The aircraft was a Morgan Sierra (Australian Design). It is a huge loss to the local community and an even larger loss to aviation.
Graham was a natural aviator, he was at home in the sky. After 20,000 hours, he still loved every minute of sharing the joy of flying with others. He had a particular instructing technique that put me at ease every time I was flying with him. He was modest, easy-going, relaxed and easy to speak to. Thousands of students have been taught by him, including Jon Johannson.
He started flying when he was 15, just under 50 years ago, and his favourite plane was a Lockheed, but he loved his RV-4. He is actually the reason I finally decided on building an RV. Unfortunately he hadn't flown his RV-4 for around 9 months, due to waiting on a new engine and some minor upgrades, but was looking forward to jumping back in to it over the next week or so when it will be ready. I'll never forget how we would all be hanging around the hangar talking aviation, the sun would be shining and he would say "Hey mate, do you want to go for a fly?" And my response would always be "I don't think there is any other answer, I'll just grab my headset from the car!".
I would be biased but my opinion is that he was the best flying instructor in Australia.
I wrote up a post on Monday for the Moruya Aero Club FB Page, which I will paste below:
Im still wishing it were all a bad dream, but I know it actually happened. I didnt get much sleep last night :/ I'm just glad I got to see and speak to them one last time yesterday before they went for the flight.
Sitting in the club house talking to the other guys when we we were told of the plane going down, the shock, the emotions, I don't think any of us knew how to react. We knew instantly who it was. I tried running towards the crash site to help but got to the airport terminal and realised it was too far to run and I wouldn't be able to help anyway. Not knowing what to do, not being able to do anything, feeling helpless, lost, everything. The only thing we could do was to wait for the Wespac chopper to come back and find out what was going on, and our worst fears were confirmed.
Life can suck at times, but as I always say to others, the world isnt gonna stop and wait around so youve just gotta keep moving forward and keep smiling.
Im really gonna miss them both, theyve influenced who I am as a pilot and person and I feel so lucky to have had the chance to learn from them both. No words can explain how grateful I am to have known them and I still can't believe they are actually gone.
After today, processing it all (trying to anyway), I want nothing more than to know the cause, I hope what is found will save just one life so that some good can come of it, and I hope everyone will keep sharing the knowledge and skills both Ralph and Graham have shared over the years.
Im not looking forward to going to the airport in two weeks (I wont be there this coming weekend due to other commitments), its going to be hard to get back into the normal Sunday routine knowing that I'll never see or speak to them again (far out it hurts to acknowledge that).
The best part about aviation is that it is such a small community, its basically one big family, the worst part is because of this, we all get hit hard when we lose friends and family, but I guess at least we are all there to support each other and get through the rough times and keep looking up for the good times (blasting around the sky just having fun, bbqs, fly ins etc.).
I have complete respect for them both, the aviation community will be feeling the effects for a long time, but I hope the positive things they have done will be remembered forever and can continue to be passed on for future generations of pilots.
This isn't goodbye, but Ralph and Graham, its inevitable that we will pick up where we left off at some point in the future, talking ****, supervising while one or two people actually do some work around the airport, giving ten different pieces of conflicting (and funny) advice and flying planes. Cyas on the other side!
