Warbirds

The Spitfire was shot down by German anti-aircraft fire on June 11 ’44, with Australian FLTLT Henry ‘Lacy’ Smith at the controls. But it wasn’t until November last year that the Spitfire was discovered in the estuary of the River Orne, near Caen in northern France, with the remains of FLTLT Smith still inside the cockpit. FLTLT Smith was subsequently buried at the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery at Ranville, in the northern French region of Normandy, with full military honours in April this year.

After being raised from the river estuary, the remains of the aircraft were initially cleaned and have now been transported from France to Point Cook, where a six month preservation program will prepare the aircraft to go display. A team of RAAF Museum technical and curatorial personnel will mechanically clean all items of the aircraft, to ensure maximum desalination of the engine and fuselage.

Tiger Moth 80th Anniversary Celebrations

Leeton, NSW, was the venue for the Antique Aeroplane Association of Australia (AAAA) to hold a gathering of Tiger Moth biplanes to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the first flight of the ever popular biplane.

The gathering, held over the weekend of October 29-30, attracted 15 Tiger Moths including one, VH-AUS, that was on its way to a new home in Western Australia.

Leeton was selected as the venue for the event due to its grass airstrip, something that tailskid and tailwheel aircraft like the Tiger enjoy landing on rather than sealed tarmac.

With mild weather the two days saw a continuous procession of Tiger Moths in the air, a number taking some people for their first ever Tiger Moth flight.

Of the 15 Tigers, all were resplendent in various colour schemes including a number of RAAF or RAF type markings.

Eight carried their original RAAF serial numbers. Every aircraft was well presented and one Tiger pilot made the comment, “Only Tigers here, no dogs”! He was right.

The Tiger Moths by registration were VH-ABL, ADW, AQJ, AMY, AKE, AUS, AUZ, AZF, SDR, UNZ, UTD, BBC, COA, JME and ZUP. Two other aircraft of note at the event were Piper J3 Cub VH-ZBQ and Avro Cadet VH-AGH.

Hars Caribou To Albion Park

The Historic Aircraft Restoration Society (HARS) has taken delivery of its two former RAAF DHC-4A Caribou STOL transport aircraft.

The aircraft were flown from Oakey, Queensland, to HARS’s home base at Albion Park, NSW, with A4-210 the first to arrive on Saturday October 29, and A4-234 following on Wednesday November 2, with both flown by ex RAAF aircrew.

Register News

Ryan STM VH-STM, c/n 492, was struck off the register on October 6 as having been exported to New Zealand.

In actual fact the aircraft went to New Zealand some four years ago with its owner, Noel Kruse, who is now living there. He has been restoring theaircraft so it can be expected that it will soon turn up on the Kiwi register.

Tiger Moth VH-WHW, reported as having been struck off the register and going to New Zealand, was involved in a serious accident near Toowoomba, Qld, on January 16.

1954 vintage Cessna 180 VH-UUM that went to New Zealand became ZK-BRW on October 10 with R Craig of Balclutha.

New Zealand has two new Boeing aircraft on the register.

No, not jet airliners but two Stearman biplanes. ZK-USA went on the register on September 15 with owner M Dean of Maunganui. ZK-USN went on the register to M Cantlon, also of Maunganui, on September 14. Th ey were N65041 and N115JP respectively.

Two new old aircraft have been added to the Kiwi register, ZK-FES and ZK-FEV which are Fokker D VIII WW1 replicas.

Th ey were registered to Th e Vintage Aviator of Masterton on November 7 and October 4 respectively.

Murray Griffi th’s Curtiss P-40F VH-PIV has been struck off the register on November 3 due to the ‘Registration holder (being) deceased’. Th e fi ghter is in fact in the UK and about to take up British registration.

Luscombe 8A VH-LUS, c/n 2845) was bought by Anthony James of Heidelberg, Melbourne, on November 4.

Anthony is a past president of the Antique Aeroplane Association of Australia, who sold his Tiger Moth some years ago, and is now back into antique aviation with the Luscombe.

New Zealand Avro Anson Soon To Fly

Australia’s loss is New Zealand’s gain, with former Brain and Brown Air Freighters Avro Anson Mk. 1 VH-BAF under restoration as ZK-RRA with owner Bill Reid of RR Aviation at Wakefi eld near Nelson.

Th e ‘Aggie’, which started out life with RAF serial MH120, will have a WW2 camoufl age colour scheme and carry the serial K6183.

When back in the air it will be the only Anson fl ying in the southern hemisphere.

New Albury Dc-2 Rescue Plan?

A plan to save the DC-2 at Albury has come to light that would see the Camden Aviation Museum relocate to Albury Airport.

Th e possible plan comes after a March meeting of the Albury Council that voted against a display of the DC-2 next to the airport terminal building, a plan that would have cost ratepayers $2. 5 million dollars. It is reported that Albury Deputy Mayor Neville Hull had been in talks with Nicole Frampton of the Camden Aviation Museum regarding a possible move of the museum to Albury, which would see the museum take the DC-2 into its care.

Th e museum is currently located at Narellan, near Camden, but has been closed for some time and its future is uncertain, and at this stage a possible move is only in the stages of exploratory talks, with no decisions made.

In related news, Herman Blom, the Dutch migrant who worked for years to secure the future of the Albury DC-2, which has long been painted to promote the 1934 visit of the original KLM DC-2 Uiver, died in late October at Albury.

He was aged 85.

A Dutchman who moved to Albury after WW2, Blom struggled to make the Uiver story well known to Australian and international visitors, especially those from his home country. As a result, Queen Beatrice honoured Blom in 1997 by making him an honorary knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau.

Contact Dave by email at  [email protected]