Warbirds

The future of Precision Aerospace Productions at Wangaratta airport, Victoria, is unclear following the sudden passing of its principal, Murray Griffiths, on Monday September 5, 2011.
Mr Griffiths death follows soon after that of his wife, Anna, in mid July.

Mr Murray’s firm was know as the ‘World’s Largest Restoration Shop’ due to the number and types that it was rebuilding to flying condition. Almost all the rebuilding work was on warbird type aircraft. The firm operated from the former Air World Museum Strarch building at Wangaratta airport in northern Victoria.

Precision Aerospace was involved with several Curtiss P40s being put back into the air as well as an imported Sea Fury.

In the Precision collection are several more Curtiss P-40s, including a rebuild job for Doug Hamilton that will be a two seater. A Douglas A-20G was to have gone to the RAF in exchange for a Spitfire and a F4U Corsair is also under rebuild as is a Vought Kingfisher from the Whale World museum in WA. The deal with the RAF for the A-20G is reported to have fallen through. A WWII Japanese Ki-61 ‘Tony’ fighter rebuild to flying standard is said to be well underway.

The Precision Aerospace Productions collection of rebuild projects underway or in store, short or long term, is said to include another Sea Fury, a Vultee Vengence and a P-39 Airacobra. Some of these aircraft are for overseas owners and buyers.

Murray Griffiths started out as a farmer. He later became involved in the rice industry in southern NSW. He then learnt to fly so that he could fly agricultural aircraft. He then turned his hand to engineering and ran an engineering shop at Moorabbin airport before moving to the airport at Wangaratta. There he concentrated on warbird rebuilding. Some aircraft were restoration jobs while others were builds from the makers plate upwards.

Precision Aerospace Productions is reported to have a staff of some 30 employees. It is known to have contracts to build or rebuild a number of WWII warbirds. It will be a while before the future of the firm is known and that of its rebuild projects.

New North American T-28a In Australia

Another North American T-28 Trojan has arrived in Australia. This aircraft is slightly different from the previous imports in that it is a T-28A model. The other Trojan’s flying in Australia and New Zealand are B, C and D models.

The new A model Trojan is owned by Tim Berry of Highlands, Queensland. It was added to the register as VH-VBT on August 29. The big two seater arrived at the Aerotec hangar at Toowoomba, Queensland, on August 22 for its assembly and to be put back in the air. It will be based at Toowoomba, Queensland.

Built in 1950 as a T-28A with c/n 171-27 the machine became serial 50-0221 with the USAF as a trainer aircraft. Sold off as surplus it became N3336G in 1963 with owner Robert Trow of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. In 1989 it became N221LH when bought by Laurence Hofmeister of Milford, Minnesota. Struck off the US register on April 11 it made the sea journey to Australia where it will join the dozen Trojans on the local register.

Photos taken in the US show the aircraft in a grey South Vietnam paint scheme and with a three bladed prop. The stock T-28A had a two bladed prop. The engine in the T-28A is a Wright R-1300-7 of 800 hp. interestingly enough the engine in VH-VBT was build by sub-contractor Kaiser. In the US the cowl sported the logo ‘Wright Stuff’’. but in Australia it has been noted as ‘Little Jugs’ with suitable artwork. When in the USA the machine was billed as ‘The best T-28A in the world’.

An interesting addition to the warbird fleet in Australia enthusiasts will be keen to see it take to the air.

Caboolture Qvag Fly-in

Held over the weekend of August 27/28 the annual fly-in gathering of the Queensland Vintage Aeroplane Group (QVAG) was this year held at Caboolture aerodrome instead of the usual location at Watts Bridge airfield.

The Saturday was wet but next day the sun shined and a great collection of aircraft was to be noted by pilots and enthusiasts alike.

In this the year of the 80th anniversary of the DH82a Tiger Moth there were no lass than four of the breed, VH-RTA, VH-RVE, VH-UXD and VH-WFW. Joining them was DH60M Gipsy Moth VH-ULP. Another De Havilland type of interest was the twin engined DH84 Dragon VH-UXG. For more recent De Hav types there were DHC-1 Chipmunks VH-RSP and VH-SHX. Waco biplanes were also to be seen in the form of model EGC-8 VH-EGC, YKS-7 VH-YKX and more recent build Classic YMF VH-YOW. Heavy metal buffs saw North American T-28D Trojan VH-TRO and N-A T-6 VH-TEX and SNJ-4 VH-NAG. Australian built DHA-3 Drover VH-FDU was to mix with Cessna 195 VH-KES and Cessna 195B VH-BVD. Mustang VH-MFT delighted fast metal enthusiasts while taildraggers were to be seen in the form of Stinson L5B VH-CRO, Piper J-3C Cub VH-LFJ, Auster VH-WED and VH-KSL. Cessna 170A VH-CEI was compared in size to the big AN-2 VH-CCE. For vintage nose wheel types there was a Yak or two and Nanchang VH-NNF along with rare GY80-160D VH-KJC.

