Register Update

Three more Cessna Bird Dogs are shown in the listing, LPM, LPV and LRE, all with NSW owners. Until recently the only Bird Dog in Australia was the military example at the Museum of Australian Army Flying at Oakey, Qid, but a large influx of the type via Col Pay at Scone has meant that many warbird enthusiasts can experience the pleasure of actually owning an ex military aircraft at a reasonable cost. The model 306 (L19 or 0-1 as it was know in military service), was a development of the Cessna 170 but using only two seats and with more glassed areas for observation purposes. It was used extensively in the Korean and Vietnam conflicts by a number of air forces.

Hughes 300 ADL was built in September 1980 and delivered new to Australia in December of the same year. It flew as PSU until November 25 1985 when it was withdrawn from use by its owner After seven years of storage and then refurbishment it has again taken to the air, this time as ADL. French built Rallye EHM is a 1971 model delivered new to Germany as D-ENEO. Its last owner was Hans Langmeier of Salzgitter-Drutte before being brought to Aus tralia by Mr Oemler of Gin Gin Qld who seems to specialise in importing German light aircraft.

Another Stinson 308 Voyager, NWK, has joined the civil register and is based at Victoria River Downs with John Weymouth. During the war Stinson produced hundreds of L-5 aircraft which were a direct adaptation of the prewar civil Model 10 Voyager. When the L-5 production line closed in 1945, Stinson returned to Voyager production with the model 108. It was of steel tube construction with fabric covering except for the tail unit which was all steel. Power was provided by a 150hp Franklin engine and the cabin seated four people comfortably. The design was developed into the 108-1, then the 108-2, using a 165hp Franklin engine and finally the D8-3 incorporat- ing a larger vertical tail unit and increased fuel capacity. Company records suggest that almost 5,000 108s were built by Stinson before Piper bought out the company in 1948. Piper continued production of the Voyager until 1950 when it was dropped in favour of its own design, the PA-20 Pacer. The construction number of the latest Australian Voyager indicates that it is a 108-3 model and one of the Piper built aircraft, although constructed at the old Stinson factory at Wayne Michigan. Interestingly at the time of the Piper purchase, Stinson was working on the design of a twin engined machine to be know as the Stinson Twin and featuring twin tail fins. This design Piper developed into the single finned PA-23 Apache.

YTA to YTH are the first eight Socata Tobagos for the British Aerospace/Ansett Flying College at Tamworth. Socata won the order for up to 30 aircraft after Piper were unable to deliver the War. riors originally selected by the College.

Mr Talbot’s Monnett Sonerai is the tenth of its type to fly in Australia, the first being UJB during July 1979. This pretty little homebuilt was designed by John Monnett for American pylon racing and first flew in 1971. Originally built as a single seat, fixed undercarriage machine of metal tube construction with fabric covering, designs now include a two seater (Sonerai II), a low winged version (Sonerai L), the Soneral T with a tricycle undercarriage, and a stretched Sonerai S. Of the ten Australian Monnetts, three are single seaters, three are twin seaters and four are twin seater low winged variants. A IIL version is also flying in New Zealand and several machines are under construction in both countries including a local IILS model.

Of the seven Aircraft Returning to the Register all but one are Mr Ellis’ Moorooduc based machines that were deregistered only last month. The other aircraft, Cessna Aerobat IVV, has been out of service since its withdrawal from use by its owner on June 27 1984.

In the Deletions section three aircraft have changed registrations and therefore can also be found in the new allocations section under their new markings. Two of Wilson Aviation’s Barons, TYR and ADB have acquired registrations that reflect their ownership, WZT and WZU respectively, while North Australian Air Charters Cessna 402 END has become NQC, presumably NQ standing for North Queensland. Four aircraft have been deregistered after crashes, two of which, Bellanca BIE and Cessna 310 PAJ, involved fatalities. Four aircraft have been sold overseas, one to New Zea land, one to Canada and two to PNG with Robinson EFK going to Melanesian Tourist Services of PNG to become only the second Robinson to be used in that country and the only one currently flying. Of the four aircraft that are shown as being withdrawn from use, two can be expected to return to the register after maintenance. The other two, Jetranger BEQ and Cessna 402 MWF will not take to the air in this country again as the Jetranger has been returned to the UK for extensive refurbishment and the Cessna 402 has been reduced to spares due to its expired spar life.

Interesting commuter aircraft changing hands in the Changes of Ownership section are two Cessna 402s, BUS going from the Melbourne based Penair to Heli-Muster at Victoria River Downs NT and DZY moving from Skylink to Moree Airways in NW NSW. Nomad FHR has been acquired by Air Safaris of New Zealand and can be expected to depart these shores soon for their base at Lake Tekapo. The aircraft will join four Cessna 207s and two other Nomads in the Air Safaris fleet on tourist sightseeing flights over the Westland National Park which includes areas such as Mount Cook and the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers.

New owners for the ex Eastwest Friendship EWP are Associated Airlines of Melbourne on behalf of BHP Engineering, who will use it as an Airborne Laser Depth Finding platform on the much publicised LADS Naval contract (refer p. 61 Apr 92 AA). Meanwhile, stick and Rudder Aviation have added another two Robin R260 Sports to their aerobatic training fleet at Bankstown making them the owners of almost all of the R2160s flying in Australia. Although seven New Zealand built Fletcher FU24 are listed in this section, these are not actually changing hands but simply reflect a change of operating name from New England Aerial Topdressers to Superair. Following up on some overseas sales recently covered in this col- umn, Citation JVS is now flying in the UK replacing a Beech Super King Air with Wilkes Asset Management of Leeds as G-WYLX, Jetranger FSN is now in Italy with Lease Impresa SPA at Caselle ast I-MICD, Citation NEW now flies in the United Arab Emirates as A6-RKH and Thunder & Colt Balloons HIN and ELP are now in Chile as CC-CDY and CC-CDZ respectively. Expatriate Australian aircraft now resident in the USA are Cheyenne SJJ/N68SF, Aerostar JIB/N251B, Baron JSF/N6643D, Air Tractor FRP/N15253, Long-ranger LTH/N206U and ex Air North Cessna 421 WGS/N421LA.

On a recent visit to Hervey Bay Qld I was able to inspect the Seabird Aviation factory where the ultra modern hangar revealed the first and third prototype SB5 Sentinels SBI and SBU (the second airframe was required to be tested to destruction), and the first SB7 Seeker ZIG. Construction of the second Seeker is well under way and this was at first to become ZAG although to publicise prospective sales in Africa it may become ZAF The Sentinels are powered by a British made 90hp rotary Norton engine although this has been superseded in the Seeker by a 116hp Textron Lycoming 0-235. The aircraft is a very real alternative to the helicopter in many areas at a much lower purchase and operating cost and options include floats, camera hatch, wing hard points, oversize tyres and IFR instruments and avionics.

In the March register review reference was made to Iroquois NVV being operated by the Fleet Air Arm Museum and it being an ex RAAF machine obtained from the USA. Petty Officer Linton Lee has advised that this aircraft is operated by the RAN Historic Flight and is in fact an ex RAN machine, N9-3104. The confusion has arisen due to the American FAA officially informing the Australian CAA that Iroquois 715, an ex RAAF machine, had been sold by its American owners to an Australian owner and the CAA quoting NVV as being number 715. Now that it has been established that this is incorrect it will be interesting to find out the truth behind the importing of A2-715. Anybody with any information on the Iroquois is invited to write to PO Box 1142, Toombul, 4012.

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 III on either 5’4 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.