Register Update

Forney F-1, LDN, is the first of its type on the register and is likely to be the only one for a very long time. The Aircoupe was one of114 built by Forney Manufacturing at Fort Collins, Colorado and in fact was the fifth last built before Air Products of Carlsbad, New Mexico took over production. The design was later bought by Mooney and went on to become the MlO Cadet, one of which has recently been seen in Australia. LDN was imported during December 1959 but was damaged during unloading which resulted in it being stored at Bankstown for some time before moving to the Ultimo Technical College for apprentice training. During 1976 it was again moved, this time to the Tamworth TAFE. W hen the aeronautical section of the Tamworth TAFE closed in 1986 a teacher, and long time carer of the Aircoupe, Mr Jan Mystek purchased the machine and moved it to his garage in Tamworth. The present owner, Peter Middleton, who worked with the Aircoupe at the Ultimo College and later with Jan Mystek, bought the aircraft in 1988 and after collecting all the parts from four different locations around Tamworth has painstakingly rebuilt the vintage American machine.

De Havilland Heron NJI was built in 1954 and delivered to DHY of Turkey during February 1955 as TC-HER. The airline changed its name to THY in 1956 and sold the Heron to Aviation Developments during April 1966. Now registered N484R it was bought by Heron Leasing in March 1967 and converted to Riley standard by Hayes Industries which involved replacing the aging Gipsy Queen engines with Lycomings. Over the next ten years the Heron was used by several operators both in Canada and the USA on commuter networks including Royal Air of Canada during 1968, Fleet Airlines, Kundert Aviation, Swift Aire, United Medical Leasing and FisherBrothers until its acquisition by Fiji Air of Suva during December 1985. The aircraft was used on the airline’s interisland network for four years before it crashed at Lakemba on April 3 1989. It has now been rebuilt and will be used on charter work from Sydney by Heron Airlines who have named it ”. Arthur Butler” in memory of the man who first introduced Herons to Australia.

Brantley B2B, LSV, is a new helicopter type in Australian skies although an earlier model B2 was active some years ago. The B model uses a fuel iajected 180hp Lycoming engine and is being offered as a viable alternative to the Robinson.

The restoration section this month contains two aircraft that have recovered from serious damage and an antique Percival Proctor. Cessna Super Skywagon AMF was damaged by fire at Rockampton, Qld on January 2 1987, whilst Hughes 300 KZR crashed at Mount Anderson WA on June 15 1984. Both aircraft were thought to be writeoffs but are flying again after extensive rebuilds. BCX is one of 246 Proctor ls built by Percival Aircraft in England as communications aircraft for the RAF during the 1940s. Most were demobbed after the war and found there way onto the UK civil register. BCX saw service with the RAF as P6271 and flew as G-AHTV in England before coming to Australia in December 1953. In all, thirteen Proctor ls have flown in Australia, however a wing failure in flight of a Proctor 5 on 25th August 1962 cast doubt on the strength of glue joints on the type. As a result all mark 5s were grounded and by the early 1970s all other marks had also fallen into disuse. Interest in the Proctor was renewed in 1981 when FEP flew again in April of that year in WA. This aircraft is now with the Museum of Australia in Canberra and is unlikely to be seen outside the ACT. Now that a second Proctor is flying it is hoped that many more Australians will see this classic British design in the air.

The large deletion section this month is partly due to the publication of the Australian Aviation Civil Aircraft Register. Some owners found that their aircraft were still shown as current despite having been damaged or withdrawn some time ago and as a result of these owners contacting the CAA a general cleaning up of aircraft records has taken place. Many of the aircraft shown as withdrawn from use will, of course, return to the air after maintenance or rebuild including Fletcher HWR which has been repossessed by a finance company. Some others will not such as Commander DCE which has been scrapped and had its wings cut off. LongRanger HJL sank after crashing and will probably not be salvaged and the envelope of elderly Kavanagh balloon OTS has been discarded in favour of a brand new one and as such can be found in the Additions section using the same registration.

As predicted in previous issues Nomad FHR has been sold in New Zealand and the first two Aeromil Bandits have been delivered to Iran with the second two due to depart soon after. Two Evans Volksplanes, AVX and TKA, have been transferred to the Australian Ultra Light Federation register enabling the owners to take advantage of the cheaper charges incurred.

Four Aerospatiale Squirrels have been exported. HBA and HRX have gone to Canada probably as C-GPHF and C-GPHK respectively as they used these markings whilst in Canada between April and November of last year. HRD has also returned to Canada and it too will probably take up its old Canadian registration of C-GELC. The fourth aircraft, HRF, is thought to have returned to the Philippines where it flew as RP-C387 before coming to Australia in 1987.

Several aircraft that have recently been shown in register review as officially withdrawn from use are now known to have been damaged in accidents including Cessna Agwagon UDK which crashed near Warren NSW on 11 December 1990. The aircraft was spraying cotton at night whenit struck atree, crashed to the ground and was destroyed by the subsequent fire. The pilot escaped with minor iajuries due to the use of suitable flying gear and a high quality helmet which undoubtedly saved his life. Four people died when Warrior XCB crashed at Mount McKeahnie ACT on 24 February last year while on a sightseeing flight from Canberra and the pilot of Cessna 150 IQB was killed during mustering operations near Landor Station WA on 4 June last year. Robinson Mariner HBS crashed after a main rotor blade failed 200nm NE of Newman WA on 28 May 1990. The pilot and passenger died in this accident where the rotor blades had not been replaced after the mandatory retirement life of the components due to financial pressures. Piper Lance RFW crashed near Kempsey NSW on 11 October 1990, after encountering bad weather on a VFR flight killing four people and Robin SXY was severely damaged near Camden NSW when it was overstressed during a spin induced by the pilot wishing to film, from the cockpit, spin recovery.

In the April register review it was reported that Cessna 2101 FYR had been changed to ROB. It was in fact Twin Comanche FPR that has become ROB and the CAA has now amended its records to show FYR still current with Tamair at Tamworth and ROB (ex FPR) current with Rob Neely of Melbourne.

Details of two Australian helicopters recently exported to Germany have come to light. MD 369EFTS has taken up the appropriate markings D-HAUS and flies with Aviation Leasing of Ochtendung, while Bolkow 105 MBL which returned to the manufacturer as D-HDQO has now moved on to the Czechoslovakian Border Police as B-5292. King Air CRM, reported some time ago as going to the USA as N6659V, was to have gone to Germany as D-IILL but was not delivered and instead has ended up in Brazil as PT-OLM. LearjetEMP is now flying in the USA as N345Ll with Joda Partnership of Highland Park, Illinois and Aztec ERT, shown as withdrawn from use in the March issue, has now turned up in PNG as P2-NXJ with Middle Fly Investments of Port Moresby.

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.