Civil Aircraft Register Update

Bell 206L SBC is a Canadian built machine which was delivered new to Lloyd Helicopters at Adelaide during October 1990 and registered LHX. On December 15 1993 it was sold to Heli Niugini at Madang and registered P2-HBC. The LongRanger is now back in Australia and although still officially registered to Heli Niugini it is leased to the Cooma based Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Authority and used for personnel transport, survey and powerline inspection.

Mooney TMM has taken up the personalised markings, ONL, of its owner Graham O’Neill and is one of 1475 M20Es built at the Mooney factory at Kerrville, Texas. The Mooney Aircraft Corporation has had torrid time since Albert Mooney, formally chief designer at Culver Aircraft, started his own company in 1946. In 1954 the company was rescued from the brink of bankruptcy by two external investors, Hal Rachal and Norm Hoffman, and then, after a failed marketing project with Mitsubishi, and a less than successful alliance with Alon Aircraft, Mooney reached a financial crisis in February 1969 and filed for bankruptcy.

The failure came after Mooney had spent enormous amounts of money developing an up-market, single engine, pressurised machine, called the M22 Mustang. Only 37 M22s were built and even the name had to be changed as North American Aircraft Company objected. Mid 1969 saw American Electronic Laboratories invest over $6,000,000 to revive the Mooney line only to sell it to Butler Aviation five months later. Butler had already obtained the Ted Smith Aerostar company earlier in the year and combined the two to form Aerostar Aircraft Corporation in July 1970.

By 1971 Aerostar was in financial trouble and production of the Mooney was suspended. Ted Smith bought back the Aerostar design and eventually sold it to Piper but it was not until October 4 1973 that the Mooney line was revived again, this time by Republic Steel of Columbus, Ohio. Republic put a lot of money, time and effort into modernising the Mooney design and in January 1974 the first of the “new” Mooneys, an M20J 201, was delivered. The M20J, the turbocharged M20K and the very latest M20R Ovation are all direct developments of the two most popular Mooneys to date, the M20C Ranger and M20E.

ZZN is the third of six Pilatus Britten-Norman BN-2B Islanders for Surveillance Australia and first flew at Bucharest, Romania on March 17 this year. It flew to Bembridge in England for interior fitout on April 1 and then on to Hurn Airport near Bournemouth for final painting prior to its delivery flight to Adelaide. The three remaining aircraft, ZZW, ZZX and ZZY have all been completed with ZZW’s first flight taking place on April 10. It was delivered to Bembridge on April 14 and ZZX and ZZY followed during May. All three aircraft were back at Bembridge by the end of July after painting at Hurn and are expected on the Australian register next month.

Another Islander listed this month is BNX, although this machine is not new to Australian skies. Delivered new to Australasian agents for the type, Hawker Pacific, in 1989, it spent some time with Norfolk Island Airlines before being sold in Malaysia. It flew in that country as 9M-AZV and it was in these markings that it returned to the east coast of Australia via Tennant Creek, Mount Isa, Charleville and Maroochydore during May.

The largest aircraft listed this month is Metro 23 WAI. The Fairchild joins nine Cessna Conquests, two Beech Super King Airs, a Navajo and a Cessna 402 in the Skippers Aviation fleet in Perth. Skippers Aviation was founded in 1990 and is a division of Skippers Transport, one of the largest road transport companies in WA.

Several homebuilt and VLA aircraft join the register including the eleventh Jabiru ST XLX, Pulsar 582 JPA, Rand KR2 RPX, Vans RV6 RVN and Thorp T18 YGT. Ray Tilley’s Thorp joins 25 other T18 Tigers on the register including five C models and an S model. John Thorp designed the T18 and the prototype first flew in May 1964. The type has gone on to become one of the most popular homebuilt aircraft in the world and variants can be built with folding wings, wider fuselages and engines ranging from 100hp (75kW) to 200hp (150kW). Probably the most well known T18 in Australia is CMC, in which Clive Canning flew to England and back during 1976. Clive’s intention was to sell the aircraft in England after he had attended the Popular Flying Association rally at Sywell but decided to fly the little plane back to Australia. He was rewarded with a number of FAI world records, the Roderick Turner Trophy and the Oswald Watt Medal, a distinction he shares with Hinkler, Kingsford Smith, PG Taylor, Henry Millicer, Eddy Connellan, Hudson Fysh, Sir Norman Brearley and Sir Reginald Ansett.

