Register Review

The Baby Lakes is one of the very few amateur-built aircraft that have evolved from a well-proven and successful commercial design.

Barney Oldfield designed the Baby Lakes as a scaled-down version of the Great Lakes T2 which achieved considerable success during the 1930s.

It was an open cockpit, two-seat, aerobatic biplane with a straight lower wing and swept upper wing.

Oldfield used the basic design of the Great Lakes to produce a smaller single-seat version for amateur builders. The aircraft’s fuselage is of steel tube and fabric construction while the wings use spruce spars. Oldfield flew the prototype Baby Great Lakes regularly during the 1950s before selling it.

It was damaged in an accident during 1960 so Oldfield bought it back and began rebuilding it with the help of close friend Dick Lane.

Unfortunately the rebuild was only just completed before Oldfield’s death in September 1970. As a tribute to Oldfield, Dick Lane built a second aircraft, N11311, which is now on display at the EAA Museum at Oshkosh.

The third aircraft, N181H, was built by Dick Lane with help from Dave Hamm, and was taken to the Oshkosh fly-in. The aircraft attracted so much attention that Lane and Hamm decided to produce plans for amateur builders who could fit 65-85hp (48-63kW) engines and would be stressed to 9G. Later versions accepted engines up to 150hp (109kW) and had longer landing gear to enable a larger diameter propeller to be fitted. This was known as the Super Baby Lakes.

Peter’s Super Baby Lakes is painted all-over yellow and is fitted with a 115hp (86kW) Lycoming O-235 engine. It has taken him almost 19 years to build but the process has gained momentum in recent months and the aircraft should take to the air sometime during May. Peter plans to fly the aircraft for about 12 months before selling it.

Warbird enthusiasts will welcome the addition of Reevers Pastoral’s Curtiss Kittyhawk DEA and Graham Hosking’s Chance Vought Corsair III, both of which are covered in Dave Prossor’s Warbirds column.

Airliner followers are catered for with three new Boeing 737-800s and an Airbus A330 for Virgin Australia, two Fokker 70s for Alliance, a Fokker 100 for Network, an Embraer E170 for Air North, an ATR 72 for Skywest and a Dash 8 for Sunstate.

Two new Gulfstream IVs have been imported, both SP models, WXK for Coastwings in Brisbane and TSL for Execujet in Sydney.

Local manufacturers are well-represented with five new GippsAERO Airvans registered bringing total production to almost 200, while Kavanagh Balloons are nudging 460 hot air balloons built at their Hunter Valley production facility with the addition of an E-140 for Windward Adventures, UAF, and an E-180 for Quicktranz, WNX.

Hiding amongst the smaller GA types is the first Piper Aztec to be imported since 2007. The Aztec was a direct development of the PA-23 Apache which was Piper’s first all-metal model. First flown during October 1958 the Aztec was basically an Apache with a swept fin and rudder and two 250hp (187kW) engines replacing the 160hp units of the Apache.

Production began in 1960 and almost 5,000 Aztecs were produced before the final ‘F’ model rolled off the production line in 1981. Flight One’s Aztec, FIJ, is a ‘C’ model and is quoted as being a 1976 model although the serial number indicates it was built between 1964 and 1969.

It joins 12 other ‘C’ models on the Australian register with a further seven in New Zealand and one each in PNG and Fiji.

Thirty aircraft are listed in the Deletions section this issue with, unfortunately, more than one-third of these being involved in accidents.

Bell LongRanger CIV crashed when its tail separated after entering low cloud on a flight from Rosehill to Turramurra Hospital NSW. Twin Comanche EXA was lost shortly after departure from Hollister, California while on delivery from the US to Australia and Fletcher FNM crashed while returning from fertiliser spreading operations in Queensland. Robinson R22 FDL came to grief after a forced landing during a local flight from Georgetown, Qld. The helicopter was photographing mine sites when the engine lost power.

Robinson R44 RYO rolled onto its side at Moorabbin after the tail hit the ground on takeoff and R22 HTD ditched into Princess Charlotte Bay, Qld after the pilot lost control of the helicopter. Robinson R44 HIE hit power lines and Cessna 208 Caravan NTQ overran the strip and overturned at Beagle Bay, WA.

The Caravan was on a flight from Broome to Koolan Island when the pilot noticed a drop in engine oil pressure and decided, very wisely, to divert to Beagle Bay.

Of the exports, ATR 42 AVV is now in PNG, Cessna Stationair DNU has gone to South Africa, Canadair Challenger LEF has returned to Canada, Cirrus SR20 SLS is now flying in the Philippines and Canadian Home Rotors Safari VLO has gone to Serbia. Airvan NYD has been exported to New Zealand and is now with Milford Sound Flights at Queenstown and is marked as ZK-MCM. It joins seven Islanders, a Cessna 207 Skywagon and a Cessna 206 Stationair.

Beech Hawker 800XP VLI, Pilatus PC-12 WBI and Qantas Boeing 767 ZXA are all now in the US with VLI going to Sapphire Aviation at Houston, Texas as N800GN, WBI is now available for resale with Pro Star Pilatus Centre in Londonderry, New Hampshire and ZXA is registered to AirSale at Coral Gables, Florida. Also in the US is GippsAERO Turbo Airvan CQA which is now with GippsAERO’s Californian sales agents West Coast Aircraft Sales at Santa Ana.

Following up on a couple of exports, RSAF SIAI Marchetti S211 BKS has been registered in the US as N253FR and Beech Hawker 850XP PNF, which was shown in the November deletions, was ferried from Fort Lauderdale to Boa Vista, Brazil during October to become PP-JFZ.

Hawker 800XP VH-VLI has been exported to the US. gordon reid

Register Review

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