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Firstly a few amendments to our Bizjet Directory which was published in the November issue of Australian Aviation. Beechjet 400A VH-BJD was sold by Hawker Pacific to McRoss Developments of Sydney on October 27. CL-600S Challenger VH-NKS which was operated by Hancock Exploration was cancelled from the register on September 19 with the aircraft being sold in the United States. Cessna 550 VH-ARZ was delivered to Arrowcrest at Adelaide on July 20 as N61CF msn 0312. Arrowcrest has continued to operate the aircraft under its US registration; however, at some stage it will become VH-ARZ. Cessna 550 Citation II VH-EXM of Executive Airlines was delivered to its Essendon base by October 17. Citation II VH-WGJ of Skywest Aviation was registered to Independent Air Freighters at Essendon on August 30 with the Citation being operated by Australasian Jet. Cessna 560 Citation V VH-NHJ of Illing Associates, which was cancelled from the Australian register on August 8, was later registered N777KY to Mountain Enterprises of West Virginia. Finally Falcon 900 N104FJ of Brierley Investments departed Wellington on September 19 on its return to Falcon Jet in the US.

More current news centres around the delivery of two Citations to Australian owners. Citation V Ultra VH-FHJ msn 0278 has been purchased by Frank Hackett-Jones. VH-FHJ will be delivered to Essendon during December where initial maintenance will be carried out by Interair. Though registered in Australia it is expected that VH-FHJ will be based in Guernsey in the Channel Islands along with Frank Hackett-Jones’ Falcon 900B VR-BHJ. HP Holdings/ Bell Resources in Perth will take delivery of a Citation V in late December. The Citation will replace King Air 200 VH-HPA which was sold recently to Skippers Aviation in Perth and re-registered VH-SMZ. HP Holdings was also the owner of Boeing 727-76 VR-CCB, an aircraft which has not been sighted in Australia for some years. Apparently the Boeing 727-76, which was initially built on order for Trans Australia Airlines as VH-TJE, has been on the market for some months but was only sold by HP Holdings in October. VR-CCB was noted at Southend Airport in the UK in late September having its registration changed to VR-CHS.

The Falcon Jet distributorship in the region has recently been taken over by Pacific Aviation which means that parent company Hamersley P/L., are likely to sell their Beechjet 400A VH-IMP. Hawker Pacific, the previous Falcon Jet dealer, is now involved in marketing Raytheon Hawker 800 and 1000 business jets. Pacific Aviation is to import a Jetstream 31 fitted out in a 10 seat executive/shuttle configuration in late December. The Jetstream 31 concerned, which will be registered VH-PAJ msn 651, was last operated in airline service by American Eagle carrier Simmons Airlines as N406AE. In August 1993 N406AE was withdrawn from service by Simmons and sold to Jet Acceptance Corporation who later registered the Jetstream N651JX. Essendon is now home base to two TBM 700s, the first of which F-OHBP msn 92 is operated by KFT Services. F-OHBP has taken up residence in Hangar 6 which also houses BAe 125-700B VH-HSS, Citation II VH-EXM and PA-46 Malibu VH-BGK. The second TBM 700 VH-ICO msn 69 was delivered to Austcom P/L of East Melbourne in mid October.

Metro Fleet Update

The Metroliner continues to dominate the 19 seat regional airline market as well as being a much sought after aircraft by the night freight operators in Australia and New Zealand. Tamair took delivery of its fourth Metro III on October 25 when VH-NEL msn AC-611B arrived in Tamworth from the United States. The ferry flight from San Antonio Texas to Tamworth was made via Oakland, Honolulu, Apia and Brisbane. Metro III VH-NEL was previously operated by American Eagle carrier Wings West Airlines of San Luis Obispo, California as N611AV. In April 1992 N611AV was traded in to British Aerospace before being purchased by Fairchild Aircraft in January 1993. Tamair however has imported VH-NEL for lease to Airlines of Tasmania. After pre-service maintenance and painting in Airlines of Tasmania markings VH-NEL was delivered to Launceston in early November. Tamair’s fifth Metro III VH-NEF msn AC-776B arrived on delivery from the US in early November. This late production Metro III was last operated in the United States as N776NE with Northeast Express Regional Airlines of Boston. After pre-service maintenance VH-NEF was planned for lease by Tamair to the Malaysian operator Asian Pacific Airlines of Kuala Lumpur.

