Register Update Service

With a general downturn in the New Zealand aerial topdressing industry, several aircraft and pilots have joined the booming local ag scene. Pawnee PVV and Fletchers HTB and HPP are three such machines. HTB is no stranger to our shores. It was built in 1972 as ZK-DIK and sold to the Goverment of Bangladesh/Dept of Plant Protection along with four others of the same type to supplement their fleet of ageing Beavers. ZK-DIK along with ZK-DIL were retired in 1981 and flown back to New Zealand via Australia and both aircraft spent many months at Camden awaiting possible sale in Australia. This sale did not eventuate and ZK-DIK returned to its birthplace during 1982. 1988 sees it again in Australia, this time working out of Cowra in Western NSW. 40 year old New Zealander Pete Plew was one pilot who decided to take advantage of the upsurge in Australian Ag Flying and arrived planning up to eight weeks work in Northern NSW with Fletcher HPP. Unfortunately his plans and his life were cut short after only three days of work when his aircraft crashed near Werris Creek NSW on a topdressing sortie.

One of the largest homebuilt aircraft available today is the Rutan designed Defiant. A four place twin engine machine it is unusual in having a push/pull engine configuration and a canard wing arrangement. The first example appears on the register as 001 constructed by well known sport aircraft builder Clive Canning. This is the third homebuilt that Clive has produced, the first being a Thorp T18 Tiger, CMC which he flew to England and back in 1976. Clive’s second project was a delightful SE5A replica complete with WWI colour scheme and imitation machine gun.

Tiger Moth UQZ was one of four such aircraft built from spares by Airwork at Archerfield during the late fifties. Three of these were used by Airwork but the fourth was registered in June 1958 to W P Kemp of Bardon, Qld. It was given the personalised registration WPP and continued to fly mostly in Queensland until it crashed on 29th October 1964. After twenty four years the old Tiger is flying again wearing markings previously used by a Blackburn Bluebird between 1933 and 1936.

Meanwhile, the National Safety Council have added three more aircraft to their inventory. Bell 212 NSU was previously operated in England by Nash Helicopters of Leamington Spa and before that spent time in Denmark with Maersk Air and in Norway with Helikopter Service. The second letter of German registrations indicate their approximate weight therefore Dornier NSX was first registered D-CERA being in the 5. 7 to 14 metric tonnes category. During outfitting for the Search and Rescue role the aircraft’s weight was decreased and it was subsequently changed to D-IERA, now in the 2 to 5. 7 metric tonnes category. It originally arrived in Australia for a twelve month evaluation in October 1985 as NSC after which it went to Flight Refuelling Aviation for fisheries patrol work. It later returned to the manufacturers before being re-delivered to Australia as NSX. The second Dornier NSZ has a shorter history being delivered new in 1985 to Harvest Air in England for fisheries patrols. Harvest Air operated a fleet of Islanders and DC-3s mainly on Pollution control but in 1987 changed its name to Region Airways and replaced the Dornier with a Fokker Friendship.

As predicted in the last issue the first Mooney 205SE has arrived in Australia and quickly found a home in Queensland. Beech E90 King Air LFH was delivered via Honiara to Sydney on 31st May and after pre-delivery work at Adelaide is now available for charter at Canberra. The aircraft is owned by prime mover behind the Canberra chapter of the Aviation Historical Society of Australia, Tony Hammett. Two more Chieftains and a Bandeirante for Hazelton Airlines, a Baron and another Super King Air For Flight West Airlines and an additional Chieftain for Oxley Airlines make up the additions to the third level operators while the Helicopter Directory in the last issue is expanded by 1 O aircraft including Bell 214ST HOQ to replace the similar machine that crashed into the sea near Troughton Island, WA on 28th March, thankfully with no loss of life.

Only three aircarft are returning to the register this issue with the most interesting being the DH 60G Gipsy Moth ULP. This aircraft was delivered new to Australia in November 1929 and flew regularly until January 1940 when it was impressed and given the serial A7-78. After the war the remains changed hands several times until it has finally been restored and joins two other flying Gipsy Moths in Australia. The DHC1 Chipmunk was first flown in 1946 and in 1947 a demonstration aircraft was imported into Australia. A second aircraft arrived in 1950 and three more in 1951. Of these last three, two went to Perth and the third, AKW, to Sydney as a demonstrator for De Havilland. In 1953 this aircraft was sold to the Royal Newcastle Aero Club and so began the checkered career of AKW in Australia. It was withdrawn from use in 1971 but after a lengthy rebuild now joins 26 other flying examples in Australia. It is interesting to note that almost 100 Chipmunks have operated in Australia during the last 41 years.

In the deletions section, Twin Otter BMG joins the Missionary Aviation Fellowships fleet in PNG and a third ex Air Queensland Friendship, FNV, joins the Pakistan International Airlines fleet. Skyferry of New Zealand have acquired ex Sunbird Airlines Islander SBH to add to their Cessna Caravan and Beech Queen Air Excalibur fleet. Of the accidents the most tragic must be the crash of Commander UOJ. The aircraft was stolen from a cotton plantation near Wee Waa on the morning of 14th July and flown around the local area for almost five hours while the pilot threatened suicide. Despite continued attempts by Dubbo Flight Service Unit, the pilot’s father, Police and the NSCA, to talk the pilot into landing, the aircraft eventually ran out of fuel. The pilot then turned the aircraft away from any populated area and crashed into the side of a hill.

The changes of ownership hold no real surprises with ex Air Queensland Cessna 404 Titan BPO going to Sunstate Airlines and ex Flying Doctor Chieftain FDF to General Flying Services in Victoria. Adams Aviation have acquired three second-hand Mooneys, presumably via trade-ins and Australian Aircraft Sales, who usually handle the sales of jet airliners, have bought Cessna 180 Skywagon HFN. The ever expanding Kingsford Smith Aviation at Bankstown have also added two Cessna 152s to their training fleet and well known South Australian aerobatic pilot Chris Sperou has bought AT-6C Harvard TEX.

Trans Tasman deliveries reached an all time high during July with 34 in a 31 day period. Most of these were used Beechcraft, Cessnas and Pipers from the USA but the total included two Fletchers, two Chieftains and a Cessna TR 182 from New Zealand and the long awaited Lockheed Ventura on the 11th. Registrations that have been reserved in the past but for different reasons are now available include thirteen in the AQ block originally reserved for Air Queensland during 1985, FKK to FKZ reserved for Ansett in 1987 and NUE reserved for Radio 2UEs Jetranger which became UEE. Aerotechnics meanwhile had great hopes for sales of Hughes helicopters in 1985 and reserved nine marks in the JB block and defunct Paxford Aviation also reserved the whole of the JX block with the exception of JXW and JXX for future sales of Robin R2160s in the same year. Unfortunately none of these sales eventuated so all these reservations have now lapsed.