Civil Register Update

Islander INO is a brand new example brought into the country by the agents (Monarch Aviation) and will join the recently registered INB in the Sunbird Airlines fleet. The prototype Islander first flew on 13 June 1965 from Britten-Norman’s Bembridge facility on the Isle of Wight, England. More than 200 aircraft were produced at Bembridge and under license in Romania before the company changed hands during 1971 and a new production line was set up at Gossalies, Belgium, by the new owners Fairey Aircraft. JUU ia a Belgian built example which first flew on 5 February 1971 as G-AYNV. It was delivered to the Isle of Wight in March for final painting and interior fitting before being delivered to Anrite Aviation in Singapore as 9V-BDH. During 1972 it was sold to Malaysia Air Charter and moved to Kuala Lumpur where it has been operating before coming to Australia.

A development of the basic Islander was the Trislander which first flew on 11 September 1970. Designed as an enlarged Islander and capable of carrying 17 passengers, this unusual three engined machine used as many components common to the basic aircraft as possible. Over the years several Trislanders have seen service in Australia including one with Eagle Airways on overnight freight runs from Bankstown and three by Air Queensland. All of these aircraft have either crashed or been sold overseas but now another Trislander has been imported for geophysical survey work in Western Australia. NKW first flew on 27 November 1974 as G-BCJW and was to be sent to the USA for Jonas Aircraft, the American agents. However it was sold before being delivered to the USA and was redirected to Canada as C-GNKW for use as a survey platform by Questor Surveys at Rexdale, Ontario. In January 1975 it was returned to Britten-Norman at Bembridge for upgrading to a series 3 and redelivered to Questor Surveys the next month. When it’s contract in Australia expires the aircraft is expected to return to Questor in Canada.

Of the reregistered aircraft, Fellowship FKO has been operating with Lloyds of Adelaide since June 1985 as LAR. Lloyds’ contract to fly personnel between Adelaide and Moomba for Santos was not renewed earlier this year which meant that the Fellowship quickly found a new home with Ansett. Piper Warrior IPO has flown as PZQ since September 1978 and Cessna U206D RJH has been flying as JOIsinceit was imported from the USA in July 1989. Aus-Air of Moorabbin continue to reregister their aircraft in theOZ block and Navajo OZ. Vis the latest to be listed. Two Bandeirantes and two Navajos have already changed to OZ markings and the company’s other six Navajos are expected to be changed over a period of time.

Lloyd Helicopters’ second Bell 214ST LHQ comes from Great Britain where it has been operating with British Caledonian Helicopters from Dyce in Scotland since 1985. Newly imported Queen Air XAE takes up a registration which was used on a similar type of aircraft for six months last year. The first XAE operated for Air Eastern between January and July 1989 when it crashed near Mansfield in Victoria during on overnight freight run.

Eight aircraft return to the register in this issue. Boeing 737 CZO is one of three Ansett aircraft that were surplus to requirements during the pilots’ dispute and were dispatched to America West, based at Phoenix, Arizona. All three aircraft departed Australia during November and December 1989 and CZO is the second one to return. The third aircraft, CZM, is also expected to be back in Australia soon. Another Ansett aircraft to return is Friendship FNT which was leased to a Spanish company in February 1988. It was exported carrying temporary Spanish markings EC-137 but became EC-EHG as soon as a Spanish CofA was issued. Pawnee KRT has been repaired after crashing at Nhill in Victoria in August 1987 and two aircraft, Agwagon TUM and Evans Volksplane UYO return to the register after having been withdrawn from use pending maintenance. Volksplane UYO was the aircraft that was reregistered from DIK in June 1982 in order that Dick Smith could use these markings on his Jetranger. Tiger Moth PIP was originally registered as such on 17 October 1960, however it was reregistered RIP four years later. It flew for the next twenty six years as RIP but has now reverted to its original markings. This particular TigerMoth was the seventh of eleven aircraft built up from spare parts by Lawrence Engineering and Sales at Camden NSW during 1960. SDZ is one of four secondhand Nomads that will be refurbished for the Philippine Air Force (refer p. 12 Oct 90 AA) at the Hawker Pacific facility at Bankstown. All four aircraft will be converted to N22C configuration during rebuild and will utilise their construction numbers as their military serial numbers. The first aircraft SBY has been delivered and can be found in the deletion section whilst we can expect to find the second machine, SDZ, in that section soon with the other two to follow shortly.

Although the deletions section is a large one this issue, ten of the aircraft listed are still flying in Australia as they have been reregistered. Most of these aircraft can also be found in the additions section under their new registration. One exception is DC-3 JXD which appeared in the August new allocations as OVM.

Over 13,000 DC-3s were built and it is estimated that more than 1,000 are still around, albeit in various states of repair. The Douglas factory at Oklahoma City was responsible for producing the majority of these aircraft with 5,381 military variants and 28 civil types to its credit. The Long Beach facility claims 4,285 airframes built, all military types, and the Santa Monica plant produced 382 military and 579 civil aircraft. Add to these figures 487 licence built in Japan and over 2,000 in Russia and this adds up to the largest production run of any transport aircraft in history. JXD has a relatively simple history having flown for the first time during April 1945. It was delivered to the USAF on 21 April 1945 and directed to the RAAF on 7 May as A65-98 using callsign VH-RFO. The aircraft was flown extensively from Butterworth between 1964 and 1975 using callsign VM-HJZ before being based at Wagga for apprentice training. The fully restored Dakota was formerly owned by the RAAF Museum at Point Cook, however it has now been sold to Shortstop Aviation and flies as OVM.

Of the twelve aircraft that have been exported, half of these are helicopters. Three elderly Bell 47Gs have gone to America. CHO and HMJ were imported from New Zealand in April 1979 and January 1985 respectively, and JKZ came from Japan in May 1989. All three are believed to have been sold to the same company. Bell 206 Jetranger HRZ came to Australia from Malaysia in December 1988 and has also been sold in the USA. Jetranger JWT came from England in September 1987 and has now gone to the Solomon Islands to become the first helicopter to wear Solomon Island markings, while Bell 47G PIV has found a new home in New Zealand with Paraparaumu Helicopters. Delivered to the Thailand Power Authority new in 1966, the aircraft was brought to Australia during 1987 and had only logged 400 hours in this country before going to New Zealand as ZK-HDR.

Meanwhile, Cessna 185 Skywagon LCQ has returned to Papua New Guinea after less than two months in Australia. The powerful taildragger has spent most of its life in PNG flying as P2-MFA from May 1974 until December 1975 and as P2-BAF from 1975 until May 1990. Another aircraft returning after a short stay in Australia is Twin Otter NIO. Norfolk Pacific Aviation has been operating the aircraft from Cairns since July 1989 but after less that twelve months it is being returned to Solomon Island Airlines. This same aircraft was used extensively in New Guinea by Ansett between 1970 and 1973. Another Norfolk Pacific Aviation aircraft to be sold overseas is Cessna 441 Conquest NIE. This is one of four of the type that the company will be exporting to the USA shortly. Nomad PGW was repainted and refurbished at Moorabbin before departing for New Zealand with new owner E CMenzies. One of several Nomads now on the other side of the Tasman, it took up personalized markings ZK-ECM and is available for charter work around New Zealand.

Otter TLS was one of several aircraft badly damaged when storms ripped through Brisbane last Christmas Eve. Although the Otter has a long history of service with Qantas and TAA, this was many years ago and TLS has been the only one of its type still active in Australia in recent years. As a result parts to repair the damage were impossible to obtain at a reasonable cost and the aircraft has been dismantled and sent back to Canada for either repair or for use as spare parts.