Newcastle Aviation has added Metro III VH-SSZ to its fleet. Previously registered N614AV this Metro III visited Australia in late 1993 as the demonstration MMSA (Multi Mission Surveillance Aircraft) in connection with the then forthcoming Coastwatch contract. On termination of its demonstration tour N614AV returned to the US where the surveillance equipment was removed from the aircraft. N614AV returned to Australia again on March 12 when it arrived in Brisbane this time on delivery to Aeromech at Maroochydore. With Newcastle Aviation VH-SSZ still carries the very eye catching red, white and blue colour scheme it wore while the MMSA demonstration aircraft. Airnorth Metro II VH-WGY which was purchased from International Air Parts in August has been re-registered VH-ANJ. Air Post took delivery of Metro 23s N30228 msn DC-843B and N30229 msn DC-844B at Auckland on October 8 after the aircraft ferried in from Pago Pago. The Metro 23s later entered service with Air Post as ZK-POE and ZK-POF respectively.

With the delivery of Metro IIIs VH-NEF and VH-NEL to Tamair, VH-SSZ to Newcastle Aviation and Metro 23s ZK-POE and ZK-POF to Air Post, the Metroliner fleet in Australia and New Zealand now totals 50 aircraft comprising nine Metro IIs, 32 Metro IIIs and seven Metro 23s. Fleet break up is as follows: Air Chathams Metro III ZK-CIC; Airlines of Tasmania Metro III VH-NEL; Air Nelson/ Air New Zealand Link Metro III ZK-NSI, -NSJ, -NST, -NSU, -NSV, -NSW, -NSX, -NSY, -NSZ; Airnorth Metro II VH-ANJ Metro III VH-ANW; Air Post Metro III ZK-NSS, -POA, -POB; Metro 23 ZK-POE, -POF; Eagle Airways/Air New Zealand Link Metro III ZK-OAA, -PBA, -RCA, -SDA; Hazelton Airlines Metro 23 VH-DMI; Jetcraft Metro II VH-UZQ, -UZY, -WGV Metro III VH-UZA, -UZG, -UZP, -UZW; Kendell Airlines Metro II VH-KDQ, -KDR Metro 23 VH-KAN, -KDJ, -KDO, -KDT, -KED, -KEU; Newcastle Aviation Metro II VH-BIS, -WGX Metro III VH-SSM, -SSV, -SST, -SSW, -SSZ; Tamair Metro III VH-NEF, -NEJ, -NEK, -NEM; Transair Metro II VH-TFQ. Metro deliveries for 1994 to date total 13 aircraft: Metro II VH-TFQ; Metro III VH-ANW, -NEF, -NEK, -NEL, -UZG, -SSZ, ZK-RCA, -SDA; Metro 23 VH-KED, -KEU, ZK-POE, -POF. In prospect are further aircraft for AirNorth, Hazelton, Kendell and Tamair.

Pacific Island News

Air New Zealand Boeing 747-475 ZK-SUH was delivered to Auckland in early November. This GE powered Boeing 747-475 has been leased from ILFC and was previously operated by VARIG as PP-VPI. On termination of its VARIG lease the aircraft was registered to ILFC as N891LF. Air New Zealand then allocated the Boeing the strange out of sequence registration ZK-SUH however this can be explained quite easily as the letters SUH are the initials of Steven Udvar-Hazy the owner of ILFC! An interesting visitor to this part of the World was the LOT/Poland Boeing 767-25DER SP-LOA, which flew into Auckland on September 18 for planned maintenance with Air New Zealand. Also noted at Auckland on September 13 was Boeing 767-383ER LN-RCL of Scandinavian. The Boeing had flown in from Kansai returning a load of New Zealand troops who had been on United Nations duty in Bosnia.

Air Niugini has added a second Fokker F28-4000 to its fleet with the delivery of P2-ANI. Previously operated by Korean Air as HL7284, the F28-4000 was traded in to Fokker in April 1993. Later registered PH-RRB the aircraft was ferried back to Holland in July 1993 where it was placed in storage at Woensdrecht. Air Niugini is advertising for sale its Airbus A310-324 P2-ANA through Fortis Aviation in the UK. Air Vanuatu Boeing 737-476 VH-TJI entered the Qantas hangar in Melbourne on October 22 for a planned maintenance lay-up. During the term of the lay-up the colour scheme of VH-TJI was changed from the combined colours of Australian/Air Vanuatu to that of Qantas/Air Vanuatu. Polynesian Airlines Boeing 737-3Q8 5W-ILF returned to service in early October after its accident at Apia in mid September. Polynesian leased the Air New Zealand Boeing 767-209 ZK-NBH on September 20 to operate an Auckland/ Apia/Auckland service. Former Polynesian Boeing 767-269ER 5W-TEA which was withdrawn from service in Sydney on September 2 was still parked in the Qantas maintenance area in early November.

