Civil Aircraft Register Update

Of the six helicopters imported, half have come from Japan. Kawasaki Bell 47G MTN was used by Miyauchi Trading of Kawagoe before coming to Australia while Squirrel HVK was operated by Nozaki Sangyo and based at Honda Airport. Bell 206B YAW was one of three JetRangers imported into Japan during June 1973 by the Japanese Maritime Safety Agency. One each was based at Sendai and Hiroshima while YAW operated from Tokyo-Haneda.

Mooney BNL is the second Ovation to be imported and is only the 91st to be built. Quite a few Grumman Tigers were imported between 1975 and 1982 when the type was in full production, however since then only three have come to Australia, two during 1988 and one in 1990. Now the Brisbane Flying Group has imported a late production example, WPM, to replace WPY which was lost on October 24 1995 when it flew into Mt Warning in northern NSW.

DC-3 JGL and DH Moth JGS both have interesting Australian histories. The DC-3 was delivered to the USAAF on November 14 1944 using serial 43-49379. It was diverted to the RAAF and delivered on December 3 using serial A65-64 and VH-CUU as a radio callsign. It ended its operational flying days at Butterworth before going to the Air Navigation School at East Sale in 1973 and then spent some time as a ground instruction airframe at Wagga. John Love then acquired the aircraft and has been rebuilding it to flying condition. DH.60X Moth JGS was first registered on August 9 1928 to Captain, The Honourable Hugh Grosvenor who was Aide-De-Camp to the Governor of South Australia, Sir Arthur Hore-Ruthven. The Moth left Adelaide on May 6 1929 on a round Australia flight which it completed exactly one month later. L C Matulich of Kimba, SA bought the aircraft on October 29 1929 and flew it for more than 10 years before selling it to Gertie McHengie of Melbourne. On October 23 1944 it passed on to C W Letch of East Brunswick, Vic and again on June 3 1946 to K Patterson of Port Pirie, SA. It was taken off the register on December 19 1947 but after almost 50 years returns to the register with Lionel Betts of Breakwater, Vic.

Two completely new types appear this month, albeit one that does not exactly travel very far. JFB is the first Ballonbau Worner gas filled balloon in Australia, and indeed only the fourth in the world. Although registered to Balloon Flight of Canberra the unusual machine forms the major attraction at Balloon Walk, Robina Shopping Centre on the Gold Coast (refer p14 Sept 96 AA). A helium filled tethered balloon, the Ballonbau can accommodate up to 30 people in its gondola and rises to 500ft (153m) before being brought back to earth by an enormous underground electro-hydraulic winch and 45 tonne cable. The 5500 cubic metre envelope was constructed in Germany and the $1.2 million system boasts a back up generator and an online maintenance system to continually monitor for any problems. A further $1m was spent on associated buildings including a tourist shop and a history of ballooning presentation. Balloon enthusiasts from all over Australia were invited to attend the inflation on Sunday July 13. Unfortunately high winds postponed the inflation until the following Tuesday when at about 7.00pm the job began. Five hours and $100,000 worth of helium later, the semi circular walkways were manhandled into place around the base of the balloon to form a circular platform from where it will be launched and retrieved. The inflation went without a hitch and by the time you read this Balloon Walk will be open to the public.

The other new type is the Katana, a two seat, single engined, tricycle undercarriage light aircraft. The all composite construction Katana has a T-tail, fixed undercarriage and a 10.8m (35ft 6in) wing span giving a very high glide ratio. Accommodation is two side-by-side seats under a bubble canopy that hinges rearward for easy access. Power is provided by an 81hp (61kW) four cylinder Rotax 912 engine which can use either Avgas or mogas. The aircraft was designed in Austria and the first aircraft, DVG, is an Austrian built HOAC DV20 Katana. However main production will be from the brand new Diamond Aircraft facility in Ontario, Canada which concentrates on North American sales. The second aircraft, ABD, is from the Canadian factory and is therefore a Diamond DA-20 Katana. All future imports for the Australian market will be built in Canada. The Katana is being imported by Adventure Aviation of Noosa and is helping to make SE Queensland the light aircraft capital of Australia with Skyfox, Jabiru and Lightwing all being built within a few hundred kilometres of each other.

Turbine twins are prominent this month with two Super King Airs and four Swearingen Metros listed. Both Super King Airs, MSH and MSM, were delivered to Sydney via Honolulu, Pago Pago and Norfolk Island on June 27 and have joined two others, MSU and MSZ with the Royal Flying Doctor Service at Broken Hill. Metro III TFG has been in open storage at Maroochydore, Qld for some time but is now active with Transair of Brisbane. Metro 23 WBA is now part of the ever expanding fleet of Skippers Aviation at Perth and joins three other Metro 23s, two Beech 200s, a Navajo and the mainstay of the fleet, nine Cessna 441s. UUG and UUN bring to 12 the number of Metros used by Jetcraft and making the company the largest Metro operator in this part of the world. Jetcraft uses a mixed fleet of Metros, Dash 7, Westwind, Baron and Aerostar types.

