Warbirds

Imports

Reports have it that two more North American T-6 Harvards are due to arrive in Australia, one with its French owner, a helicopter pilot, in WA and the other on the East Coast.

The radial engined RyanPT-22 recently imported into NSW is up for sale at $46,000. Interested? Contact (046) 667 077.

Sydney Aircraft Broker, Bob Lambert, is looking at importing some Antique and Classic types from the USA and is currently advertising interest in Cessna195, Stinson, Stearman, Piper L4 and Cessna Bird Dog types. Bob is handling the sale of Staggerwing VH-UXP. He can be contacted at (02) 787 1216.

Two recent light imports were a Danish Stamp Bi-plane, OY-DSW, to Queensland, and an Aeronca 11AC, ZS-ULL, into Sydney. The Aeronca and a Stinson 108 were brought to Australia from South Africa by their owner.

Changes of Owner

Winjeel VH-WIJ (formerly A84-436) was purchased in mid-September by Roger Richards of Melbourne, Victoria from Noel Vinson of Aviation Salvage of Sydney, NSW. The ex-RAAF Trainer is based at Tyabb, Vic.

Harvard T-6 NZ1051 has been bought by Rob Poynton of Toodyay, WA from Col Pay of Scone, NSW. Col is importing another T-6 from the USA along with a Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk.

Drover For Sale

Probably the last Australian-built DHA-3 Drover not in a museum was recently advertised for sale at $10,000. The Mk 2 Drover, VH-ADN, requires a major inspection and extensive work. Of the three engines, two have low time and one high time.

The machine is at Latrobe Valley Aerodrome in Victoria. Interested?

Telephone (03) 699 7164.

C47/DC-3 News

Former RAAF C47, A65-102, is up for sale. Currently at Melbourne’s Essendon Airport, the old Douglas arrived in 1982 and has remained there ever since. Never brought to civil standards, it was last reported to be owned by a company called Gold Wings. Now it seems Gold Wings has been grounded before it even gets into the air.

At Casey Airfield, Berwick, Vic, former Forestair DC-3, VH-MMF, has taken up residence following use in the just completed aviation action film Sky Pirates. Complete with dummy engines and wartime-type olive drab paintwork the big Douglas was trucked in and is quite a local attraction. With the 50th Anniversary of the Ansett organisation coming in 1985 the company is seriously considering putting its last DC-3, VH-ABR, back into the air as a flying promotion and museum piece. At present the aircraft is in an Ansett maintenance hangar at Tullamarine Airport, Vic, and if the plan goes ahead it will be repainted into a 1950s style Ansett colour scheme and used to promote Ansett at the East Coast Capitols.

For the record, the DC-3 obtained by the Australian War Memorial and traded to the NSW Museum of Applied Science for a Hawker Sea Fury is VH-MMD. A former Travmar aircraft, it is currently at Bankstown Airport, NSW.

Douglas Bostons Recovered

During September three Douglas Boston bombers were recovered from the jungles of PNG, where they had lain since the war, by a RAAF recovery team with the aid of a Chinook helicopter.

One former RAAF Boston, reported to be A28-8, was recovered from Goodenough Island while the other two machines, former USAAC aircraft, Havocs as the Americans called them, were recovered near Madang. The two Havocs were from the 312 Bomber Group and one, nicknamed ‘Gloria’, is known to have force landed on April 16, 1944, following a mission against Japanese forces in then Hollandia.

Once salvaged one aircraft will go to the RAAF Museum at Point Cook, another to the PNG National Museum at Port Moresby and the third to its old unit- No 22Squadron- the only RAAF Squadron to operate the type.

The recovered aircraft were shipped south on the RAN vessel HMAS Tarakan.

Sea Fury Update

The Hawker Sea Fury FB. 11 of the Australian War Memorial, VX730, may take to the skies again. Since its recent acquisition by the AWM (See ‘Warbirds’, September 84 Australian Aviation), a group of personnel at RAAF Fairbairn, ACT, approached the Memorial with the view that, after restoration, the Sea Fury could be flown and displayed in a similar way to the AWM’s Mitchell bomber. The Sea Fury is now being worked on in the RAAF hangars at Fairbairn.

Sea Fury VH-HFA was successfully displayed at the Navy Week display at the RAN Air Station at Nowra, NSW, in the last weekend in September. After the end of the show the Sea Fury, painted up in RAN Korean War colour scheme, departed for home base, however not long after take-off a gun bay cover came adrift and struck and damaged the tailplane. The Sea Fury managed to return to the Air Station where repairs were carried out.

Mustang News

Another Mustang restoration project has begun.

West Australian enthusiast and commercial pilot, Dereck MacPhail, recently obtained possession of CAC built Mustang A68-71, from the WA Air Force Association with whom. it had been in storage. The former 25 Squadron RAAF Citizen Air Force aircraft comprises a fuselage, wings and part of the undercart. An engine is required as is a host of small parts and fittings to make the machine complete again.

Dereck is the Australian representative of Mustang International, a world wide group of owners, pilots and enthusiasts dedicated to keeping the Mustang flying. The registration VH-SID has been reserved by Dereck for his aircraft.

Snippets

An Airshow, being billed as Australia’s National 1985 Airshow, is scheduled for the 16th-17th February 1985, at Ballarat, Vic, and will feature a big display of Warbirds. The Confederate Air Force is planning to have a gathering of Australian and visiting American Colonels at the event. A small number of Warbirds are based at Ballarat.

The Navy Week display at HMAS Albatross, the RAN Air Station at Nowra, NSW in late September saw the RAN Museum’s Westland Scout, N8-101, flown for the display. The Scout is the remainder of two of the type operated by the RAN in the late 1970s.

The North American B25 Mitchell of the AWM is now registered VH-XXV (’25’). Formerly N8196H the bomber had an Australian C of A carried out in Melbourne during August.

While recently in the UK to inspect the new BA125 series 800 executive jet on order for the Queensland Government Air Wing, the Queensland Premier, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, was taken for a flight in a restored WWII DH Mosquito twin-engine fighter. The aviation-minded Premier later commented ‘We were really travelling. ‘ All of this goes to show that are (Sir Joh is 73), or position do not dull interest in Warbirds.