Cessna 182 SPF is the only aircraft to return to the register this issue. The 182 was a direct development of the Cessna 180, but with a tricycle undercarriage, and early models such as SPF still had the straight tail look of the 180. The name Skylane was not used until after SPF was built and it wasn’t until the 182C was introduced in 1960 that the Cessna tail took on the familiar swept look that we know today. SPF has had a chequered history since arriving in Australia during February 1967. It spent six years in the Solomon Islands between December 31 1967 and December 21 1973 flying as VP-PAH and then joined the PNG register as P2-SPF when that country gained its independence and started using its own registration prefix in 1974. After returning to Australia it was damaged by a storm in 1979 but was repaired and returned to the register on June 2 1989. It was taken off the register on December 19 1994 after suffering further damage but is back in the air again in the hands of Reece Delaney of Singleton, in the Hunter Valley region of NSW.

In the deletions section the exodus to New Zealand continues, three aircraft making the journey across the Tasman including Cherokee LYC which flew via Lord Howe Island and Norfolk Island to Auckland as long ago as May 7. Other machines that have gone overseas include Super King Air IBF to South Africa and the two Ansett Worldwide Leasing Boeing 767s ITA and ITB which have joined the British register. The two 767s will continue to operate with Alitalia, the Italian national airline. Evans Volksplane DCJ has been transferred to the Australian Ultralight Federation register, four aircraft have been re-registered and nine aircraft have been deleted due to damage. Skyfox APK, Cessna 172 HWO, Cessna 185 JCR and Cessna 402 TFO have all been withdrawn from use, however, as usual, most of these can be expected back on the register after periods of maintenance or major rebuild.

The Civil Aviation Authority’s Gulfstream Commander, BAe 125 and two Fokker Fellowships appear in the Changes of CoR Holders listing due to the change of name to AirServices Australia whilst those of the University of Newcastle Flying School’s fleet, not sold at auction recently, are now listed simply to the University of Newcastle. Well known Brisbane motorcycle dealer Peter Gardiner has acquired Steen Skybolt DDO, while Cessna 340 HCK has joined the Moonspur fleet which services the Palm Island aboriginal community from Townsville.

Recent exports to New Zealand have included PA-22 MEJ, Cessna 182 ENV and Partenavia UUG. MEJ is now flying as ZK-MEJ with P Fahey of Auckland, ENV is now ZK-RLG with S Guy of Waimate and UUG flies as ZK-MIR with the Canterbury Aero Club at Christchurch. Mitsubishi XMZ has joined the Air National fleet at Auckland carrying the registration ZK-ECR, Cessna 182 TEX is now ZK-JMP with the New Plymouth Aero Club whilst very little work was required by the new owner of Cessna 180 FDO, H McLellan of Queenstown, to change it to ZK-FDO. Likewise the Hawera Aero Club has bought Cessna A152 Aerobat UNB and changed it to ZK-UNB, Cessna 182 RTQ is now with R Paterson of Mosgiel flying as ZK-RMP and Beech Baron ILW is based at Auckland with H Khayami and operates as ZK-SHA. Meanwhile in PNG Cessna 402 AMU has joined the KSS Aviation fleet at Madang where it flies as P2-KSR.

Two Metros have recently joined the Argentine register, both with Australian connections. BPA, which operated for Bush Pilots Airlines between 1979 and 1984 is now active with Kaiken Lineas Aereas at Rio Grande flying as LV-WIY. NEF, which was to be used by Tamair but which was not delivered to Australia, has joined SAPSE Lineas Aereas at Viedma marked as LV-WJD. Also in South America is a Bell 47G which flew in this country as GSM and UTN between 1964 and 1974. The elderly helicopter now earns its living in Uruguay.

Convair 440 BZH, which joined the Ansett fleet in 1957 and was exported to America in 1962, has recently moved on to Spain where it wears temporary Spanish markings of EC-830 in preparation for joining the Swiftair fleet at Barajas. Also in Spain is Fokker 50 EC-868 of Air Nostrum. This aircraft was to become FND but Fokker had a major paint problem with it and eventually sent another aircraft to Australia to become FND. Lloyd Helicopters Bell 412 LHV, which was shown as ‘withdrawn from use’ in the July issue, in fact was sold in the USA and now flies as N16HW whilst Mitsubishi MU-2 IAM, which was destroyed when it crashed on approach to Melbourne airport on December 21 1994 has shown remarkable powers of recovery as it has been resurrected by Bush Field Aircraft of Augusta, Georgia and carries the markings N119BF. This is one of several Mitsubishis that have been destroyed in Australia but have recently appeared on the American register owned by Bush Field Aircraft.