GARRETT, David Mitchell
Formerly of Epping
Passed away peacefully on November 29, 2016 aged 84 years. Loving and adored husband of Margaret. Proud father of Judy, Sally, Roger and Helen. Loved grandfather of Tori, Anthony, Angus, Keith and David. Younger brother of Margaret and Arnold.
David’s family invited those who knew him to attend a celebration of his life held in St John’s Anglican Church, 9 Chapman Ave, Beecroft on Friday, December 9, 2016 at 1.00pm.
Morrie O’Connor (MO’C) and Cyril’s son, Richard Vahtrick, have passed on the sad news that Cyril has succumbed to the illness that has apparently been negatively impacting his health for some time.
Cyril’s wife, Maisie, has not been well for some time leaving Richard and his sister, Ann, to comfort Maisie and make the funeral arrangements as well as look to her health and well-being for the longer term.
Cyril was well known and well respected in the OTC family and we all mourn his loss but are reminded of him and his personal and professional qualities through our many memories of him.
I believe that Richard and MO’C will pass on details of the funeral arrangements once they have been finalised and I will keep you advised.
Please send and personal tributes that you would like me to pass on to Cyril’s family and for use on the OTVA web site.
May He Rest In Peace.
FROM GARY SAMUELS:
It is with sadness that I advise you that my ‘old mate’ Ian Barlow passed away last Monday night after a long battle with cancer.
Ian started with OTC in 1972 and on completion of training, was stationed at Paddington ISTC. After 16 years, he left from the Data Gateway in Broadway to join the Commonwealth Bank.
His funeral will be held at Forrest Lawn at Leppington 10:00 13 December.
Trevor
Congratulations on achieving this significant milestone.
I am told by the 95 year old father of one of my golfing mates that 90 is the new 80!
Please accept my best wishes for a happy and healthy 2016/17.
Peter Bull
George’s passing has been very traumatic for his brother, Peter, and his wife, Chris, and his children Michael, David, Elyse and Kate.
George suffered a cardiac arrest and went into a coma and passed away 3 weeks later. It was extraordinarily tragic and completely unexpected largely because he was a very fit and active person.
Peter Bakunowicz will provide the Tribute to George compiled by his son, Michael, when he gets back from overseas.
Guntis (“Gus”) Berzins reminds us all the way from Latvia that another anniversary of an historic event in Australia telecommunications history is fast approaching. If you have any stories or photos that relate to this event please send them to me for circulation to the wider group.
A friend of Gus, Colin Mackellar, reminds us that later this month will be the 50th anniversary of the historic TV broadcast between Carnarvon and Goonhilly / London, which was the first ever live TV transmission between Australia and overseas. Colin Mackellar was at one stage associated with the NASA tracking operations in Australia.
You may wish to distribute his message, and particularly the associated honeysuckle link on your veterans mailing list, as it has a considerable amount of information about OTC(A).
Jim began his career in OTC in VIM (Melbourne) as a CRS Operator back in the late 1950’s.
Jim and Keith McCredden studied for their Cable certificates in Sydney in 1961 along with Geoff McDonald.
Jim was posted to Suva around 1962 and he & Keith were together at Cocos Island in 1964/5.
Jim went into the Commercial Branch sometime after Cocos closed and was later appointed to the position of WA Manager for OTC Sales.
Jim was the manager of the Perth OTC office in the early 90’s.
Keith was not sure of dates for any of these moves and thinks that Jim possible retired about the time of the Telstra takeover (circa 1991).
Keith believes that he took up gliding and was in the same club as Graham Watts.
Unfortunately Jim did not keep in touch with the Vets or any of his old OTC workmates so details of his wife, Sandra, or any of their children are unknown.
More to follow if we hear anything.
From ROBERT BRAND
Looks like ThunderStruck Aerospace is a major part of a Mars mission that just got one step closer to going to Mars. The project leverages, in some part, on the engineering knowledge acquired by Robert in his activities related to his hobby and passion of space travel & exploration as well as his engineering knowledge obtained through years of working for OTC.
