 2007, Australia and the warbird community lost one of its great champions, when 75 year old Col Pay was killed while testing a new water-scooping system on a Air Tractor AT-802s.

The aircraft flipped and crashed into Lake Liddell, New South Wales.

Col Pay was famous in the WW2 aviation world, having previously owned the only flying Spitfire in Australia, as well as a Mustang, Tiger Moth and 2 P-40 Kittyhawks.
He was also involved in sourcing batches of A-37's, T-28's, Chipmunks and L-19's during the 1980's and 1990's, which provided an huge injection of projects into Australia and boosted the population of ex-military aircraft by several dozen.

His leadership and enthusiasum for all things aviation will be deeply missed.

 

[Heinz]

Yes he will be sadly missed. The tribute in Flightpath was very good.

A great figure of Australian aviation.

 

[Wildcat]

Agreed, he did great things for the Warbird movement down here.

 

[evangilder]

 

[Wayne Little]

 

[Bigxiko]

 

[trackend]

sad to see

 

[ToughOmbre]

Never too late to salute a good man.

TO

 

[Njaco]

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

 

[Micdrow]

 

[FLYBOYJ]

 

[Nostalgair]

It was truly sad news.

I first met Col as a boy with my Dad and then later in life I would drop into Scone on my student pilot Navs before doing the same as an young instructor climbing the greasy aviation pole.

My overwhelming memory is a man of modesty with time for young blokes like me with stars in their eyes. We must have been a real inconvenience to the operation at Scone; sniffing around the hangar for the various machines that passed through the doors. Spitfire, Mustang, Bird Dog, Kittyhawk, etc, etc. Yet he always took the time to stop and say g'day.

Clear skies Col.

Owen

Col's Spitfire MV239 in the mid 80s. (It is now with the fine folk of the Temora Aviation Museum, bearing the 'Grey Nurse' scheme.)