Warbirds

The aircraft had been for sale via Platinum Fighter Sales for some time and was recently purchased by a European buyer.

The aircraft has not flown since 2009 when, during an annual inspection, corrosion was found on the port lower spar cap. The aircraft was then inhibited pending a decision on its future. Now we know it has been sold overseas. Europe’s gain is Australia’s loss. It was a very unique aircraft in Australian skies.

A new set of spars (eight) havebeen manufactured by Madlener in Germany and will go with the aircraft to be installed at a later time by the new owner.

Wartime RAAF Catalina wreck found

Missing for 72 years, RAAF PBY-5 Catalina A24-25 has been found. The wreck of the wartime aircraft was discovered in 35m of water some 56km south of Cairns. Local diver Kevin Coombs found an aircraft wreck in 2013 but it was not until this year that detailed examination by ADF divers confirmed that the machine was in fact A24-25.

No. 11 Squadron RAAF operated Catalina aircraft from Cairns from late 1942 to fly long range missions against Japanese shipping and submarines. On February 28 1943 A24-25 and its crew of 11 – under the command of Wing Commander John Daniell, aged 26 – were engaged on a 17-hour mission to provide anti-submarine cover to a convoy heading for Milne Bay in Papua New Guinea. A final radio call from A24-25 stating that the aircraft was making a forced landing was picked up by Townsville Radio Centre. A Court of Inquiry recorded that the aircraft crashed at sea while attempting to land due to fuel exhaustion. No wreckage or survivors were found.

The ADF intends to leave the aircraft where it is as a mark of respect to the crew whose remains are likely to be entombed in the wreckage. The RAAF will hold amemorial service early next year to honour the lost crew.

Low flying DC-3

Travellers on the Mitchell and Newell Highways in NSW were no doubt taken back when they spotted a DC-3 travelling past them in late September. The aircraft was being moved from an airstrip at Larras Lee south of Wellington.

Secured to the back of a Ralph Chrystall Transport low loader the machine was moved along the highway to the Walcha property of the new owners, David and Carolyn Salter. The Salters intend to restore the aircraft to static condition but not to fly it. They did not want to allow it to be become scrap metal. The old Douglas arrived at the Walcha property on Thursday September 24. The wings will be moved to join the aircraft at a later date. This Douglas was to havebecome VH-DNF but this did not occur. It was last flying with the PNGDF as P2-001. It was to have gone to the Butler Air Transport Museum at Tooraweenah, NSW, but the museum did not eventuate. Now it has gone to owners who intend to preserve it.

The Slaters are real aircraft enthusiasts with a veritable fleet of aircraft. Besides the C-47/DC-3 they also own a DH. 82a Tiger Moth, a DH. 60G Gipsy Moth, a Cessna 180H, an AT-6D Harvard, a DHC-2 Beaver and a Bell 47. One for each day of the week.

Yak-9 damaged in landing incident

Yak 9UM VH-YIX was unfortunate to suffer an overturn after landing at Tyabb, Victoria on September 6.

The aircraft had just returned from the Narromine AusFly 15 gathering. It landed on the sealed runway whenit diverged slightly and a wheel ran into the soft grass surface and pulled the aircraft more off the runway. One wing tip then dug in and the aircraft slowly overturned.

The pilot/owner, Jim Wickham, quickly freed himself and scrambled clear of the inverted aircraft. The canopy had been slid back for the landing and Jim was wearing a Campbell hard-shell flight helmet. He suffered no injuries.

Now the big job is to get the aircraft back in the air. The Allison V12 engine suffered damage to the reduction gear housing and the prop and vertical fin will also need repair work.

We look forward to seeing Jim and the Yak back in the air in the near future.

Yale for sale!

The Gumtree classifieds website can often yield some hidden gems, suchas this one: “NA-64 Yale, predecessor to the SNJ, AT-6 Harvard and Wirraway. 450hp, fixed-gear, two-seat. Used by RCAF, RAAF and RAF in Canada to train WW2 fighter pilots. Aircraft is complete minus prop, tail fin and other parts already restored. View @ Maitland Airport. Need the room for other projects, will trade P-39 and P-40 parts. ” The Yale is a close relation to Australia’s own CAC Wirraway, as both are developments of North American’s NA-16 trainer, which first flew in 1935.

The predecessor to the Wirraway was the NA-16-1A with its fixed undercarriage, and the NA-16-2K with retractable undercarriage. One of each was imported to facilitate the commencement of Wirraway production.

