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Post by baronbeeza on Jan 15, 2014 13:03:29 GMT 12
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Post by baronbeeza on Jan 18, 2014 15:16:57 GMT 12
I posted this the other day and no-one picked up on it. No Leonardo quips or anything. I expected some of the NI guys to have mentioned knowing Brian as I am sure he was a character about the region. Well central NI that would be.
A story....
The Orderly Officer's room at Wigram was a drab, austere bedroom at the base of one wing. The closest room was the laundry so nothing too exciting.
Just a bed, a telephone and bare walls. Well except for two notices tacked on the back of the door. One was the fire procedures with evacuation plan etc.
The other was like a wanted posted. A photo and a lengthy narrative.
Beware this character that has a penchant for getting about in various 'official uniforms'. I think Customs and Police were mentioned. The implication was that he may try impersonating a RNZAF member and try getting access on Base.
The Orderly Officer had a briefcase that was handed over at the start of the roster, it contained various instructions and duties that were to be carried out. I am sure it would have also had a warning about this fellow. We are talking early '80's here so it was a while ago.
I suspect a few others here will have memories, other Bases may have had something similar.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jan 18, 2014 19:38:04 GMT 12
So what was the actual crime committed? Was it the fact he took the controls of the plane and had a fly, or is it that he said he had flown before?
I am fairly sure a non-pilot taking the controls for a fly under the guidance of a qualified pilot is legal, otherwise we'd have no instructors and pupils.
Regarding telling the aircraft owner he'd flown extensively in the past, is it necessarily a lie? Maybe he'd done a lot of the same sort of flights, flying with another person who was actually a pilot.
I am not defending this guy, just trying to work out for sure what he did wrong and was arrested for. the article does not bother to say what the charges were that were laid.
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Post by Peter Lewis on Jan 18, 2014 20:43:52 GMT 12
S . . . . a non-pilot taking the controls for a fly under the guidance of a qualified pilot is legal Well actually, according to the letter of the law, in that situation the PIC must be a qualified instructor not just a licenced pilot. |
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jan 18, 2014 21:10:53 GMT 12
OK, thanks for clarifying.
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Post by baronbeeza on Jan 18, 2014 22:00:14 GMT 12
Ok, a little more of the story.
The name on the poster, - Brian Damien Hunter.
It must have meant something at the time. We also had a green Toyota Corolla hatchback, Reg JW something, popping up about Base at the same time so I for one was vigilant. We were on the lookout for sightings of that particular vehicle also.
About 5 years later and I was tripping about with a fresh CPL and looking for work. One of the replies came from Hastings and was for a summer job doing banner towing. I was using a borrowed Cessna 150 and had a bit of a circuit planned through the Eastern Central NI.
The chap at Hastings who picked me up from the aircraft had that familiar sounding name. I had already thought about it and wondered about the chances, I had a mental picture of Roger Capell as I knew he resembled the pic on the poster back at Wigram. 'The Mexican bandit'..
Sure enough by now I was having some concerns, I assumed that our impersonator would be going by a pseudonym but here was the coincidence. Same name and now I could see he was also a Roger look alike.
I stayed the night at the family house, seeing a RNZAF officer's tunic hanging behind the door in the study probably only confirmed what I already knew.
I had my trip already planned but Brian seemed friendly enough and obviously had local knowledge that I was lacking. I saw a logbook and it contained hour upon hour of topdressing flying. Anyway he accompanied me as we flew further East, then North stopping at all points. I was very wary obviously but had no reason to doubt that he had not flown an aircraft. He never took the controls of the 150 but I gained the impression that he knew how to fly.
Trying to get back into Hastings from the interior meant going through the gap ?
Anyway we were getting weather-bound and would have had daylight issues, he mentioned the old DC3 strip with the pub not so far off the end of it. Would that have been Lochinvar airstrip ?
We stayed the night at the pub and I dropped him off back at Hastings the next day before continuing South to return the Cessna.
Just another of those aviation fuelled trips that sticks in your mind.
Sometimes flying may be boring, more often than not it is memorable enough to find some room in the memory cells.
I started the new job within weeks. A few days later I was in the local watering hole meeting the regulars... one of which was an Airport Security type. I related the story to her and her face lit up.... she knew very well, she couldn't believe that he was 'hiding' in plain sight.
She liked me had assumed he was elusive, not so easy to find as having his name in the phone book.
