Civil Register Update

Register Review

Unfortunately the positive remarks about the growing numbers of aircraft on the CAA register last month have been undermined by a downward trend this month with 16 aircraft registered plus three restorations but on the negative side there were 26 aircraft deleted from the register. Of the four helicopters in the New Allocations section, three are brand new machines, a Robinson R44 Astro AIC, and two Sikorsky S-76Cs, EXK and EXN, for Esso at Longford, Vic. The fourth helicopter is Bell 206 JOY. Built under license by Agusta in Italy, the JetRanger was delivered new to Britain during 1967 and had been resident in the UK ever since. Two balloons are listed, both locally built Kavanaghs. SOK has been registered to its builders and presumably is for resale while the larger of the two, AQS, is owned by the RAAF. Two classic aircraft can also be found in this months listing, Aeronca Champion AYK, which comes from South Africa, and DC-3 DNA, owned by Dakota National Air. The DC-3 was delivered to the USAAF on January 11 1945, serialled 43-49869, but was diverted to the RAAF and became A65-68 on January 23. It used the radio callsign VH-CUY during its early life but later used VMJRF whilst with Base Flight at Darwin circa 1973. Shortly after it was donated to the PNG Defence Force where it operated as P65-004 but by 1976 had adopted the later style of marking P2-004. In 1993 the PNG Defence Force disposed of its DC-3 fleet and all four aircraft were brought back to Australia. P2-004 limped into Cairns on September 23 1993 where the pilot described it as “a bucket of bolts”. The aircraft stayed in Cairns for almost a month undergoing some “routine” maintenance before continuing south to Dakota National Air in Sydney. Nomad KNA returns to Australia after almost three years in New Zealand. Originally sold to Pagas Airlines of Adelaide the aircraft was registered PGW in 1982. At one stage it was planned to go to the American sales agents, Hughes Aviation Services, and whilst a US registration was allocated (N415NE) it was not exported and the US markings were not taken up. The aircraft was sold to Auckland based E C Menzies Aviation in June 1990 and operated a regular Auckland/Whangarei service on behalf of Eagle Air. Menzies Aviation has recently obtained a Bandeirante for their scheduled services and have passed the Nomad on to Kakadu Air Services based at Jabiru. The aircraft ferried Auckland/Norfolk Island/Lord Howe/Brisbane on May 25 and continued on to Jabiru via Longreach/Mount Isa/Tindal the following day. The twelve year old twin will be used for sightseeing flights over the Kakadu National Park. In the restoration section, Cessna Skywagon ARW rejoins the register after a mix up between the CAA and the American FAA. The elderly Cessna (at that time registered AAA), along with Stinson Voyager BPS were first registered on February 9. AAA became ARW six days later for reasons described on these pages before, and six weeks after that, both aircraft were deregistered after it was found that they had not been officially cancelled from the American register. Now that the paper work has been sorted out between the Australian CAA and the American FAA Brian Shadler’s Stinson returned to the register last month and David Spring-Brown’s Skywagon returns this month. Tiger Moth BCI was the last of a batch of 11 Tigers built from spare parts between January 1959 and June 1962 by Lawrence Engineering and Sales of Camden, NSW. First registered CRA on June 21 1962, it changed to BCI on May 31 1966 and was later withdrawn from use during July 1982. After almost 12 years of inactivity BCI joins Barry Hempel’s growing collection of antique aircraft and warbirds. Beech 200 TLX has returned to Skywest Aviation after a fifteen month lease to Milne Bay Air of PNG. The Super King Air has been registered P2-MBM whilst on lease to Milne Bay Air but has been made redundant by the delivery of Dornier 228s to the Port Moresby based commuter airline. Of the 26 aircraft in the Deletions section more than half have been cancelled due to damage, although many of these crashed some time ago but the paper work has only just caught up. Nine machines have been exported, three to New Zealand, two to Spain and one each to the UK, America, Malaysia and PNG. Bristow Helicopters Bell 212, BEL, is returning to its parent company in the UK whilst the two Lloyd Bell 212s, HVX and NSU, are to be used on a contract in Spain. The Civil Air Training Academy based at Cessnock, in the Hunter Valley, has changed its name to the University of Newcastle Flying School and therefore most of its fleet of Cessna 152s, Piper Cherokees and Arrows and Beech Duchess’ are listed in the Change of Ownership section. The only commuter to change hands is Bandit WBI which has gone from Skywest Aviation in WA to National Jet Systems in SA. Two aircraft are officially listed with New Zealand owners, Cessna 177 TXX and Cessna 206 XMW. In fact both machines are already in New Zealand with XMW destined for the Otago Aero Club at Taieri. Also in New Zealand are Cessna 182 RTQ and Cessna 172 DWD, which was delivered via Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands on May 16, so we can expect both these aircraft to appear in the deletions section soon. Other aircraft that have recently been exported to Kiwi land and are now registered in that country are Winjeel JJG and Twin Comanche KST which converted easily to ZK-JJG and ZK-KST. Bell 47G SKU which now flies as ZK-HUN, Hughes 269 JWK which is now ZK-HJV and Seneca IEE which has become ZK-JDH with the Nelson Aviation College at Motueka. Also based at Motueka is Cessna 206 ZK-JDR which used to be CJG. Aztec CVX is now ZK-PWC with McGregor and Walker of Albany and Cessna 206 PRQ now flies as ZK-KYT with Mr E Knight of Akitio Station, near Dannevirke. Details are now at hand about other recent exports including BAe 125 LRH which, although sold to Business Jet Enterprises of Dallas, is destined for a new owner in Mexico. Islander FCP is now in the Philippines as RP-C809 with the Flying Medical Samaritans whilst Pilatus Turbo Porter ZCZ is flying in Canada as C-GZCZ and is used for parachuting training. Mitsubishi MU-2B MIT became N3UN prior to leaving Australia and ferried Brisbane/Norfolk/Pago Pago on May 3 and 4 on delivery to United Nevada Discounts of Redondo Beach California. Meanwhile, Compass MD-83 LNI and Cessna T182R Skylane CTG are now resident in the US and fly as N532MD and N1598B respectively. Agusta A 109 AUG, which was shown in the March deletions, is now based in Austria, registered OE-XFH with Haas Helikopter Flugdienst at Schwechat and TBM 700 PTG, which appeared in the April deletions, is now F-OHEV with Samaero at Seletar, Singapore. Three aircraft that left these shores some time ago are Qantas Boeing 707 EBW, Bloodstock Airlines Boeing 727 LAP and Bond Corporation Falcon 200 BGL. After time spent in Britain and Brazil the Qantas Boeing 707 is now registered in Liberia as EL-AKH but is owned by Omega Air of Shannon, Ireland whilst the Boeing 727, which was originally exported to the USA, has now found its way to Colombia where it flies as HK-3814X with Lineas Aereas Suramericanas based at Bogata. The Falcon 200 which was also originally exported to the US has found its way to Canada where it operates as C-GSCL with Shell Petroleum at Calgary.