Register Update Service

Meanwhile, Heli-Muster have traded in their much travelled Navajo for ex New Zealand Mitsubishi JWO and the pressurized Piper was delivered to New Zealand in its well known black and gold colours with an airbrushed prancing horse on the tail with the MU-28 was soon painted in the same distinctive colours. Aerobell Aviation of Moorabbin operating as Kestrel Aviation, have imported several Bell 47Gs from Canada and America during the last couple of years. Bell 47J, KHZ and Bell 2068 KHB are their latest imports and they have had no trouble reselling the 206. This aircraft has now been re-registered UEE and operates the NRMA/Radio 2UE traffic watch around Sydney replacing the Robinson HTA.,Air Whitsunday who in the past have operated mostly Lake Buccaneers have also recently taken delivery of three DHC-2 Beavers from America, the first of which has become OCW. No doubt they will benefit from the extra seats in this rugged Canadian amphibian.

It is unusual these days to find Australian Airlines operating an ex Ansett aircraft but this has happened with TBS. The Boeing 727 was originally delivered to Ansett as RMS in October 1969. When the airline was selling their early model 727s, RMS was sold to Air Nauru and operated with them between 1980 and 1983 before being leased to TAA for freight work in March 1984. The aircraft has recently been bought by Australian Airlines and overhauled by Air New Zealand in Auckland but still retains its basic Air Nauru blue and white colours with Australian Cargo titles.

Ten aircraft have been re-registered during the period covered for a variety of reasons, a practice that has aviation historians tearing their hair out. Three vintage aircraft owned by Hawker de Havilland have taken up registrations that were previously used as trade plates by Hawker Pacific. New trade plates HPW, HPX, HPY and HPZ have been issued and the Drover, Tiger Moth and Dragon are now OHM, DHV and DHX respectively. Mr. Whiter’s Cessna 180A has become HQA, the callsign which it used while in service with the Australian Army. Norfolk Island Airlines have bought Super King Air KNR and reregistered it IBF in the same block as their other aircraft and the ex Hamilton Island Falcon 20, HIF, now operates in Mirage Resorts colours and has been reregistered MIQ. Rex Aviation have changed Cessna 441 LBC to LFD before delivery to the RFDSand the NSCA haveboughtBell 412 CRQ andchangedit to NSC in keeping with their other aircraft. This is the third aircraft to wear these markings, one of their original Bell 212’s was the first, followed by the Dornier D0228 which was operated by them but is now operated in England.

Of the aircraft returning to the register most have been repaired after minor damage or have undergone long periods of inactivity. Of particular interest is the DHC-1 Chipmunk which arrived in Australia from Ireland in 1958 and was registered RSM to the Royal Aero Club of NSW. It changed to WMT in Sept 1962 and changed again to WMG four years later. It was eventually withdrawn from use in Oct 1979 and after a major rebuild returns to the register with its original Australian registration. In the deletions section seven aircraft have been re-registered and seven sold to the USA including five of Ansett’s older 200 series Boeing 737s going to America West Airlines to make way for the newer -300 machines. Another Ansett Fokker Friendship has gone to Air UK and now flies as G-BNCY. Warrior BSY was damaged when the student pilot tried to avoid a sheep which ran across the runway in front of the aircraft after landing at McKinley and Cessna 172, RDP, stalled shortly after taking off from Quilpie. Robinson UXV crashed at Camden during a simulated jammed tail rotor pedal exercise after a skid dug in and the helicopter somersaulted and ended up on its side.

The most interesting entry in the changes of ownership is Citation POZ. This aircraft was used for a number of years on a bank run around northern NSW towns by Purcells of Sydney along with three Cessna 31Os. Purcells no longer operate these runs and therefore the Cessna was sold to GDS Leasinter. They in turn have sold it to the Spanish mapping authority, Institute Cartographic de Cataluna in Barcelona and conversion work was to be carried out in the USA.

However, Rex Aviation at Bankstown tendered for this work and won the contract to fit two large lenses in the underside of the aircraft along with sliding doors to protect them from stones when landing and taking off. Two internal cameras and a Tracor 7880 navigation system for accurately plotting the aircraft’s position completed the conversion and the single pilot version of the Citation has now been registered in Spain as EC-EON.

Another Citation to change hands is TFY which came to Australia as LN-HOT and was sold to Skywest Airlines in 1984 as LSW. The aircraft moved on to Tillair in 1985 and was reregistered TFY. It was sold by them last year and was rumoured to be going to New Zealand as the first Bizjet on their register but this sale did not eventuate and the Cessna is now with Rex Aviation. It has recently been repainted from the Tillair blue and white
colours with a large ‘T’ on the tail to an attractive red and white scheme but don’t be surprised if it changes again to an overall yellow colour and ends up based at West Sale, Vic.

Another Rex Aviation purchase is Squirrel HRS which was operated in the familiar red and yellow of the Westpac Surf Life Saving Service. The service now operates a MBB 80105 on rescue work so Rex are using HRS as a demonstrator in an overall white scheme. For the sake of completeness the new allocations and deletions continue from the March issue of Australian Aviation but the restorations and changes of ownership add to or amend the complete register published in the last two issues. The register section of the DofA has recently changed to a computer-based system and due to a small bug in the programme were not able to supply some dates normally included in the register update. By the time this issue is in the newsagents, these dates should be available and can be obtained direct from me at PO Box 37, Sylvania Southgate, NSW 2224, by sending a stamped addressed envelope.