Traffic

The first 727-76 to depart Australia was VH-TJA on 11/11/76 and it was followed in turn by VH-TJC (29/04/77), VH-TJF (21/02/79), VH-TJD and VH-TJE (18/08/79) and VH-TJB (11/04/80). All six aircraft still survive overseas being used to carry passengers, as freighters, as corporate transports or in storage.

A brief summation of these aircraft isas follows: VH-TJA has been with Continental Airlines since 07/77 registered N18480. In 07/91 it was ferried to Mojave Airport, California where it was put into long term storage. Since leaving Melbourne VH-TJB has operated with airlines in Nicaragua, Brazil, Colombia, Turkey, Guatemala and Haiti. Now owned by leasing company Corsair Inc, of Bellevue, Washington it is presently registered HP-1179TLN with Trans Latin Air of Panama City. VH-TJC also operated for a period in Nicaragua however it has since returned to the United States where as N721JE it is operated as a freighter by Emery Worldwide Airlines. After its sale in 08/79 VH-TJD was flown to Long Beach, California where it was fitted out with an executive interior before delivery to the Occidental Petroleum Corporation. Initially registered to Occidental as N10XY this was changed to N682G in 04/91.

The two remaining TAA 727-76s VH-TJE and VH-TJF were also flown to the United States for refurbishment as corporate transports. Since its sale VH-TJE has been operated by the SaudiArabian Research & Development Corporation (REDEC) both on the registers of Saudi Arabia and the United States. Presently the former VH-TJE is registered in the Cayman Islands as VR-CCB though still operated by REDEC. Skyline International of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia is the current owner of the former VH-TJF though they have the aircraft registered in Bermuda as VR-BRR.

Airline News

Air Vanuatu took delivery of EMB-110P1 VH-BWC in late 02/93. The Bandeirante had been with Eastern Australia maintenance in Tamworth since its withdrawal from Sunstate Airlines service in early 11/92. At Tamworth, Eastern continue working on the Aeromil EMB-110P1 N211EB. Since registered VH-ABD, the Bandeirante is planned for delivery to the Iranian Postal & Telecommunications Air Service.

Australia Asia Airlines replaced its 767-338ER VH-OGA with a Qantas 767-338ER VH-OGF on the Australia to Taiwan route during January. VH-OGF was noted at Brisbane Airport on 16/01 operating AAU835 to Taipei. What made VH-OGF noticeable on the tarmac was that all Qantas titles and the Kangaroo had been removed from the aircraft.

Polynesian Airlines Boeing 737-3S3 5W-FAX returned to Apia in late January after conversion to a 737-3S3QC by Pemco Aeroplex. 5W-FAX had flown out of Sydney on 30/09 last year bound for Dothan, Alabama where the conversion was carried out. Polynesian has since leased 5W-FAX to Auckland based Pacific Express and to reflect this 5W-FAX carries the titles of both airlines. To further complicate the scene 5W-FAX was then leased by Pacific Express to Ansett Air Freight due to the non availability of its 727-277F VH-RMX. As Pacific Express f/ n PHX5001 5W-FAX flew into Melbourne on 01/02 from Auckland. Over the following two weeks 5W-FAX flew the regular Ansett night freighter operation between Melbourne and Perth.

Biz/Prop News

Falcon 200 N702SB arrived in Sydney on 28/01 on delivery to local operator PRL Aviation. It is interesting to note that N702SB has the manufacturer’s serial number 504 while the only other Falcon 200 in our region, VH-NGF of GFW Aviation, is 505. The delivery of the Falcon 200 has been offset by the sale of Citation 500 VH-LGL in the United States. This was not unexpected as VH-LGL has been parked in the Aeromil facility at Austin, Texas for some months while a buyer was sought. On 16/12/92, VH-LGL became N771HR with IHR of Oklahoma Inc, Oklahoma City.

Citation 500 VH-ICX meanwhile is now being operated by Jet City out of the Melbourne Jet Base. Associated Airlines is to replace its Gulfstream IIB VH-ASG with a Gulfstream IV in 06/93. The Gulfstream IV which will take up the registration VH-ASG is msn 1205 ex N439GA and is a new aircraft off the Gulfstream Aerospace production line at Savannah, Georgia.

In Traffic 03/93′ we speculated that the ECM Electrical MU-2PVH-XMZ which crossed the Tasman in late 12/92 was en route to the United States for sale. This was not the case as VH-XMZ returned to its home base at Essendon in late 01/93.

The Royal Flying Doctor Service; Victorian Division, took delivery of King Air B200 VH-FDG at a ceremony held at Moorabbin Airport on 16/02. The King Air was originally delivered to Bankstown in 04/92 as G-OJGA where it was fitted with a large loading door by Hawker Pacific. VH-FDG was then ferried to Moorabbin where it was painted in RFDS colours by Aerospray.

Former CAA Flying Unit RC-695A VH-LTI has been sold in the United States as N6151T. The Commander departed Essendon on 04/02 on its trans Pacific ferry. It is expected that three other CAA Flying Unit RC-695As VH-LTJ,-LTK, and-LTN will shortly be ferried to the US. This will then leave the Essendon-based Unit with an operating fleet of four aircraft, Fokker F28-1000s VH-ATD and VH-ATG, and RC-695As VH-LTM and VH-LTO. The future of the Flying Unit BAe 125-700B VH-JFT, which has been static at Essendon for some twelve months, is undecided at this stage.

Cessna 208B Caravan N5327B msn 0295 was first noted in Darwin in 08/92 during a demonstration tour of our region. On conclusion of the tour it was reported that N5327B had been sold to an operator in Malaysia. This has not transpired and instead the aircraft will remain in Australia with a Perth based company.

