Vale Gary Ticehurst, pilot and friend

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Screen shot 2011-08-19 at 5.44.37 PM.jpgHelicopter pilot Gary Ticehurst was killed in that chopper crash last night, the one that also took the lives of ABC reporter Paul Lockyer and cameraman John Bean. The chopper crashed about 7.30 CST yesterday as it returned from filming a third documentary of Lake Eyre filling with water. 

Ticehurst basically did EVERYTHING anyone filmed in Choppers. He was amazing and everyone in the TVC and film industries who worked with him are all seriously devastated, including his good friend, director Bruce Hunt from Revolver, who has written this tribute:

Height in helicopters is always a tricky discussion to have.

All  I remember flying with Gary is heightened moments, life magnified – full of boyish excitement, beauty and wonder.

Heightened because of the unique places we would go with him at dusk or dawn, “the magic hour” we would shoot our film. Heightened because of trees, water, buildings, rocks whipping by my windows of his helicopter, calmly concentrating on a camera monitor filled with beauty or dynamic images that he created with his artistry of putting the chopper and cameraman just there. The right place.

Screen shot 2011-08-19 at 7.55.08 PM.jpgScreen shot 2011-08-19 at 7.54.50 PM.jpgOften it was just once. Once was enough for that special take – of light, composition, and we could return as it fell to night to continue to be charmed and amused by Gaz’s banter.

 

Or often it was “Mate, mate, no, no I can do  better –  mate just try this – ok, you ready Grunter?”

(Greg Hunter cinematographer) and Gary’s ‘odd couple’ like dialogue in the chopper irreplaceable, the two giving each other heaps as we flew down George street or rose over the opera house, dropped below the Harbor bridge.

Gary’s enthusiasm and talent made the shots sing, they become the peak moments in films and television commercials: The Matrix stunt scenes, Australia’s Kimberly landscapes, King George falls, innumerable cars driving in deserts, roads and billowing dust trails and always Gary’s beautiful backyard that he loved to show off: Sydney and its Harbour .

Australian and Hollywood films are littered with his beautiful work, the most talked about scenes, the most memorable moments.

As Gary was unquestionably the best:

Warm, enthusiastic as the day I met him 15 years ago,

trusted and true.

 

Unforgettable. 

Bruce Hunt

Director

Gary worked on these films

(to name a few)

the matrix

matrix reloaded 

superman returns

australia

mission impossible 2

Stealth 

anna and the king

commercials

you name he’s done it .

sydney to hobart race coverage year after year.

Here’s a  couple of shots from Geoffrey Hall ACS on a typical flight.