Five aircraft are shown in the Returning to Register section this issue including Beech 400A BJD. One of only two Beech 400s to operate in Australia, BJD was first registered on November 13 1992. Since then it has been reregistered LAW twice before returning to BJD each time. This is expected to be the last change as McRoss Developments are expecting a BAe 125 800XP next month to replace the Beech and the new aircraft will be registered LAW.

Waco Special CGF has returned to the register after being deleted only last month (refer p88 Sept ’96 AA). Nick Challinor has acquired the rare machine and will rebuild it, no doubt to pristine condition, at the Mothcare hangar at Murwillumbah, NSW.

Cessna 150G RZL was first registered to Rex Aviation, the Cessna agents, on September 29 1966. Rex sold it to Kiwa Equipment Hire of Epping NSW during July 1967 who sold it to Skyservice Aviation of Camden seven months later. Trade-A-Plane of Wahroonga NSW acquired the aircraft on May 25 1970 but only kept it for one month before selling it to Mr R Smith of Newcastle NSW. The elderly Cessna was taken off the register on May 27 1974 but returned on June 30 1976, still with Mr Smith. It was taken off the register again on July 29 1981 but is flying again in the hands of Nev Gibson of Kempsey NSW.

PA-32 Lance TZN has had considerably fewer owners than the Cessna 150, having been imported during November 1988 by Dr R Johnston of Harkaway Vic. Tom Torning of Burrill Lake NSW acquired the Lance on May 5 1992 but the machine was damaged in an accident on February 9 1993 and deregistered. The 1985 model Lance has now been repaired and is flying again with its previous owner Mr Torning. The final aircraft listed is Grumman Ag-Cat HZC which returns to Bob Robilliard’s fleet of agricultural aircraft after accident damage on September 2 1992. The only previous owner of the Ag-Cat was Stratus Aviation of Chinchilla Qld who operated the aircraft between December 1988 and May 1989.

Almost half of the entries in the Deletions section have been reregistered and therefore details can be found listed under their new markings in the New Allocation section. Of the rest three have been exported, one each to PNG, Japan and the Philippines, and four have been deleted due to accident damage. The damaged aircraft include Mooney TCN which was destroyed when it crashed near Roma, Qld, taking the lives of its pilot and passenger. One of only two of its type on the register, Brantley LSV was substantially damaged while lifting off from a paddock at the Brisbane suburb of Thorneside. The pilot, reportedly unlicensed, sustained minor injuries. Avtech Jabiru JBE has been transferred to the AUF register while the envelope of Kavanagh Balloon JKF has reached the end of its useful life. JKF is 10 years old and was the seventh Kavanagh to be constructed and as the envelope degrades with age, depending on flying time, 10 years is considered to be a long time for the life of a balloon.

Another four Skywest Aviation Aero Commanders appear in the Changes of CoR Holder listing this month. All four were used on the Coastwatch contract and only one of the original 12 Coastwatch Commanders remains with Skywest Aviation, it being BAJ. The four aircraft join General Aviation Maintenance at Essendon and bring the total number of Commanders operated by GAM to 17. The new additions are expected to be reregistered in the UJ and YJ blocks in the near future in keeping with other aircraft in the GAM fleet. Fokker 50 FNI has also moved from WA, after two months in the Skywest Airlines fleet, it has been returned to Ansett. The seven Super Cubs and two Eagle XTS aircraft owned by the Department of Conservation of WA are shown only due to a change of address while Skyfox CAL is now registered to the company instead of one of its main Principles. CAL was the prototype Skyfox and has been used as a development aircraft for all the current range of Skyfoxes including the CA-22 Elan, CA-25 Impala and CA-25N Gazelle.

Details are now at hand about two aircraft recently exported to New Zealand. PA-31 Navajo AYS, shown in the September deletions, is now flying as ZK-VNA with Aero Nautical Ventures of Papakura near Auckland while Cessna 180 Skywagon GCW, listed in the May edition, is with Mahinga Farm Partnership at Hastings and marked as ZK-RJH. In the USA Beavers IDB and IDC, which were shown in the March listing, are now N62657 and N6266M respectively. BAe 125 HSP is now flying in India with the Oberoi Hotel Group as VT-OBE.

The 1996 Australian Aviation Civil Aircraft Register is now available. This is the only publication that lists registration, type, construction number and C of R Holder’s name and address in an easy to read tabulated format. Over 10,500 aircraft are listed including those registered with CASA, the Gliding Federation of Australia and the Hang Gliding Federation of Australia. The register is only available from AustAirData, PO Box 1142, Toombul, Qld 4012 (phone and fax 074 983 757) at a cost of $11.00 including postage within Australia (add 50% for overseas air mail). Credit card facilities are available and the Register is also available on IBM compatible computer disk in ASCII format at a cost of $50.00 or as a complete stand alone database program at a cost of $70.00.