Civil Register Update

Kawasaki Bell 47G-3B-KH4 ZED is the latest of this type to join the register and is amazingly the twenty-eighth helicopter of this model to fly in this country. With four more already in Australia as yet unregistered and several more on their way, it is becoming a very popular general duties helicopter.

Seven changes of markings are listed in the new allocations section and these of course are also listed in the deletion section. Cessna 441Conquest TFG of Westwind Air of Perth has been sold to Skippers Transport who have changed it to LBC to make it compatible with their other Conquest LBA. The ex Skywest Commander 500TWS which has been sold to General Aviation Maintenance of Essendon has now become UJI in sequence with that company’s other Commanders UJV, UJL and UJM Bonanza KZD. has been changed to PMP, a registration that has only recently been vacated by a Cherokee Lance that crashed at Moorabbin in January, whilst Mr Grainger has reregistered his Jet Ranger CWO to YDA.

Meanwhile, Aus-Air of Moorabbin continue to move their aircraft into the OZ block with MBY being the latest change to OZN. This only leaves three aircraft in their fleet not registered OZ and we can expect to see these change before the end of this year.

Two aircraft return to the register this issue, a Beech Musketeer and an Auster. Musketeer TYY has been repaired after being damaged at Cunderdin WA on 9 July 1986 and Auster Special PUL is back in the air after being withdrawn from use in March 1988. The Auster has quite an interesting history being one of only forty four J/2 Arrows built in England between 1946 and 1952. It was sold new to a Belgium customer but was very quickly resold in Australia. It arrived by ship during April 1951 and was registered VH-KAY on the 31 May of that year. Seven years later it was acquired by the Royal Queensland Aero Club who changed its markings on 16 September 1958 to VH-RQL in sequence with other aircraft in their fleet. It was active with the RQAC for the next five years and sometime during this period it was converted to a J/2 Special by substituting the original Continental A75 engine with a more powerful example and a number of other small modifications. The aircraft was retired from the Royal Queensland fleet in 1963 and three years later received its third Australian registration, PUL, which it used until its withdrawal in 1988.

Quite a large deletions section this month with a good variety of aircraft and reasons for deletion. The entire Air North Cessna 402 fleet is shown as being withdrawn from use due to a downturn in traffic on the airline’s Northern Territory network. All five aircraft, ANO, TFD, UCE, UCL and UPB are expected to be sold and with a very limited market for this type of aircraft in Australia at the present time, most, if not all will probably go overseas. Other aircraft of interest to be exported are Citation K TI which has officially been withdrawn from use but is a prospective offshore sale, Trinidad JSH to New Zealand as predicted last month, and Sikorsky S-62 NWC also to New Zealand. Strangely, the New Zealand CAA have recently listed the big Sikorsky as being sold again from New Zealand back to Australia so where this machine will end up is anybody’s guess!

Only one crashed aircraft is listed which makes a pleasant change from past issues. Cherokee Archer DAF was badly damaged when it collided in mid air with Warrior JGG over Mudgee NSW whilst conducting circuit training.

Gippsland Aeronautics’ GA200 Fatman BCE which was shown in the August deletions as an export is apparently alive and well and flying in Queensland. Moore’s Airspray of lnnisfail operate the Fatman along with a Pawnee spraying bananas and are so impressed with the performance and capabilities of the aircraft that they are seriously considering obtaining another example and keeping the Pawnee as a back-up aircraft. Gippsland Aeronautics have produced six modified Piper Pawnees during the development stage which has led up to the CANs full certification of the Fatman, the first fundamentally new Australian aircraft since the Nomad. The GA200 features a specially modified 260hp Lycoming engine, McCauley propeller and all metal wings with integral 210 litre fuel tanks. Innovations incorporated into the aircraft are a multi-role hopper which converts from solid to liquid use by removing or installing two pins, a two minute task which can change the aircraft from an ag aircraft to a firebomber using water or fire retardant. The CAA has approved the use of cost effective and easily availablelocal engineparts for theFatman’senginewhich utilises the Holden Commodore alternator and voltage regulator modified for aircraft use and can be run reliably and legally on automobile petrol.

Have you ever seen an aircraft at your local airport and wondered what model it was or who owned it, or maybe you would like to know who owns all the Piper Warriors for a business venture or where all the Tiger Moths are fora historical project. The only readily available publication to detail all this information has now been published. The Australian Aviation 1991/92 civil aircraft register detailing the registration, type, serial number and owner of all aircraft on the register is now available by mail order only. Almost twelve months’ work has gone into to best Australian civil register ever produced and it is a must for companies and individuals in the industry, private and commercial pilots, historians and anyone with even the slightest interest in aviation. The book can be kept up to date using this section of Australian Aviation and is available from AustAirData, PO Box 1142, Toombul, Qld 4012 at a cost of $9. 95 including postage within Australia.