160 dishonesty convictions is getting up there. Perhaps you need to be a little stupid to get caught so many times.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jan 19, 2014 6:23:24 GMT 12
Now I know you're making this story up Beeza, as if hey had airport security way back in the 1980's!  |
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Post by baronbeeza on Jan 19, 2014 10:39:19 GMT 12
You got me there Dave, I did hesitate when writing that particular piece as I had to visualise what it was called back in 1990. I imagined Freda had a light blue uniform, again after 20 odd years I could be getting confused with the modern equivalent. Others I met that night would have been Ron, the tow pilot. Lucy from Ansett and Gary, Chief Pilot for a Bandit operator. www.avsec.govt.nz/About-Avsec/Our-Governance/Governance-Model/Don't ask me what the aviation threat was back in those days, I doubt any of us knew. One of the Gulf Wars was making headlines though. |
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Post by baronbeeza on Jan 19, 2014 12:18:49 GMT 12
Oh yes, another thought. The particular aircraft had a radio problem at the time. It had been intermittent in operation, the worst kind of defect. Although it was fine when I picked it up and the owners thought it had been fixed that was not the case. Some duration into the trip I realised I could receive no problem but there was occasionally a transmit issue. I just filed a NORDO flight plan with a note that I could normally receive. This in the days before Transponders and what a pleasant way to get about. I could hear everyone looking after me and felt very safe, reluctant to even try and transmit. I had by now ascertained that the radio worked in fine weather, it was the wet it didn't like. Now the conditions we encountered trying to get through from Taupo to Napier were not pleasant, not anything like the forecast I had been given. About the time we onboard were getting concerned and reviewing our options others in the area were concerned for our welfare also. We could hear the radio calls to us but of course could not reply. I won't say the controllers were getting frantic but we were planned to go through a somewhat notorious piece of terrain and no-one had heard from us. Anyway, while we were debating our options Brian had a thought. He pulled out what must have been one of those very early cell phones (Motorola brick in 1990 ?) and we found the number of Info I think it would have been. We had to make the call while at altitude as well of course. Job done ! He just informed them we were ok and what our intentions were. Relief all round. Had I been alone I would have invariably ended up on a strip, in the back of beyond, frantically trying to find the nearest house to cancel my Flight Plan. The guy definitely had a few clues about him. I didn't bother asking where the phone came from or why I hadn't seen him with it before. |
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Post by thomarse on Jan 20, 2014 21:03:26 GMT 12
BB, much as I have tried I can't seem to work out how my mate Roger Cappell (aka Kapil Dev - remember him?) crept into this.
I'm sure he'd be intrigued too. I'll send him a link
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Post by baronbeeza on Jan 20, 2014 21:12:48 GMT 12
Hi Thomarse I knew Roger a few years after seeing the poster, about two or three years I reckon. The photo was still fresh enough in my mind to have a second look at Roger the first time we met. I thought he resembled the Mexican bandit on the wanted poster. When I landed at Napier I was wondering what the chances were of the pick-up resembling the Brian Hunter of the poster, - five or six years had passed by this time. The only benchmark I had by then was Roger's features..... not the personality obviously. Sure enough as soon as I climbed out of the aircraft and met Brian I knew immediately who I was dealing with. I thought others here may have known Brian, he must have been around aeroplanes for long time by now. As for Roger, only good times and great laughs. The second floor was one of the better ones. My regards.  |
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Feb 5, 2014 16:50:45 GMT 12
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Post by baronbeeza on Feb 26, 2014 14:31:14 GMT 12
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 1, 2014 14:05:16 GMT 12
Repeat fraudster notches up 184 convictionsBy Sam Hurley of Hawke's Bay Today - HAWKES BAY TODAY 1:20 PM Tuesday Jul 1, 2014  A 55-year-old Hawke's Bay man, described as a "serial fraudster" and "querulous complainer", has been sentenced for impersonating a lawyer and now holds 184 convictions, including impersonating a pilot. Brian Hunter was sentenced to five months' home detention today, after being found guilty of two charges of obtaining by deception at Napier District Court in February. Judge Jonathan Down said Hunter, who had "underlying psychological issues", will undergo a psychiatric assessment and complete any treatment or counselling if required as part of the sentence. Judge Down found the "serial fraudster" guilty in February's judge alone trial, after he fabricated the identities of Kapiti Coast lawyers Michael O'Hara and Brian Shaw. Hunter used the fake names to hire two moving companies, including Crown Relocations, as he moved his possessions from Waipukurau to Hastings in October 2012 and from Ashurst to Waipukurau in April 2012. www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11285493
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Post by thomarse on Jan 17, 2015 19:40:42 GMT 12
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Post by Darren Masters on Feb 2, 2015 9:04:20 GMT 12
Isn't this the joker that was flying Russell Crowe's helicopter? Same couple?
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Post by scrooge on Feb 2, 2015 10:36:10 GMT 12
Nope, different people. That couple were believed to be in Australia last article I read.
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Post by Darren Masters on Feb 3, 2015 9:09:07 GMT 12
Nope, different people. That couple were believed to be in Australia last article I read. Roger. Cheers. Always wondered where they got to. Maybe he is flying the PM's jet now? |
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Post by isc on Feb 12, 2015 20:49:05 GMT 12
Didn't see much of it, but saw a bit in the paper today about this chap, may have nicked an ocean going yatch, and taken off with his partner. isc
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Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 12, 2015 22:04:33 GMT 12
Torpedo practice time for No. 5 Squadron?
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