Civil Aircraft Register Update

The China Southern WA Flying College at Jandakot continues to add to its Grob G115 fleet with two more aircraft, BFW and BGQ, making a total of 18 so far. One cannot help wondering why the College did not get the aircraft registered in sequence as so many other flying schools in Australia do.

Seven airliners, both large and small, are listed including a Boeing 737 and BAe 146 for Ansett, a Metro 23 for Kendell, a Dash 8 for National Jet, two Shorts 360s for Sunstate and an Islander for Uzu Air. Ansett’s Boeing 737 CZT is a new aircraft, however the BAe 146 is from Ansett New Zealand and was first delivered to them in July 1989 as ZK-NZA. Kendell’s Metro 23 KEX and National Jet’s Dash 8 NJT are both brand new aircraft whilst Sunstate’s two Shorts, SUM and SUR, are from the Philippines. Previously owned by Irish leasing company Air Tara, the Shorts are two of seven that have been operating for Philippine Airlines since 1987 but have recently been stored at Manila along with 10 BAC 111s after the introduction of Fokker 50s on internal flights.

Uzu Air Islander USD also comes from the Philippines. Originally built at Gosselies in Belgium in 1975 the aircraft first flew on June 14 of that year and arrived at Bembridge, UK for final fitting five days later. It was delivered to the Philippines on July 12 as G-BDAF and sold to Philippine Aero Transport as RPC2140 on December 5. The aircraft was supposedly written off at Camiguin on May 5 1976 but has obviously been rebuilt before finding its way to Australia.

Meanwhile, Surveillance Australia is slowly putting its fleet together ready to take over the Coastwatch contract from Skywest and have registered its first two Islanders ZZT and ZZU. A further four will become ZZV to ZZY whilst their first Commander 500S, which has been in the country for a while, is now flying as ZZS.

Only two aircraft have returned to the register during March, Cessna 172F DNF and Beech Duchess WZC. DNF was delivered to Australia new during May 1965 but was deregistered on July 29 1971 after suffering damage during an accident. After more than 24 years the aircraft is back in the air in the hands of Peter Brough of Trangie, near Dubbo NSW. Duchess WZC was imported during November 1990 but was transferred to the Hong Kong register on January 20 of this year. After only three months in Hong Kong, flying as VR-HKQ, it has returned to the Australian Aviation College fleet at Parafield Airport.

Of the 21 aircraft shown in the Deletions section this month seven have crashed or have been damaged, six have gone overseas, five have been reregistered within Australia and only two have been withdrawn from use for maintenance or rebuild. Pitts IXY crashed near Gatton Qld during practice aerobatics with the loss of the pilot’s life while Robinson LKO was damaged some time ago south of Brisbane during a precautionary landing.

Also damaged some time ago, although only just taken off the register, was Cessna 210 TRD. The Centurion suffered engine failure at 9000ft, 50nm (95km) from Tindal on July 7 1992. During the forced landing the fuselage was badly damaged and the wreck had to be lifted out by helicopter from the remote crash site to a waiting semi trailer on which it was taken to Parafield by that well-known South Australian aircraft retriever Bill Pople. The aircraft is believed to be worth repairing and is at present at Port Lincoln.

Bell 214ST BEE and Bell 212 BEY have returned to Bristow Helicopters at Redhill in Surrey, England and will probably take up their old UK markings of G-BKFN and G-BMVF respectively. Grumman Cheetah IGF has been sold in New Zealand and was ferried Lord Howe/Norfolk/Auckland/Rangiora between March 12 and 14 in company with Cessna 172N IXK. Also flying in New Zealand is Flight West Airlines Dash 8 XFT. The aircraft has been leased to Ansett New Zealand to cover major maintenance of its own Dash 8s ZK-NEY/NEZ and was ferried Brisbane/Lord Howe/Auckland/Christchurch on March 15. The Dash 8 will be registered ZK-NEW and interestingly it will be the second DHC type to carry this registration. The first was one of two Dash 7s delivered to Newmans in 1984. Ansett took over Newmans in 1987 in its successful bid to enter the New Zealand market and replaced the Dash 7s with two smaller twin-engined Dash 8s, the very two aircraft that XFT will replace for a while. After the lease period XFT is expected to return to Australia although it may not stay for long as Flight West will have surplus capacity with the arrival of further Brasilias for this Brisbane-based airline.