Beaufort restoration A9-141/VH-KTW gave a look back to the WWII era.

Another interesting type was a scale replica of a WWII Bell XFL-1 Aerobonita. Built in 2010 by owner Dieter Sedlbauer the single seat tailwheel aircraft, VH-OFH, is a copy of the wartime aircraft. Developed from the P-39 Airacobra the tailwheel experimental carrier fighter made its first flight in May 13 1940. Only one was built. It was not taken up by the US Navy.

All in all the QVAG held a successful weekend with an interesting spread of antique types present. Roll on next year.

Sea Kings Helicopters For Surplus Sale

In September the much anticipated surplus sale of the Royal Australian Navy’s Westland Sea King helicopter came to the front with the release of the tender documentation. The tenders for the sale of the machines and spares close on November 1 2011 with the aircraft located at the RAN base, HMAS Albatross, Nowra, NSW.

The helicopters up for surplus sale comprise flyable aircraft plus three ex RN Sea Kings that have been used as a spare parts supply source.

The five RAN machines are Sea King Mk. 50A, serial N16-114 with 8982 hours flight time. Sea King Mk.50A, N16-125. 8191 hours. Sea King Mk.50A, serial N16-238. 87770.5 hours. Sea King Mk.50A, serial N16-239 77732.2 hours. Sea King Mk.50B, serial N16-918 7987.8 hours. The flight times for N16-238 and 239 are taken direct from the tender form.

Also for surplus sale is a Sea King Simulator. Three former UK Royal Navy Mk.6 Sea King airframes (fuselage only) are included in the sales deal. These are serial XZ 571, XZ 647 and XV 710. A number of Rolls Royce Gnome engines and a mobile engine test stand plus a large holding of engine and airframe spares have also been put up for sale.

The Sea King entered service with the Royal Australian Navy in 1974 and for the next 20 years operated in the anti-submarine warfare role. In this role the aircraft were flown for rescue operations at sea, on operations in Bougainville, the Solomon Islands., East Timor and the Middle East as well as being at the forefront of the RAN’s contribution to humanitarian assistance operations throughout South East Asia.

In 1994 the Sea King and other Defence aircraft were involved in one of the largest fire fighting efforts in Australian history. Military personnel were released to flight fires on the ground and the aircraft used water buckets to flight fires raging near Grafton, Gosford, Bulahdelah, Balladera and Sydney’s western suburbs. The Sea Kings have also frequently been called upon to support life saving operations at sea, notably searching for and rescuing yacht crews in disastrous weather conditions during the 1998 Sydney to Hobart Yacht race.

The Sea King is a twin gas turbine engine powered helicopter. It was designed by Sikorsky in the USA and built under licence by Westland helicopters at Yeovil in the UK. The RAN initially purchased ten Sea Kings from Augusta Westland in 1974 as Anti Submarine Warfare (ASW) / Maritime Utility Helicopters. These aircraft were designated as Mk. 50 Sea Kings and were based on the UK MoD Mk.2 design. Two further aircraft were purchased from Augusta Westland in 1983. These aircraft were designated as Mk. 50A Sea Kings and were based on the existing RAN Mk.50 aircraft differing only in the increased internal cabin space.

In the early 1990s the ASW capability was removed from the aircraft and in 1996 all aircraft underwent a Life of Type Extension (LOTE) upgrade which replaced or improved the aircrafts avionics suite and introduced other structural and system modifications such as heavy duty flooring and engine air particle filters. At this time all Mk.50 aircraft were converted to the Mk.50A build standard.

One final aircraft was purchased from Augusta Westland on 1997. This aircraft, designated as an Mk.50B variant, was converted from an existing UK MoD Mk.5 Sea King and as such has some minor structural differences to the Mk.50A aircraft. This aircraft carries RAN serial N16-918.

While the tenders allow for sale to overseas buyers the aircraft can also be purchased and displayed locally such as in a museum.

Register Notes

From New Zealand we learn that ZK-VNM a DH112 Venom was struck off the register on August 31 as having been destroyed. Tiger Moth VH-AGN was struck of the VH register on August 9 as having been exported to New Zealand. That was then followed by DH82a Tiger Moth VH-WHW, DX644, which also went to New Zealand. It was struck off the register on August 24 as having been damaged and then exported to NZ. A possible rebuild and return?

In the jet area Aero L-39C VH-EKN, 232206, was added to the Australian register on August 23 to Jay Recha Ekinci of Sydney. The aircraft is reported to be based at Camden., Following on from last month BAE Systems in NSW has now procured a third NZ Aerospace CT/4A. This aircraft, VH-PGH, was acquired on August 10 and joins CT/4A VH-DAP and VH-ZCT. It would appear that BAE is keen to increase the number of operational CT/4 aircraft at its Tamworth facility but the type is no longer in production so the firm has been buying up existing CT/4A aircraft. No doubt they will be modified to CT/4B standard .

Contact Dave by email at [email protected]