Chapter 3: The RAAF Measures Upper Air Temperatures (continued)

Later Hawker Demon biplanes, which had radio, were used for the meteorological flights. I made many flights with Dick Cohen (now Sir Richard Kingsland, Dick having changed his name by deed-poll after the war). A couple of times we went to 22,000 feet without oxygen. Dick asked me to try some simple task at maximum altitude and asked me to sign my name when we reached maximum altitude. He also asked me to warn him if I felt affected by high altitude flying without oxygen. I felt alright at 22,000 feet but I couldn't write my own name. I had many flights in the mid 1930s.

Dick was interested in icing on his aircraft. We would take off from Laverton and fly up the Yarra Valley towards Mt Hotham looking for cloud to see how quickly ice formed and in what sort of weather conditions. Sometimes flying under cloud up the Yarra Valley we would run into a dead end and Dick would execute a half loop and roll and go back. On one flight Dick knew where a young lady of his acquaintance was holidaying in the area and dropped a message with a streamer attached.

Bureau of Meteorology