Civil Register Update

Seaworld’s new Bell Longranger, SWL, is the replacement for TCH which was lost in Australia’s worst helicopter crash on the Gold Coast on 3 March. Seven people were killed, including the pilot, when the tail rotor failed over Stradbroke Island whilst on a sightseeing flight. Prior to this accident the worst helicopter crash was when Jetranger AJD went down 90km south east of Melbourne on 7 January 1982 resulting in five fatalities.

Three new airliners are listed, Boeing 767 OGI and Boeing 747 OJM for Qantas and a fifth Airbus A300-600R for Compass. The Airbus, YMB, arrived in Brisbane from Singapore on 25 August and is the second new aircraft from Polaris Leasing for Compass. This aircraft was damaged just prior to delivery (refer p. 6 June 91 AA) from the Airbus factory in France and as a result Compass have been leasing a Canadian machine, YMI, to cover the delay, as well as the original two leased aircraft, YMJ and YMK from Mon- arch in England.

British Aerospace 146 NJY is the third aircraft for National Jet to be operated by Australian Airlink on Queensland, WA and NT routes joining Brisbane, Perth, Darwin, Cairns, Alice Springs, Mackay, Rockhampton, Yulara and Nhulunbuy. NJY, named City of Mackay, is no stranger to Australia as it is the same aircraft that conducted a sales tour of Australia during 1982. Registered G-SCHH at the time to emphasise its quietness, the tour also included New Zealand where it was to become ZK-SHH however some doubt exists as to whether it actually wore these markings. After the tour it spent some time with the RAF before being stored pending its sale to National Jet.

Flight West Airlines have added another two aircraft to their fleet, Bandierante XFK and Baron USP. The Bandit was delivered new to Air Pacific in March 1980 from the Embraer plant in Brazil as DQ-FDE and was one of two such aircraft operated on interisland routes. When Air Pacific decided to concentrate on international jet routes in 1987 both aircraft were exported to Australia to join the Sunstate fleet in Queensland and DO-FDE became FCK. From Sunstate it went to Sunbird Airlines of Cairns which in turn became part of the Norfolk Island Airlines group. With the demise of Norfolk the Brazilian “taxi” has been acquired by Flight West and been reregistered as XFK. Baron USP has had just as chequered a career, first coming to Australia during July 1970 and using the marks EZX. In January 1979 it was sold to the Solomon Islands but returned to Australia less than a month later only to be exported yet again, this time to PNG, within a month. It has been operational with Talair since then as P2-GKX but with Talair confining its operations to turbine aircraft in PNG, Dennis Buchanan, the owner of Tallair and Flight West has decided that the aircraft can be put to better use in Australia.

On the lighter side, Pacific Aerospace Airtrainer YCE is the third of fourteen of its type for the British Aerospace/Ansett College at Tamworth and another three aircraft are expected shortly. YCC/ZK-FXL, YCD/ZK-FYU and YCF/ZK-FYW.

The Calair Skyfox, an Australian development of the Denney Kitfax, is certified for general aviation use in the ultralight category and therefore does not usually carry VH markings. LRD is an exception as this is the first aircraft of up to 15 per year to be exported to England. Its owner, Kevin Worrell, attended the recent SAAA Sun and Fun fly-in at Caloundra and is looking forward to shipping the aircraft to England where he will begin marketing a comprehensive package of aircraft, custom made car trailer and flying lessons. Kevin is confident of the sales potential in the UK as there is no comparable aircraft available in the United Kingdom.

Of the aircraft returning to the register Cessna 152 FUR, Piper Colt KFB and Cessna 175 RFB are all flying again after periods of prolonged maintenance or lengthy rebuild and were cancelled during May 1986, August 1982 and November 1983 respectively. Cessna 172 ECM has been off the register for almost ten years after being damaged at Dwellingup WA during 1982. By far the most historically interesting of the restorations is J2 Cub UYM. Although the machine is officially shown as a Piper Cub, it is more correctly a Taylor Cub having been built by Taylor Aircraft at Emery Airport, Bradford in Pennsylvania during early 1937. Bill Piper did indeed own the company at that time but the name did not change to Piper Aircraft until November 1937, well after the Australian Cub was built. It was imported new to Australia during April 1937 and flew for fourteen years on a regular basis much of that time with Juluis Gardiner of Sydney. The aircraft was not used between August 1951 and November 1954 and was finally taken off the regi- ster on 22 April 1975. After sixteen years of inactivity the Cub is again flying and is a tribute to Australian aviation history and to those involved with the rebuild. The J2 Cub takes its name from the initial of its designer, Walter Jamouneau and its original engine was the 20hp Brownbach Tiger Kitten built by the Light Manufacturing and Foundry Company of Pottstown, Pennsylvania (a Tiger Kitten is of course a Cub).

The deletions section shows two more Air North aircraft, Cessna Golden Eagle’s ANH and WGS, and the Bond Corporation Falcon 900, BGV, sold in the USA. Another bizjet sold overseas is the Queensland Government BAe 125 LKV. It departed Brisbane on 3 July heading for Darwin and although it has been registered in America as N900MD it is believed that it will be based in England. (Refer Traffic for additional bizjet info).

Cessna Caravan TFT has officially been withdrawn from use but will probably be sold offshore, more than likely to the USA. Another aircraft to return to its birthplace is the Jetstream LJR. After a long term lease from the manufacturer to Eastern Australian Airlines the aircraft has returned to England where it will join Loganair, the Scottish airline based at Glasgow. Two other Jetstreams will also join Loganair’s mixed fleet of Islanders, Twin Otters, Shorts 360s and BAe 146s and ATPs.

Four aircraft are or have been reregistered, Super Skywagon IMP has become MRS, Cessna Centurion LJE and Cessna Skylane JHF have simply swapped registrations and Bandierante FCK has become XFK as noted elsewhere. Three balloons have also departed these shores, Cameron HIH going to England and flying as G-BTRX with R Jones of Horsham, and two Kavanaghs which have gone to New Zealand. The larger of the two Kavanaghs, D-90 HKU was a participant at the New Zealand Balloon Festival at Hamilton during May flown by Rhonda Tulk of Toowoomba Old. Three other Australian balloons were present at the festival along with an American example and ten of the fourteen active Kiwi balloons. HKU did not return to Australia after the event and now flies using registration ZK-PAL advertising the fact that it is sponsored by a popular pet food company.

Two Cessna Agwagons, JVÚ and PLL were destroyed by fire at Virginia SA on 14 March and have subsequently been taken of the register and retractable Cessna Skylane IQB although officially withdrawn from use was in fact stolen and taken to Irian Jaya.

The only noteworthy entry in the Change of Ownership section is Beech 200 Super King Air NIB being repossessed by AGC after the collapse of Norfolk Airlines.

Stewart Kedar of Eastern Australian Airlines has kindly pointed out two minor errors in the Australian Aviation 1991/92 Aircraft Register. Eastern’s Jetstream TQM is in fact a series 32 and Cessna A150M DVZ was converted some time ago to a Texas Taildragger configuration by one of the company’s engineers.

The Register is the only publication of its kind available and can be obtained from AustAirData, PO Box 1142, Toombul Qld 4012 at a cost of $9. 95. The information can also be supplied on computer disk and as it is current up to the 1 September, this update being the first to add to or amend the data.