Ansett Group Fleet News

Ansett Australia Boeing 747-312 VH-INH was damaged at Sydney on October 19 when the aircraft landed with its nose wheel retracted. VH-INH had earlier departed Sydney for Kansai as AN881 however it returned due to a problem with the number one engine. With VH-INH expected to be out of service until late November Ansett initially wet leased aircraft from Qantas until a more permanent lease could be found. Qantas Boeing 747-438 VH-OJA operated the AN881/880 from Sydney to Kansai and return on October 22 and 29 while Boeing 747-438 VH-OJL operated over the same route on October 27. Malaysia Airlines Boeing 747-3H6 Combi 9M-MHK arrived in Sydney from Kuala Lumpur on October 31 and was planned to enter service with Ansett on November 2.

Ansett Worldwide Boeing 767-33AER VH-NOE has been leased to Vietnam Airlines and entered service with them in early November alongside Boeing 767-284ER VH-RMA which is also leased from AWAS. Boeing 767-33AER VH-NOE msn 25535 was originally delivered to Ansett Worldwide in May 1993 before being leased to TACA International Airlines of El Salvador as N768TA. On termination of the lease to TACA the Boeing was flown to TRAMCO at Everett for maintenance before delivery to Air Vietnam. The registration VH-NOE is derived from the initials of Ansett Worldwide affiliate company Nordstress Operations & Engineering.

Premier Airlines plans to take delivery of a hushkitted Boeing 727-233 freighter in mid January. The Boeing will be operated in the colours of DHL Airlines and will eventually replace in service Boeing 727-77C VH-TBS. The Premier Airlines Boeing 727-233 is msn 20938 which was built on order for Air Canada as C-GAAG and was delivered to them in March 1975. C-GAAG operated its last service for Air Canada in December 1990 and the following month it was registered N727GC to Citicorp. The aircraft was then ferried to Las Vegas for storage however in May 1991 the Boeing was once again registered C-GAAG on delivery to Air Transat in Montreal. The Premier Boeing 727-233 is presently being modified to freight standard by Pemco Aeroplex at Dothan, Alabama. Boeing 727-77C VH-TBS is planned to stay in service with Premier Airlines until late March 1995 when it will be returned to Rothschild Aircraft Leasing.

Ferry Flights

Catalina Z-CAT ferried from Darwin to Cairns on October 22 and from Cairns to Brisbane on the 24th while en route to its new home in New Zealand. Noted at Cairns on October 13 was the very smart looking DHC-4 Caribou P2-VTC. The Caribou was registered on September 2 to Garamut Exploration Services P/L., of Vanimo, West Sepik Province in Papua New Guinea. Though the Caribou has operated for many years with the RAAF, to my knowledge P2-VTC is only the second civil Caribou we have seen in our region with the other being VH-BFC which was operated by Ansett/MAL between September 1965 and January 1969. The history of P2-VTC is itself an interesting story as it was a very early Caribou off the production line. DHC-4 msn 13 was built as the first production Caribou or CV-2A for the United States Army and was delivered in January 1961 carrying serial number 60-3762. At a later stage in its military life 60-3762 was based in the Marshall Islands operating duties associated with the Kwajalein Missile Range. In late 1986 the seven Caribous on Kwajalein were put up for tender to be replaced by the Shorts 330 Sherpa. 60-3762 was registered N9014W after being purchased by former Lockheed test pilot Darryl Greenameyer. On February 15 1987 N9014W departed Kwajalein for Oakland, California where it arrived on the 17th via Midway and Honolulu. Over the last few years N9014W has been registered to a number of owners in the United States with the last recorded being Newcal Aviation of Little Ferry, New Jersey.

Kiwi West Aviation based at New Plymouth has added two Queen Airs to its fleet. Queen Air A80 VH-NQU ferried from Lord Howe Island to Auckland and Hamilton on September 8 while former US Army L-23F/U-8F N5079G ferried from Pago Pago to Auckland on September 25. Unfortunately it has been reported that Kiwi West has only purchased N5079G for spare parts. Aeromil imported EMB-110P1 N130EM into Australia in June with the aircraft then being parked at the Aeromech hangar at Maroochydore. During its stay at Maroochydore the Bandeirante was painted as VH-TFK however these marks were never officially taken up. Again registered N130EM the Bandeirante departed Brisbane for New Zealand on September 3. After overhaul at Ardmore the Bandeirante was registered DQ-AFN before delivery to Fiji.