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Federation and MeteorologyBureau of Meteorology
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Table of Contents

Weather News

Introduction

History

Personal Notes

Retirements
Mr. B. W. Newman
Retirement of Walter Dwyer
Gerry O'Mahony—Thirty Years On
The Retoubtable George Mackey, Retd.
Retirement of ADR [Neil McRae]
A Long and Fruitful Innings [John Lillywhite]
Pat Ryan Retires
Harry Ashton Retires
'Fly Boy' Retires [Bill Brann]
Our Actor Steve [Lloyd]
Our Man in the Region Retires [Keith Hannay]
ADM Retires [Allen Bath]
Regional Director Queensland Retires [Arch Shields]
ANMRC Head Retires [Reg Clarke]
Vic Bahr's Last Bow
Long Serving Officers Retire [Jack Maher and Kev Lomas]
Allan Brunt Retires, 38 Years in 'the Met'
Henry Phillpot Retires
A Stout With a Dash! [Reg Stout]
Around the Regions [Keith Stibbs]
Bill Smith Bows Out—47 Year Record
Smooth Traffic Ahead for Keith Henderson
Happy Retirement, and Happy Birthday too! [Ralph de la Lande]
Air Dispersion Specialist Calls it a Day [Bill Moriarty]
Bob Crowder Retires
Grass Looks Greener for Tony [Powell]
Farewell France [Lajoie]
Forty Four Years in Meteorology—John Burn Remembers
Des Gaffney bows out
After Only 41 Years . . . Shaw, Enough! [Peter Shaw]
Brian Bradshaw departs, 45 Years On . . .
Bill Ware Ends on a High Note
Peter Barclay Retires
Mal Kennedy Retires
'The Ice Man Goeth . . .' DDS Neil Streten Calls it a Day
Dan of the 14,016 Days [Dan Lee]
A Launceston Boy Gone Wrong: Peter Noar Bows Out
It's Official—Climate Change Confirmed [Bill Kininmonth]
Victorian Forecasting Legend Bids Us Farewell [Ian Russell]
Gentleman Doug Gauntlett Retires
Queensland Regional Director Calls it a Day [Rex Falls]
Assistant Director (Services) Retires and Tributes Flow In [Bruce Neal]
NSW Regional Director Retires [Pat Sullivan]

Obituaries

Observers and Volunteers

Media

Computers


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'Fly Boy' Retires [Bill Brann]

No. 235 June/July 1976, Item 2937

Bill Brann still recalls vividly the one and only time he flew an aircraft solo and thought his days as a meteorologist were about to come to an abrupt end.

It was 1941 and as a weather officer who had recently joined the met service he was in Mt Gambier attached to the No 2 Air Observer School In those days weather officers at the school were able to go up on training flights. When the pilot felt like a rest the weather man took over the controls of the two-seater aircraft.

Bill was doing fine until they ran into some rough weather and he buzzed the pilot to take over. Imagine his consternation when he discovered the pilot had fallen asleep!!

Bill, who retired on 21 June as the Superintending Met Observations and Traffic (STOT) is best remembered for his work with the Bureau's upper air equipment and radar. Responsible for standards techniques of measurement and how equipment in the field should be used, he has brought radar and upper air equipment to specifications which he pioneered.

Bill Brann joined the Bureau as a weather officer on the same day as DIR, in March 1940. After 12 months at various yield stations he enlisted in the RAAF as a weather observer.

In 1944 he transferred to VIC RO and was placed in charge of an aircraft instrument repair workshop. It was at this workshop that the government wars typetesting the first Australian-made radiosonde.

After Bill left the RAAF in 1946 he was in charge of aircraft instruments at Drummond street, working under the then instrument section head Alan Cornish. In 1948 he took over the section staffed by two mets, two laboratory assistants and five instrument staff. Bill was to head this section until the establishment of the Facilities Branch in 1969.


People in Bright Sparcs - Brann, Harold Walter Allen Neale (Bill)

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