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Melbourne-Based Charter Air Is Hopefully Due to Take Delivery of Its First Electra Freighter (C/n 1109) During the Course of This Issue. Starting Life as an L-188C for Pacific Southwest Airlines, 1109 First Flew on November 21 1959, and Was Converted to L-188CF Freighter Configuration in 1976. For the Past 15 Years the Electra Has Been With Detroit-Based Zantop International Airlines, Registered as N340HA (Pictured in 1984). In Australia It Is Due to Be Registered VH-CHD.
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November Nine Zero One Three Victor
Who would have believed that in 1995 here in Australia we would be talking about seeing and hearing such aircraft types as the Lockheed Super Constellation, the Lockheed Electra and the Douglas DC-4. The restoration project on the Super Constellation has been well documented in this magazine while the first Lockheed Electra freighter for Charrak Air is still on track for delivery in July. For some months now there has been talk of a Douglas DC-4 being imported by a Brisbane based company and most of us have been pretty sceptical that we would again see a DC-4 in Australian skies. As this is written however the departure of the DC-4 from the US for Australia was imminent. Pacific Air Freighters (Queensland) P/L has purchased Douglas DC-4 N9013V from Lynch Air Cargo of Billings, Montana. The planned ferry routing across the Pacific for N9013V takes the aircraft from Chino in east Los Angeles to Honolulu, Johnston Island, Majuro, Honiara and Brisbane where it is scheduled to arrive in late May. Pacific Air Freighters will utilise the DC-4 on charter work out of Brisbane to the Pacific Islands. Douglas DC-4 msn 27352 started its life in May 1945 at Santa Monica, California where it was built as a C-54E for the United States Army Air Force (serial number 44-9126). Later with the United States Air Force, 44-9126 stayed with the military until November 1975 when it was sold at an auction held at the Davis Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona to local company Dross Metals. In December 1978 the DC-4 was registered N9013V to Transglobal Airways who operated the aircraft until January 1980 when they sold it to Flying Fish of Indiana. By late 1980 N9013V was based in Florida moving from one dealer to another so it was no surprise when in November 1981 the DC-4 was confiscated by the authorities at Nassau in the Bahamas for smuggling. In June 1984 N9013V was purchased by Lynch Air Tankers of Billings, Montana with the owner Denny Lynch operating the DC-4 under the name of Lynch Air Cargo. While on the subject of the DC-4 I felt it would be of interest to mention the last DC-4 we had in Australia prior to N9013V. In February 1980 Air Express sold its DC-4s VH-EDA and VH-EDB to Basler Air Services in the United States as N5581T and N5581S respectively. N5581S left Essendon for Brisbane on February 17 where the aircraft remained until 0100 on the 19th when it departed for Tarawa. My records show that N5581T departed Essendon for Brisbane on March 9 however nothing has been noted of the date, time or routing of its departure from Brisbane. What we do know however is that the arrival of the N9013V will close a 15 years gap since a DC-4 was last seen and heard in Australia.
Regional Airline News
Flight West Airlines took delivery of its sixth EMB-120RT Brasilia at Brisbane on May 16 after ZS-MMB which carried the colours of Sun-Air, ferried in from Darwin. After preservice maintenance the Brasilia entered service with Flight West as VH-XFR. In other Flight West news, the airline will lease its DHC-6-300 Twin Otter VH-XFB to the RAAF for operations between Tindal and Darwin, while arriving at the Flight West hangar at Brisbane from Mareeba in late May were Talair DHC-6-300s P2-RDV and P2-GVI. Impulse Airlines commenced a twice daily (Monday to Friday) direct service from Newcastle to Brisbane on May 22 using Jetstream 41 equipment. National Jet Systems took delivery of DHC-8-300 VH-NJT at its Adelaide base on April 19 after the aircraft ferried in from the Cocos Islands and Perth. VH-NJT arrived in Adelaide in an all white scheme, however over the next few days it was painted with a dark blue tail with National Jet titles under the cockpit window (refer pic p14, June ’95 AA). VH-NJT departed Adelaide on April 26 for Mount Isa then to Darwin where it was planned to commence regional airline operations on May 1, however these were delayed until later in the month. It is interesting to note that National Jet has been allocated the IATA code OG for its regional Dash 8-300 services, an identity which it shares with the Caribbean based airline Air Guadeloupe. In early May National Jet was awarded the BHP (Petroleum) Darwin to Troughton Island contract which is presently held by Skywest Aviation. To service the contract it is reported that National Jet will add a fourth Dash 8 to its fleet in September with DHC-8-102 N802MX msn 013 being considered. National Jet associate company Surveillance Australia took delivery of the first of six PBN-2B-20 Islanders on order on May 18 when VH-ZZT ferried into Adelaide from the UK. The second Islander VH-ZZU arrived in Adelaide on May 22. Sunstate Airlines took delivery of Short 360 VH-SUR at its Townsville maintenance base on May 21. VH-SUR commenced its ferry flight to Townsville from Guernsey in the British Channel Islands. En route stops were made at Rome, Iraklion, Luxor, Riyadh, Muscat, Ahmadabad, Calcutta, Bangkok, Phuket, Jakarta, Denpasar and Darwin.
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