Ansett Worldwide Aviation Services

Ansett Worldwide continues to experience problems with an excess of aircraft caused by current lease agreements being broken and an inability to find operators to lease or buy new aircraft ordered from Boeing, In this column last issue we made mention that in 11/92 Ansett Worldwide had repossessed nine 737-33As leased to the Brazilian operator VASP. To date AWAS has found new leases for six of these aircraft. PP-SOC and PP-SOE became N223AW and N226AW with America West Airlines in 01/93 and 12/92 respectively. PP-SOF and PP-SOG were delivered to Eurobelgian Airlines in 11/92 with PP-SOF becoming OO-LTO, while in 12/92 PP-SOK and PP-SOL were released to Transbrasil as PT-TEQ and PT-TER, respectively.

During 12/92 Ansett Worldwide took delivery of a further nine aircraft: four 737-33As, four 757-23As one 767-33A(ER) and out of these a lease was found for only one aircraft. This was 757-23A C-GTSF which was delivered to the Montreal-based Air Transat. The remainder of the December deliveries were 737-33A N401AW, N402AW, N403AW, N404AW, 757-23A N52AW, N53AW, N58AW and 767-33A(ER) N67AW. All were flown from Seattle to Marana, Arizona, where they were placed in storage as ‘white tails’. Worthy of mention is that 757-23A N58AW was originally delivered to AWAS in 12/91 as N35153. The aircraft was then leased to Boeing for 12 months as part of the Boeing 777 flight test programme.

Regional Airline News

Coast to Coast Airlines commenced operations effective 15/02 from Brisbane to Armidale. To service this route Coast to Coast took delivery of Cessna 421C VH-CMR on 14/02.

Eastern Pacific Airlines Cessna 414A VH-LAG has been sold in the United States and on 03/02 VH-LAG was noted on Norfolk Island preparing for departure to Pago Pago. Eastern Pacific has replaced VH-LAG in its fleet with PA-31 VH-BEB.

Flight West Airlines DHC-8-102 VH-XFU ferried out of Brisbane on 22/01 bound for Auckland and Christchurch, where it commenced operating on lease to Ansett New Zealand. VH-XFU flew its first service for Ansett New Zealand on 24/01 when it operated its ZQA854 from Christchurch to Wellington and Rotorua. To cover the loss of the Dash 8 from its fleet Flight West in turn wet leased Fokker 50 VH-FNB from Ansett Express.

Hazelton Airlines took delivery of Saab 340B VH-LIH msn 316 in late 02/93.

Oxley Airlines took delivery of Beech C99 N239BH msn U-239 at Lismore on 25/01 after the aircraft arrived on ferry from the United States. The Beech C99 has since entered service with Oxley as VH-OXC. A second Beech C99 N227BH msn U-238 is due for delivery to Oxley in 03/93 and on entry into service it will be registered VH-OXB. Impulse Transportation Beech 1900C VH-AFR is also used as required to operate services in the Oxley network. Oxley has withdrawn from service a number of cross hired aircraft. These include EMB- 110P1 VH-FCE, King Air 200 VH-IBF and King Air 200 VH-NIH. Another King Air 200 VH-LHK, which was owned by Oxley, was traded in to Hawker Pacific on the recently delivered King Air B200s VH-OXA and VH-OXL.

Peninsula Air Services based at Essendon Airport commenced regional airline operations on 25/01 between Essendon and Swan Hill. Five return services weekly are operated using either PA-31 VH-DWX or Baron 58 VH-HHX.

Southern Pacific Regional Airlines Mohawk 298 VH-HKS lost a propeller shortly after departing Sydney for Tamworth on 01/02. The Sydney to Tamworth route is operated by Pacific on behalf of Ansett Express and as a result of this incident Ansett Express withdrew Southern Pacific from the route on 06/02. Ansett Express then leased Citation 550 VH-WGJ and it commenced operations between Sydney and Tamworth from 08/02. In the recent review of NSW Air Routes Southern Pacific was awarded the route from Sydney and Grafton with services planned to commence on 06/02. As a result of equipment shortages Southern Pacific was unable to commence operations so Eastern Australia Airlines, who previously operated on the route, had its licence renewed.

Ferry Flights

Pacific Express Ilyushin Il-76MD SSSR-76822 arrived in Adelaide on 23/01 from Amman, Jordan with a cargo of two Sikorsky S-76As previously operated by the Royal Jordanian Air Force. The S-76As 725msn 760089 and 727msn 760103 were on delivery to Lloyd Helicopters with whom they have since been registered as VH-LAH and VH-LAI respectively. Another recent import for Lloyd was Bell 214ST B-7721 of China Southern Airlines. The Bell, which is operating on lease to Lloyd for a few months, was noted at Darwin in mid January.

In “Traffic 03/93′ we mentioned the delivery of Malaysian Helicopter Services Bell 412 9M-SSO to Lloyd as VH-LHV. This Bell is now operating on contract to the Victorian Government and has taken up residence at Moorabbin for the remainder of the fire season. Meanwhile Lloyd has added another ex Malaysian Helicopter Services Bell 412 9M-SSQ to its fleet. DC-8-62 N802MG of MGM Grand Air visited our region in this period. Carrying the rock group Guns N Roses N802MG f/n MGM709 flew into Cairns from Narita on 16/01. The DC-8 later visited Sydney and Melbourne before it crossed the Tasman to Auckland on 03/02.

EMB-110P1 VH-SBH which has been static at Sydney for some months left the country during 01/93. VH-SBH was believe destined for Manila where it is now operating for an Australian helicopter company.

In Traffic/March we mentioned the arrival in Cairns of the NASA ER-2. Though using the callsign NASA 709 the ER-2 evidently still operates as a military aircraft with USAF serial number 80-1097.