On The Airbands

Some very busy and entertaining hours have been spent monitoring the airbands since I last ‘reported in’ and some friends in ATC and Flight Service have rallied to confirm a few of the RAAF callsigns that I had discussed in past issues.

John Guselli from Bankstown Tower has positively identified ‘Chieftain 01’ as the personal Macchi used by Air Marshall Ray Funnell for him to liaise with RAAF bases around the country. The aircraft is liveried in red, white and blue, a colour scheme not dissimilar to the USAF Thunderbirds. Tail number of the Macchi is A7-047.

‘Kestrel 04’ was apparently the fourth PC-9 to be rolled out from de Havilland’s facility at Bankstown. Well, after these two, here’s another poser for anyone with inside or otherwise totally reliable information: callsign heard recently by your writer tracking north from Sydney towards Tamworth, unknown altitude, ‘Puma 323’. My best guess at this stage is that it was the roll-out Blackhawk helicopter from Bankstown.

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