Civil Register Update

Four more Hot Air Balloons join the register, all Australian produced Kavanagh types, as well nine more ex RAAF CT-4 Airtrainers. Fourteen of the 36 CT-4s auctioned at Bankstown during May are now flying with civil markings and we can expect the rest to appear in this column over the next few months. The history of Miles Messenger BJH has been well documented in past issues of AA and details of the two Yaks, YAK and YAX, have been discussed in Dave Prossor’s Warbird column.

Jetranger FHB is an early production 206A model that first came to Australia during 1970 when it was registered CSX. It was transferred to the PNG register as P2-CSX on June 20 1974 when that country was first issued with it’s own national registration prefix. While in PNG the helicopter was re-engined to 206B standard and then returned to Australia in June 1980. Less than one year later, on March 24 1981, it crashed near Thursday Island but has now been rebuilt to 206B III standard and joins the register again as FHB. This is the second Jetranger to be marked as FHB, the first being a 206B brought to Australia in January 1976. The original FHB also spent time in PNG between September 1976 and March 1983 as P2-FHB and also crashed soon after returning to Australia, this time in the Sydney area on August 5 1984. Like the second FHB the first aircraft was also rebuilt and now flies in the USA as N52BH. When Chris Waller of Donnybrook Qld was in the USA in 1990 looking for a Piper Cub to bring to Australia he was shown N123A at a small airfield that was due to be closed to make way for a housing development. In the same hangar was another Cub, N6581H, fitted with an 85hp engine which had not flown for some time and had been used as a source of spare parts over the years. The owner of N6581H was eager to sell the machine as the hangar was due to be demolished and the remains had to go, so Chrissoon found himself with one and a half Cubs in a container heading for Queensland. On arrival N123A quickly become JCP and over the next three years, while JCP was being lovingly cared for by Chris, his father Frank was painstakingly restoring N6581H to its original glory. Now registered AQI, Frank’s Cub must be one of the best presented Cubs in Australia and it sits proudly alongside JCP at the family’s private airstrip at Donny- brook Qld. Two aircraft have returned to the Register, Meta Sokol DUT and DH60M Moth UMO. The Czechoslovakian built Meta Sokol is a four seat all metal touring aircraft with an unusual undercarriage. Whilst the main wheels are mounted in the conventional place for a tail dragger, the tail wheel has been brought much further forward and is positioned just to the rear of the cabin producing a reverse tricycle effect. DUT first came to Australia during November 1962 but crashed at Mundubbera, Qld on October 5 1969. It now joins four other Meta Sokols that are active in Australia.

The DH60M Moth was a more rugged version of the popular Gipsy Moth utilising a welded steel tube fuselage, wider cockpit doors and a large luggage locker. The metal fuselage imposed a weight penalty of more than 62lbs but a doped fabric patch was sufficient to cover holes and the interior was more readily accessible for inspection and maintenance. The “Metal Moth”, as it was commonly referred to, has many historic ties with Australia including the England to Australia speed record of 9 days 4 hours 11 minutes by G-ABHY flown by CWA Scott. In fact this was the third attempt at the record by a DH60M, the first ended in tragedy when E L Hook died in G-AAWV when it crashed in Burma during July 1930. The second attempt by Oscar Garden in G-AASA started at Heston on October 17 1931 and ended at Wyndham 18 days later, a long way off the record. Scott claimed two more records using DH60Ms when he flew VH-UQA in the opposite direction between May 26 and June 5 1931, then the following year lowered the outbound journey time to 8 days 20 hours 47 minutes. Two years later Jean Batten broke the women’s record at her third attempt when she arrived in Darwin on May 28 1934 in G-AARB after 15 days flying.

The “Metal Moth” was designed for rougher flying conditions such as those found in Australia and Canada and so the very first production machine was delivered to Australia as G-AUKC whilst the next 508 aircraft went to Canada. UMO was the 568th aircraft off the line and was delivered new to Australia during November 1929. After a short period of inactivity between November 1931 and May 1932 it eventually crashed at Forbes NSW on September 12 1965. The historic Moth joins three others still flying in Australia and one in New Zealand.

The majority of the 33 Deletions this issue have been deregistered due to accident damage with four of these incidents occurring some time ago. In a long term attempt to generally clean up the official register the CAA has at last deleted Chipmunk BSM, Skywagon CME and Taylor Monoplane ULJ, all of which crashed during the latter part of 1988 and Zlin Trener Master ILZ which crashed at Gardinia Vic on August 1990 killing two people. Two people also died and one survived when Jetranger PCR crashed into the sea off Gladstone Qld in July this year, whilst the pilot and three passengers were lucky to escape with minor injuries when Chieftain LIC crashed a few minutes after takeoff from Innamincka SA on May 29. The wreck was later taken by road to Parafield where well known rebuilder Bill Pope will decide if it is repairable.

