Civil Register Update

As a result of the rotary boom the biggest import industry in Japan is helicopters which are being shipped in at the rate of up to two dozen a month. Little wonder the prices of older Japanese machines are tumbling and Australian buyers have been quick to take advantage of the situation despite the exchange rate. DEF is a 1971 Kawasaki built Bell 47G which was last operated by Aviation Maintenance at Kawagoe whilst Hiller UH-12E LUN last saw service with Nihon Norin Helicopters of Tokyo. Helicopter Resources 1987 Squirrel HRZ was acquired from the multi national Daikyo Corporation and Helijet’s four year old Bell 222U UHJ came from Kyoei Universe at Kazo.

Of the four non imports MD 500E PMA is a brand new machine for Masling Rotor Wing at Cootamundra, whilst the other three are all Robinsons. LUO is a secondhand aircraft from the USA, the other two, LTX and LTV being new aircraft for the Australian agents Heliflite at Castle Hill near Sydney. LTV is in fact the 2,000th production Robinson built and was handed over to Heliflite’s Managing Director, Lindsay Edmonds at a presentation in Los Angeles late last year. It is interesting to note that in all the publicity photographs the chopper is shown with American markings N2000R althouqh the official documentation shows N2005R. Australian amateur aircraft builders are always busy at this time of year preparing their aircraft for the annual Easter Mangalore flyin. machines took to the air recently, two in Queensland and one in Victoria. Mr Mayfield’s Corby Starlet, NMG, is the 42nd to be built in the Sunshine State. The Corby is of course an Australian design which John Corby originally built for an English competition organised by Rollason Aircraft of Croydon, a company famous for its Tiger Moth conversions. The Luton Beta formula ne racer actually won the competition with the Starlet placing eighth. Interestingly only four Betas were ever built but many more Starlets have been produced since 1964, the year of the design competition.

Mr Veale’s Rand KR2, WK V, is the 44th homebuilt to be constructed by a Queenslander whilst the third aircraft is the Victorian Quickie Q200, 010. The Q200 is a development of the Burt Rutan designed Q1 and 02 but incorporating a 100hp Lycoming engine delivering a maximum cruising speed of 207mph at 75% power. All three Quickie models feature a fully fibreglass constructed canard design with the main undercarriage forming the front wing. The drag of the aircraft is said to be about the same as the landing gear of a typical Cessna or Piper.

Antique and classic aircraft will also feature at Mangalore and the latest addition to this class is Cessna 140ZBP. The 120 and 140 models were the first postwar Cessna designs and paved the way for the popular single engined, high winged, all metal Cessnas that we know today. The 140 was basically a 120 with flaps and an extra side window and 5,430 examples were produced compared with 2,171 model 120s. Mr Jones’ 140 has spent most of its life in Canada and utilises the same last three letters of its Canadian markings for its Australian registration. The reason for the two similar Canadian previous registrations listed, is that the aircraft was on the Canadian register when they changed their system to allow for the use of many more markings. A system that the Australian CAA should have looked at very closely before deciding to eventually change to a half hearted American system.

Seven aircraft have changed their registrations for various reasons recently including Mr De Martino’s Piper Dakota SOM/ ABQ. The SOM markings have for many years been seen on various De Martino aircraft and I would expect that the Dakotahas been changed to facilitate the use of SOM on his next purchase. HOA is an ex Norfolk Airlines/Sunbird Airlines Cessna 404 Titan reregistered to suit its new owner Helicopter Operators while Mr Lapthorne’s Bonanza has changed from FWL to the more appropriate LAP. These markings were vacated by the Bloodstock Airlines Boeing 727 in December 1984 when Bloodstock went out of business.

Partenavia HUU, which was displayed at the 1988 Brisbane Expo in the Italian markings of I-VIPVhas now become SLS to indicate that it is owned by the Surf Lifesaving Service.

Reef Air Services have imported a Beaver floatplane, XHJ, from the Philippines, whichis unusual as only last month they exported a similar type, JDX, to the same country.

The New Zealand connection continues with another two Kiwi aircraft finding their way to Australia. CGL is an early Australian built Airtourer which was delivered new to New Zealand in June 1964. It now returns to its birth place with its owner who has moved from Christchurch to Mount Isa (he obviously wanted a change of scenery! ed). Meanwhile, Tiger Moth DOC is the first of two New Zealand Tigers recently imported and is now flying on the Gold Coast. De Havilland Aircraft of New Zealand originally assembled a batch of 24 British built Tiger Moths for the Royal New Zealand Air Force. A further two lots of 52and 81 aircraft were built later, using locally made parts, and it is from the middle batch that DOC originated. It first joined the New Zealand civil register on May 5 1949 and was active until September 1991 when it came to Australia.

