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| ERIC SWEET - Farewell by Peter Newcombe |
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| Eric's ashes stream over Pipers from the Orion |
Eric Sweet died in his home unit at Rocklands Road in Wollstonecraft in June. His passing was not detected until some time afterwards because he lived alone and was a very private person. However, Eric was very well known at the club, which was his second home. Some club members knew Eric as a long time instructor who also flew the tug. Others involved in gliding knew Eric as a competition pilot and director, and as the President of the NSW Gliding Association. Eric was also well known at the club for his gliding stories, his love of a good drop of red wine and his snoring in the bunkhouse at night.
Eric’s funeral service and cremation was held at the South Chapel at the Rookwood Cemetery and Crematorium on Wednesday 5 July 2006. Armin Kruger, Kerrie Claffey and Paul Matthews spoke about Eric, his life and his involvement with Bathurst Soaring Club and gliding in NSW. The ceremony was simple and dignified, and the chapel was crowded, mostly with BSC members.
Eric Sweet was born and grew up in Nottingham in England, but came to Australia as a young man to work, having just graduated in Engineering. Almost all his working life was spent in NSW, mainly at Portland. He joined Bathurst Soaring Club in the mid 1970s not long after the club purchased the land and moved from Raglan to Pipers Field.
When ill health in the last few years prevented Eric from flying his LS4, CQN, he again demonstrated his generosity and commitment to encouraging juniors in competition flying by making his LS4 available to selected junior glider pilots at no cost.
Eric and Alan Alder were part of the 'Breakfast Club' that pooled food and cooked an English breakfast during the seventies just after the clubhouse was built, while kitchen facilities at Pipers were still very primitive.
On Sunday 16 July, Armin Kruger and Alan Alder took off in the Orion with a tube containing Eric’s ashes to scatter them above Pipers Field. Alan released the ashes, but as he moved the tube out of the small vent window into the air stream, he lost his grip and the tube fell to earth on the other side of the field. Neville Page retrieved it and the remaining ashes were placed beside the plants in the little memorial garden Neville had constructed at the back of Eric’s T-hanger.
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| Armin and Alan with Eric, about to take off on his last flight. |
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The Memorial Garden for Eric, by his T- hanger. |
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Eulogy for Eric Sweet
Delivered by Armin Kruger at Eric's funeral 5th July 2006 |
 Your attendance here today is testament of the respect we all held for Eric. – I thank you all for being here.
Eric was born in Nottingham, England in 1944, and from all accounts was very bright, serious and reserved in his youth.
He was an only child to John and Mildred Sweet and often referred to them as Jack and Mabel.
He lived with his parents and grew up near Nottingham and spent much of his time building model aeroplanes, which filled his bedroom from floor to ceiling, and proudly displayed these to all visitors.
Eric attended Nottingham High School and went on to obtain his Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering at Battersea College in London and after some time found his vocation at Portland/Blue Circle Cement, and whilst there was offered a position at Portland in Australia in the early ‘70’s.
It was nearly 20 years before he returned to England, stating that there was not enough sunshine in England.
I first met Eric at a NSW State Comps in the late 70’s, then became quite close to him after I joined BSC in the early 80’s.
Eric was always quiet and reserved and maybe it was the many days he and my daughter Kelly spent in the Pawnee that cemented our friendship. His only fee for taking Kelly on the many launches was that she had to provide entertainment by singing for him in the tug.
Eric and I started attending wave camps, comps and other gliding camps - they were the good old days.
We probably egged each other on a bit much, which resulted in too many outlandings for us both.
We shared many a caravan together, and his reputation for snoring was well founded and directly proportional to the amount of red wine consumed. On one such occasion at Narromine we shared a van with Peter Williamson, the result being many boots went flying through the caravan in the middle of the night to gain valuable respite from his snoring.
As a long-standing and loyal member of BSC, Eric always gave generously of his time and expertise – from instructing to flying the tug and official observer duties, and on a more humorous note designing new hanger doors, that when erected had us all scratching our heads, but that’s another story.
Eric had a 5 year stint of CFI at Bathurst in the mid to late 80’s, and on the very first flying day after relinquishing the CFI duties, provided about the best beat-up we’ve seen of an LS4. Stating afterwards that the worst part of the job was no beat-ups as CFI.
Eric was very generous with his beloved LS4, Charlie Quebec November (CQN). He was always willing to make CQN available to a comp pilot in need of a good ship or for the Juniors.
Unfortunately, Eric wasn't’t in the best of health over the last few years, but continued his active involvement in administrative roles for the future and betterment of our chosen hobby.
I know I speak for all BSC members and glider pilots alike when I say that we all had a special place for Eric and that we will miss him dearly, and being the individual character that he was, he’ll never be forgotten.
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| PDF of Funeral Service card |
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