Land for a training school in Victoria's Point Cook was bought by the government in 1913. The Central Flying School [CFS] which was established used a rag-tag fleet of aircraft from Britain, France and America, often heavily out of date. One of the aircraft which arrived was a Bristol Scout.
Bristol Scout CFS10 
Source: Carpo's Model Gallery. Paul Carpenter's Gavia 1/48 Bristol Scout C is converted to a D model in the marking's of Point Cook's Central Flying School. One of the problems with the Central Flying School was its antiquated equipment. To overcome this a Sopwith or Bristol scout was ordered. The Bristol Scout D that arrived on the 28th of September 1916 with the Royal Naval Air Service serial of 8976.
Arthur Cobby in
High Adventure noted the presence of the Bristol Scout;
There was another 'real' aeroplane in the hangar that was never allowed out. It was too dangerous. It had a speed of nearly 80 miles per hour and was a single-seat Bristol Scout.
To we novices it seemed the last word in high speed aeroplane construction, and we were wont to gaz eon it in awe as it rested behind its wired off enclosure.
But we discovered a few months later that it was one of the simplest machines to fly in existence, in fact when we arrived in England, we saw dozens of them at one 'drome being tossed around the sky by youngsters with only a few hours flying experience.
The aircraft was occasionally flown by instructors and advanced students. In 1917 it was set to fly to Richmond in Sydney, but didn't get past Wagga where it crashed. Keith Isaacs records;
But a mishap later occurred at Wagga where the aircraft ended up on its back and had to be returned to Point Cook. It is interesting to record that the Bristol Scout was photographed at Wagga with 8796 on the rear fuselage and CFS4 on the rudder.
CSF4 had been a Duperduissin from the Central Flying School that had been written off in 1914. The Bristol Scout survived the war and flew in 1919 at Flemington raceway. It is thought in 1920 it was removed from service.
Richard Williams writes of both Lewis and Vickers armed Bristol Scouts being with No.1 Sqn AFC. He flew a No.14 RFC Bristol Scout at Kantara.
A Lewis gun was attached to this aircraft [Bristol Scout] by some home-made fittings and as it had to fire clear of the airscrew disc it could not be fired straight ahead. It could only be attached to the centre section struts and it pointed out at about 40 degrees to the right of the line of flight.
It appears he also got one in his flight in No.1 Sqn AFC while they were at Cairo which had a similar Lewis gun fitting. He also reports flying a Bristol Scout in No.1 AFC when they were based at Mahemdia. The Scout had been taken over from No.14 RFC - presumably with the same armament setup. However later in 1916 he writes of a Bristol Scout coming to the squadron with a Vickers and interrupter gear:
A Bristol Scout received at this time was fitted with a 90 horsepower Clerget rotary engine and with a Vickers gun synchronised to fire through the propeller - our first such gun.
Williams mentions that the interrupter gear was ok on the ground in a horizontal position but in the air the mechanical gear got 'whip' in it, such that bullets hit the propeller. They put deflectors on the propeller to try and guard against it.
Most Popular on South Sea Republic
The articles that have been viewed the most:
Most Popular Restaurants in Phoenix
Phoenix Eats Out is the restaurant review site for
Phoenix,
Scottsdale and
Old Town Scottsdale which lists the modernist and contemporary restaurants, taverns and bars in the greater Phoenix area.
This is the list of the most popular restaurants pages from phoenixeatsout.com that have been viewed the most;
My personal favourite restaurants in Phoenix are
AZ88,
Postinos,
Bomberos with
Grazie,
Humble Pie,
Orange Table,
The Vig,
Fez and others coming close behind. View the complete list with the photo-journalistic style images on
phoenixeatsout.com
Most Popular Hikes in Arizona
Arizona is an outdoor state and has lots of hiking in the city and around the state. Phoenix is unusual for most cities in having several large mountains in the center of the city with great hiking. Anyone who comes to Phoenix has to do the
Echo Canyon trail on Camelback and the
Summit Hike on Squaw Peak or Piesta Peak. The views of the city, suburbs and surrounding mountains are wonderful from Camelback and Piesta Peak.
For more experienced hikers there is the McDowell Mountains in North Scottsdale that has several difficult and strenuous hikes in
Tom's Thumb and
Bell Pass. Alternatively, you can hike the highest mountain in Arizona. At 12,600 feet
Humphrey's Peak is a long and difficult hike.
Alternate Australian Constitutions
Between 2004 and 2009 this site,
southsearepublic.org, was a constitutional blog based on scoop which focused on Australian and global constitutional issues.
One of the strongest aspects of it was the development of constitutions by those involved in the blog. These constitutions are the outcome:
The constitutions were built using principles from Montesquieu's separation of powers, the enlightnment's universal political rights and the ancient Athenian technology of sortition and choice by lot.
Archives For South Sea Republic
South Sea Republic started in 2004 as an Australian constitutional blog in 2004 based on scoop software. It was an immigrative outgrowth of Kuro5hin. The archives for each year since then;
The articles are ordered by views.
Who Is Cam Riley
I am an Australian living in the United States as a permanent resident.
I am a software developer by trade and mostly work in Java and jump between middleware and front end.
I originally worked in the New York area of the United States in telecommunications before moving to Washington DC and
working in a mix of telecommunications, energy and ITS. I started my own software company before heading out to
Arizona and working with Shutterfly. Since then I have joined a startup in the Phoenix area and am thoroughly enjoying myself.
I do a lot of photography which I post on this website, but also on flickr. I have a photo-journalistic website which lists
the modernist and contemporary restaurants in phoenix. I have a site on the
Australian Flying Corps [AFC] which has been around since the 1990s and which I unfortunately
lost the .org URL to during a life event; however, it is under the
www.australianflyingcorps.com URL now.
The AFC website has gone through several iterations since the 90s and the two most recent are
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2004-2002) and
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2002-1999) which are good places to start.
Websites Worth Reading
Websites of friends, colleagues and of interest;