The Mars Median Project is all about landing a network of organic methane detectors on Mars. Phase 1 was so successful they are moving into Phase 2 using my deployment system of impactor probes. It will be rather amazing if this gets to fly. Some testing will be in Australia somewhere and although it is me that is part of the core team, it will be the team and ThunderStruck Aero that will do the testing of the backplane and the deployment here. If it passes one more phase it may fly as a solo mission to Mars. It should be amazing. If it works it could last for years operating the median biological methane detectors, moisture detection, weather system and more. The network may be up to 30km long It will work back to the landed backshell for a relay to the orbiters and back to earth. All will be solar powered including the spikes.
Here is the conversation this morning:
Nick Howes (UK) has posted a comment on Robert’s Facebook page that reads: “And in other news, I am almost ready to let you in on [Mars] Median project phase 2… and we took your advice, lock stock mate… [Mars ground] penetrators all the way!
This is amazing as at the end of the phase 1 testing for the Median Project (out of the UK) for landing a network on Mars I specified to the team that only penetrators would do the job of landing a long network on Mars. It was all about the weight of the parts of the network and getting them safely to the ground. There was no way to carry the mass of making each node a soft landing and ESA would never put anything volatile in the lander package.
The testing of a Mars penetrators on the Nullarbor Plains will be insane. Dropping spikes from 3 Km altitude! Like I said, balloon flights and similar activities are an amazing way to test for future Mars missions. I am so looking forward to this. As one of the few people in the world with the skill set to do the high altitude work I find it amazing and it all started because of a father son bonding activity of launching a high altitude balloon – 28 flights and many years back. Wow if this goes all the way to Mars, I will be very pleased. You cannot imagine how much fun this work is and to hear that your idea is moving into stage 2 with funding is amazing.”
Nick Howes then said: “Robert, you’re gonna love the team I am working with at a UK University too, the engineering side is insane..these guys make life size Iron man robots…that work!”
Anyway stay tuned as we work over the next year testing ground penetration somewhere like the Nullabor. My company just took one step to getting a project on Mars. Slamming spikes into the ground justifies the company name of ThunderStruck Aerospace.
Then the details started flowing from Nick. They had adopted everything about the probes too.
Nick Howes: Thanks Robert. It’s logical and works, the plan in the heatshield mounting works too. Aerodynamic modelling now underway, to look at optimal release height, and impact velocity. A ton of research papers being worked through on this… trust me, it never stopped, we just had to find the right team to work on phase 2… got them now!
Robert Brand: It is a really crazy project and the penetrators will be a real first as will a network on Mars that may last for years if built right.
Nick Howes The aerodynamic modelling is being done by a University student and her supervisor. They are also going to build the shell for the penetrator (and would value your input hugely). You also need to look at a project called DS2 which was due to fly on Mars Polar lander (but crashed) different in that they planned full EDL
Robert Brand: It is the shock absorption that is critical and the penetration material. It would be great if it had a hard front and a softer crumple zone to absorb some impact but still crash through the ground without being destroyed. A spring like system for the electronics – much like a woodpeckers brain is protected from 1200G – yes – 1200G force. Lots to work on with the team
Nick Howes: Tungsten front and reinforced CF crumple zone, spring loading is in the idea too… nice. Possibly a Kevlar style composite too.
In case you missed the earlier posts about the Mars Median Project, it is a long network deployed on Mars to detect Organic Methane and pinpoint the origin of the vent.
The image is a simulation of methane detectors on Mars placed manually during a Morocco SIM. It was phase 1.
Jeannie worked in the office at Spring Street, Sydney.
Thanks to John Morrison for alerting us.
We extend our sincere condolences to Jeannie’s family in this time of sadness.
We would also like to celebrate Jeannie’s contribution to OTC and to her friends and colleagues with whom she worked so if you have any photos or any words that you would like to offer in Tribute Jeannie please email me and I will upload them to the OTVA BLOG for all to see and read.
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