Ten aircraft have been reregistered during the month covered and all appear in the New Allocation section. Another five aircraft have been exported to New Zealand with all five being single engined Cessna types and as soon as the new registra- tions and owners become known they will be shown in this column. Two machines, Jetranger SBC and Boeing 727 TBG, have been sold in the USA although the Boeing will eventually move on to AeroExo of Mexico.

PNG was the destination for a further three exports with Super King Air LHK going to Islands Helicopter Services of Rabaul and Piper Seminole SEZ going to the South Pacific Aero Club at Port Moresby. Cherokee Warrior JXR is also believed to be on line with the South Pacific Aero Club although its P2- registration is not yet know. Baron KSA and Tomahawk LMD have both been withdrawn from use with the official reason for the Tomahawk’s withdrawal quoted as “for economic reasons”, a sad reflection of the present state of general aviation in Australia.

Four candidates for the deletions section in the near future are Cessna 210 UCJ which crashed at Merauke, Indonesia shortly after takeoff badly injuring one and killing four, BAe 125- the US respectively for some time awaiting sale and Taylor Monoplane JXM which was transferred to the Ultra-light register as long ago as May.

West Coast Helicopters in WA have changed their name to Helicopters Australia in line with the parent company’s name, Helicopters New Zealand, and this change is noted in the Change of Owner/Operator section this month. Other company name changes reflected in this section are BH Pacific to Helitech and the Commissioner of Police WA to the Police Air Wing.

With the majority of recent exports being destined for New Zealand it comes as no surprise to find that of the 15 aircraft registered in that country during June, more than half were from Australia. Cessna R172 Hawk XPD and Maule M-5-235C LJA had no trouble changing to ZK-XPD and ZK-LJA with Dennis Thompson at Ardmore and Wilderness Airways of Cromwell respectively while Cessna 172 Skyhawk WAX was allocated ZK-JCG but became ZK-WAX instead with Mr W Sutherland of Waikaka. Piper Tomahawk JZA, Cessna Skywagon JBM, Cessna Skylane CVH and Cessna Cutlass TNU are now flying as ZK-JEH, ZK-JEM, ZK-MDU and ZK-NAC with Mr E Hill of Nelson, South East Air at Invercargill, Mr P Thornton of Auckland and Air New Zealand Sports and Social Club at Christchurch respectively. Bandierante PGS has become ZK-REW and is the first of three replacements for Rex Aviation’s leased machines, ZK-TRK/L/M which have returned to Aeromil and were at the Aeromech facility at Caloundra during August. Subsequent registrations of two aircraft transferred to the Australian Ultralight Federation register (refer last paragraph) are now known. Tipsy Nipper EOK is now 28-0842 and the Monnett Sonerai is now flying as 28-0826.

In the USA Bell 47G ORB and Ayres S2R OKJ are now N6774D and N927BT and Cessna 421 Golden Eagles SEV and CSF now fly as N6209V and N10ZA respectively. Further north, in Canada, Helicopter Resources Squirrels HBA, HBD, HRJ and HRX now operate with Peace Helicopters as C-GPHF, C-GYHT, C-GNPU and C-GPHK. These aircraft were shown in the July Deletions as being exported to New Zealand however it appears that the ship kept going and the helicopters have now started their regular winter holiday in Canada. Cessna Stationair CJK is now resident in PNG as P2-CJK with the same owner it had in Australia, Air Aust Asian.

Following up on some older Australian aircraft sill extant worldwide, Cessna 340A JLT which was resident in this country between August 1988 and July 1992 is now in Turkey with Topair registered TC-OTK whilst Westland Wessex SJD which operated in WA for ten years between 1971 and 1981 now flies with CABAviation of Accra Ghana as 9G-DAN. Also to be found in WA during the 1970s was Friendship MMB. After spending time in Norway and Holland the elderly Fokker has now found its way to the Republic of Sudan where it now flies as ST-AWA, based at Khartoum with Air West Express.

Twin Squirrel BLU which only operated in Australia for just over one year between July 1988 and November 1989 is now in Germany with Aviation Leasing. After spending time in New Zealand as ZK-HBA and the USA as N72CG it now carries the unfortunate markings of D-HEAD.

+ The new 1993/94 Australian Aviation Civil Aircraft Register is now available. This year the register has been expanded to include ultralights and powered hang gliders (trikes) but even with the increase in size we have been able to maintain the same price as last year. This is the only publication available that lists registration, type, construction number and owner/operator’s name and address in an easy to read tabulated format. Nearly 10,000 aircraft are listed including those registered with the Civil Aviation Authority, the Aus tralian Ultralight Federation and the Hang Gliding Federation of Australia. The register is only available from AustAirData, PO Box 1142, Toombul, Qld 4012 (phone 074- 983757) at a cost of $10. 95 including postage within Australia (add 50% for overseas air mail). Details are also available on IBM compatible disk in dbase IV or ASCII format at a cost of $50 and credit card facilities are now available.