The sole Australian NA-16‑1A was later allocated the RAAF serial A20-1. After use by CAC as a guide on how the type was built the aircraft was allocated to the RAAF Engineering School as an instructional airframe. It was converted to components (scrapped) in October 1945.

The fixed-gear Yale, meanwhile was based on the NA-16-4, which entered service with the US Army Air Corp as the BT-9. The Yale was an improved BT-9 fitted with a metal-skinned fuselage, is powered by a Wright R-975-E3 Whirlwind radial engine of 420hp (310kW), and was originally built for the French Armée de l’Air and Aéronavale.

A total of 230 NA-64 trainers were built, 111 of which were delivered before the fall of France in 1940. Some of those machines were in fact taken over and flown by the German Luftwaffe after the fall of France, while the remaining 119 undelivered aircraft were bought by the British Purchasing Commission and transferred to the Royal Canadian Air Force, where the type was named the Yale Mk. 1.

The Maitland machine had the RCAF serial 3383 (NA c/n 64‑3037), and in fact briefly– March to April 1941 – was transferred to the Royal Navy and is the only surviving Yale out of eight that were in RN for a short time.

During its time with the RCAF Yale 3383 had several forced landings, and was likely to have been flown by scores of Australians under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (in Australia we knew it as the Empire Air Training Scheme). The RCAF used the Yale first as an intermediate pilot trainer and then as wireless radio trainers.

The RCAF sold all surviving Yales off as scrap in 1946 including serial 3383, which at the time had 2,333 hours on the clock. It was purchased by Amsco Ltd of Hamilton, Ontario and then promptly offered for re-sale, this time purchased by a farmer from Tillsonburg, Ontario – Ernest V Simmons, who bought 39 Yales and kept them in open storage on his farm until his death in 1970.

The aircraft were then auctioned off, with 3383 sold on September 3 1970 for $706. 20 to Jack Taft. Nearly 40 years later, on May 23 2009, the aircraft was purchased from the Jack Taft Trust by Patrick Mihalek of Legend of Aces Aviation. The intention was to restore the aircraft to flying status and to loan it to the Warbirds of Glory Museum at Brighton, Michigan. Yales 3383 and 3434 were put into storage while Yale 3456 was worked on.

Restoration work on Yale 3383 apparently did not take place and the unrestored machine was then acquired and imported by an Australian from Cambridge Park, NSW.

Now it is up for sale. Any bidders out there for a fixed-gear Harvard look-a-like with a smaller engine and a pedigree that says it was the start of the CAC Wirraway line? The price? Negotiable.

Register news

As noted in a previous Warbirds, Jet Provost T. 5A, VH-JPV, has been sold. The register shows that the new owner is Zental Aviation,Hobart, as from July 24. The aircraft, ex XW295, is reported as having flown from Essendon to Hobart on September 9.

VH-IXF Supermarine Spitfire Mk. IX, c/n CBAF1X5589, has had an ownership change, on paper at least. Ownership went from Pay’s Air Service to Bel Nat Warbirds on September 18. And Canadian Car and Foundry Hurricane Mk. XII, c/n 5481, has become VH-JFW. The aircraft was added to the register on September 3 to Galway Scone Pty Ltd, also of Scone.

Nanchang CJ-6A VH-NNF changed to a new owner on September 4 to William Haynes, Kai Tak Airman’s Club Pty Ltd, Draper, Queensland.

Historic Cessna C-34, VH-UYG, c/n 339, had an ownership change, at least on paper, on September 4 from Aeromil Pacific to AAA Aircraft, Maroochydore Airport, Queensland. Aeromil has recently been bought by Hawker Pacific and one could suspect that Steve Padgett has retained ownership of the Cessna.

Bird in a Biplane

Tracey Curtis-Taylor is to re-enact the 1930 Great Britain to Australia flight undertaken by Amy Johnson in a Gipsy Moth, flying a 1943 Boeing B75N1 Stearman, N56200.

The Stearman Spirit of Artemis, departed Goodwood Aerodrome, Chichester, West Sussex on October 1. It will make some 50 refuelling stops along the way, covering 13,000 nm, flying over 23 countries and taking 14 weeks.

The Mail on Sunday newspaper is one of the sponsors of the flight. Another light aircraft will accompany the Stearman to act as the camera support aircraft for the trip.

January 6 2016 is the planned date of arrival into Sydney.

Curtis-Taylor has been flying for 30 years, and in 2013 she re-enacted the historic 1928 flight by Lady Mary Heath from Cape Town to Britain in an Avro Avian biplane.

For an update on the flight check www. birdinabiplane. com.