One of the two aircraft withdrawn from use, Cessna 172 FRG, is expected to return to the register although the other, Cessna 421 TWH, has been stripped and is derelict at Port Macquarie NSW.

Three aircraft listed in the Changes of CofR Holder section have gone to overseas interests and can therefore be expected to be seen in the Deletions section in the near future. Duchess JGP and Cessna 172N IXK are both in New Zealand owned by Warwick Pegram of Windsor and Ken McDonald of Rangiora respectively. The Duchess was ferried Sydney/Lord Howe/Norfolk/Auckland on March 17 whilst the Skyhawk flew Lord Howe/Norfolk/Auckland/Rangiora during March 12th/13th/14th in company with Grumman Cheetah IGF.

Robinson HEE is now in PNG with Phil Taudevin in the Gulf Province and joins Phil’s Cessna Stationair P2-BMU at the Baimuru airstrip. Most PNG helicopter operators prefer larger and more robust equipment such as Bell, Hughes and Aerospatiale machines and therefore HEE is only the third R22 to be used in that country. P2-HLA operated between November 1988 and October 1989 and P2-MTS was used from February 1992 until July 1994 by Melanesian Tourist Services at Madang before it was replaced by an R44.

Once the mainstay of the Hazelton Airlines fleet, the Navajo Chieftain is progressively being replaced by larger and more sophisticated aircraft as Hazelton moves into the higher capacity markets. The latest Chieftain to be sold is MZK, a 1981 model, which has gone to Whyalla Airlines leaving only five of the type with Hazelton.

Catching up on some aircraft that have recently departed these shores, Dauphin AHO is now flying with Mesco Airlines of Juhu, India as VT-MAA, Cameron balloon URU is now in England as G-BVXP with Mr D Farrar of Leeds and Baron CSS and Hughes 500C HJT are now active in the USA as N3041L and N369GS respectively. Also in the USA are Commander GAB flying as N695NC with Donald Mobley of Madras, Oregon and Cessna Citation NMW with K3C Inc of Nevada registered as N120S. Flight West Airlines Super King Air XFB is now with Skytop Aviation of Sturup as SE-LDM whilst also in Sweden is Bell 212 LAM flying as SE-JBY.

Two aircraft recently exported to Thailand are Cessna 210 SIX which is now HS-MAC based at Bangphra and Seneca JGO which is now flying as HS-MAO. Three former National Safety Council helicopters have recently found their way to Spain. Bell 205 NST, which was exported to Canada in March 1990 is now EC-FZA and Bell 212s HVX and NSU, which both appeared in the August 1994 listing, are now flying as EC-FYB and EC-FYC respectively.

Recent Australian airliner movements include Eastwest Friendships EWW and EWX, which were sold to Jersey European Airlines during November 1990 and now fly as OY-SRD with Star Air of Kastrup, Norway and D-ADAP with JEA in Germany respectively. Another Fokker on the move in Europe is Fokker 50 LN-KKA. This aircraft was to become FNL but the order was cancelled before the aircraft was delivered and it was diverted to Austrian Airlines as OE-LFZ. After spending time in the Netherlands and Germany it now flies for Norwegian Air Shuttle. Ansett Boeing 727 RMU is now HK-3977X with Aces of Medellin, Colombia and Compass MD-83 LNH has done a ‘Skase’ and is now in Spain as EC-FXA.

Sadly we have to report that Beech Queen Air NQU, which was exported to New Zealand as ZK-TIK in October 1994, crashed near Te Awamutu on March 27 killing all six on board.

The author is looking for two early copies of Australian Aviation to complete his set, so if you have a spare June or September 1979 issue he would be delighted to hear from you on (074)98 3757. If you have not ordered your copy of the 1994/1995 Australian Aviation Civil Aircraft Register now is the time to do so as stocks are limited. This edition has been expanded to include gliders but even with the increase in the number of pages we have been able to contain the price. This is the only publication available that lists registration, type, construction number and CofR Holder’s name and address in an easy to read tabulated format. Over 10,000 aircraft are listed including those registered with the CAA, the Gliding Federation of Australia and the Hang Gliding Federation of Australia. The Register is only available from AustAirData, PO Box 1142, Toombul, 4012 [(074) 983757] at a cost of $11.00 including postage within Australia (add 50% for overseas air mail). The Register is also available on IBM compatible disk in dbase IV or ASCII format at a cost of $50.00 or as a complete standalone database programme at a cost of $70.00, credit card facilities are available.