The four Bandeirantes LVH, LVI, LVJ and LVK have been imported by Aeromil for an overseas customer and will therefore appear in the deletions section within a couple of months. LVH was delivered new during 1982 to Dolphin Airways of Tampa and joined six other Bandits on the airlines extensive route network in Florida. It was sold to Asahi Koku of Japan in January 1987 and was delivered to Australia on December 1st last year. LVI, a 1983 model, was first delivered to Air Irvine of the USA but lasted only a short time with that airline before being used by several smaller US third level operators and then was delivered to Australia. The aircraft routed via Honiara to Sydney and thence Tamworth late last year. LVJ was built during 1984 and was also used by several smaller US airlines before joining LVH in the Asahi Koku fleet in January 1987. Both Japanese aircraft routed via Cairns and Rockhampton to Sydney and then to Tamworth. LVK was delivered new to Air Spirit in 1984 where it joined LVH based at Dallas, Texas. By 1986 Air Spirit had ceased operations and the t wo Bandits parted company with LVH going to Japan and LVK remaining in the USA with various third level airlines before coming to Australia via Honiara within a week of LVI. All four aircraft will be refurbished at Tamworth for Aeromil before being exported again.

Four aircraft make up the restoration section this month. Cherokee AZA, Cessna 207 DMS and Cessna 175 WCM were all withdrawn from use during April 1983, May 1984 and December 1982 respectively and after lengthy rebuilds are flying again. Druine Turbulent ULI crashed at Bendigo Vic on February 22 1981 and after an 11 year rebuildjoins two other Turbulents flying in Australia. The Turbulent was originally a French design by Roger Druine and plans were marketed to cater for the amateur builder. Rollason Aircraft, mentioned earlier with reference to the Victa Airtourer, built 29 Turbulents at their factory at Croydon, England for the local market. ULI was one of the first homebuilt aircraft to fly in Australia and used its original construction number of PFA447 indicating that it was issued by the Popular Flying Association, the English equivalent of the Sport Aircraft Association of Australia. When the SAAA became established the Turbulents number was changed to S1 indicating it was the first to be issued in South Australia.

A large Deletion section is included this month showing the seven aircraft that have been reregistered within Australia and six aircraft withdrawn from use. All six withdrawn machines are from the Ellis family business at Moorooduc Airport near Melbourne. Another bizjet, Esso’s Learjet EMP, has departed for the USA whilst Eastwest’s BAe 146 EWN has gone to New Zealand. T he addition of a Boeing 727 to the Eastwest fleet has made the 146 surplus to requirements and allowed it to be released for use with Ansett New Zealand. TNT’s elderly Boeing 707 HTC has also finally departed these shores as it has found a home with a Bulgarian carrier. The aircraft routed through Brisbane on January 17 then on to Honolulu and Miami for painting and refurbishment. Fletcher FU24 H VO has returned to New Zealand and will probably take up its old markings of ZK-CCT and Navajo Chieftain WAG has been sold to Wira Kris Udara of Selangor Malaysia, the same company that acquired Nomad SNL last year. With the sad demise of Compass all of its five Airbuses have returned to their lessors, two to Monarch in the UK, two to Polaris in the USA and one to Canadian for onward lease to Kuwait Airways.

The Change of Ownership section brings no great surprises with the seventh Trinidad for the Australian Aviation College at Parafield, LOH, being officially handed over fromHawker deHavilland and the eighth, LOH, expected to appear in next months listing: Two Kingsford Smith Aviation aircraft based at Bankstown, Seneca COT and Queen Air RUU, have been transfered to holding company Liesal P/L and Navajo Chieftain WGF has officially been transfered from Flinders Island Airlines to King Island Airlines. The Chieftain now sports an eye catching redand gold colour scheme with a stylised crown tail insignia. The large component of Skywest Aviation aircraft in the ownership changes reflect the takeover of the Lloyd operation based at Cairns by Skywest and includes four Bandeirantes, two Super King Airs, two Cessna 402s and a single Citation and Dash 8.

Following up on three aircraft exported to New Zealand that were listed last month. The two Cessna 152s, OWL and HWK, are now flying as ZK-FJU and ZK-FJW respectively with Motor Holdings of Papakura and are for resale on the local market while Grumman Ag-Cat, JBB, is now registered ZK-MEW with Pionair Adventures and is now used for joy flights in the Auckland area.

The 1991/92 register is still available from AustAirData, PO Box 1142, Toombul, Qld 4012 at a cost of only $9. 95 including postage within Australia. The register is also available on computer disk at a cost of $50. 00 in IBM format either in ASCII, suitable for most word processors, or dBase IV, compatible with dBase Ill on either 51/4 or 31/2 inch HD or DD disks. The computer data is updated monthly so whenever you purchase the disks you can be sure that it is the very latest information available, with the added advantage of being able to update the data through this column each month.