This year marks 40 years since the death of outback 'maverick' flying doctor, Clyde Fenton, whose legacy as both a lifesaver and a larrikin lives on in the Northern Territory.
Whether it was a drover with an infected tooth, a woman having difficulty in childbirth or a child with a burst appendix, he would be in the air as soon as the call for help came through.
Another time, in 1940, Dr Fenton was at 2000 feet when a four-foot brown snake slithered along the cockpit floor toward the rudder pedals. He made a rudderless landing near Maranboy and leapt from the plane before it fully came to a stop, swiftly dispatching of the snake with a hammer. Walking from the crash site to the station, the pair encountered a hostile buffalo and waded through croc-filled rivers.Dr Fenton had many close calls during his time out bush, including one in September 1937 that had the whole of the Northern Territory on edge.
Search parties frantically looked for the beloved doctor, and eight days later he was found, unharmed apart from a little sunburn.Grounded in Hong Kong and a hero's welcome homeWhen he wasn't on the job, he was known to land his plane outside the pub in Katherine's main street for a beer, or sometimes for a laugh he would take the plane up over the town and flour bomb people.
Dr Fenton's mother was stranded, so he constructed an extra fuel tank and took off in a monsoon, teaching himself to fly with his knees while he executed a daring mid-air refuelling over the water.
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