Register review

Pacific Flight Services have added a second Gulfstream G150 to their fleet which now comprises of a Gulfstream G550, two Learjets, two Beech King Airs and now two Gulfstream G150s. The history of the G150 goes back to the Ted Smith designed Aero Commander Jet Commander the rights of which were sold to Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) after Aero Commander was taken over by North American Rockwell who were producing their own business jet the Sabreliner and did not want two competing aircraft produced by the same company. IAI initially sold the aircraft as the 1121 Commodore Jet but after only 19 production aircraft upgraded the engines, stretched the fuselage, added wing tip fuel tanks and redesigned the wing and added double slotted flaps and drooped leading edges and renamed it the Westwind. This was then developed into the Astra and then the Astra SPX before Gulfstream obtained IAI in June 2001 and renamed the SPX to Gulfstream G100. The G150 was introduced in 2005 having a 25% larger cabin, a reshaped nose and oval windows.

Pacific Flight Services’ G150 PFW was built in Israel and first flew as 4X-TRA before flying to the US for painting and interior finishing. It was registered as N556GA for test flying with Gulfstream before being sold to Transportes La Paz in Mexico and becoming XA-PAZ and later XA-UUX. On its return to the US it was marked as N202VP for a short time until its sale to Pacific Flight Services.

There has been one Jet Commander in Australia, N159DP, imported by Amman Aviation which was to become NYJ but never made it onto the local register and was eventually donated to the Darwin Aviation Museum. Eighteen IAI Westwinds have been VH registered including three Seascans with specialised equipment fitted for water transport observation and recording. Seven Westwind IIs, one Astra SP and one Astra SPX have also been locally registered.

GippsAero Airvan ANE is a 2016 model but has only just been registered. It has been used as a demonstration aircraft by GippsAero using a trade plate registration and was seen at the Avalon Air Show earlier in the year.

A large Deletions section is shown this month dominated by the withdrawal of the Esso fleet of Sikorsky S-76s and the sale of most of the Royal Queensland Aero Club’s Cessna 172R Skyhawk fleet to New Zealand. The Sikorskys have provided safe and reliable service since they were first introduced by Esso in 1994 moving oil rig workers from the mainland to and between oil platforms in Bass Strait. The six Sikorskys have now been replaced by four Leonardo AW139’s, EXA, EXH, EXI and EXJ. Around 300 workers are transported by Esso helicopters each week but with the larger capacity 12 seat AW139s compared with the smaller 8 seat S-76s only four and now required.

The Royal Queensland Aero Club closed its doors for the last time in March last year which brought to an end the oldest Aero Club in the Southern Hemisphere which included aviation legends Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and Bert Hinkler as members. Of its 20 aircraft auctioned off by the liquidators most were sold locally but six of the club’s Cessna 172s, CNU/ZK-LNU, EEM/ZK-OEM, NUU/ZK-NUV, RQY/ZK-RQY, RQZ/ZK-RQZ and UUC/ZK-NUC have now gone to Aeromotive at Hamilton, New Zealand. Also now in New Zealand is Kawasaki BK117 HRR which has become ZK-HCB with Helilink and joins a mixed fleet of Aerospatiale, Kawasaki, Hughes, Bell, Robinson and Agusta helicopters at their Auckland base, and CBM which is now ZK-ZSD with BB Aviation at Feilding. BB Aviation also have a mixed fleet of aircraft comprising of Cessna 195, Cessna T210R Centurion, Cirrus SR22 and PA-18 Super Cub. Beech B300 Super King Air KJD has become ZK-PWL with Cubro at Tauranga and Morgan Aero Works Cheyenne NZJ, noted in the April listing, is now flying as ZK-CZJ.

Gary Morgan has recently sold Morgan Aero Works and returned to his New Zealand birthplace and taken the prototype Cheyenne with him whilst the remaining unsold aircraft, parts and equipment have gone to Ray Tolhurst who will continue to develop the Morgan range of aircraft and supply complete aircraft, kits and parts from his Camden hangar. Morgan Aero Works produce the single seat Diamond, two seat Cheetah, Joey and Sierra as well as the four seat Cougar. Other exports this month are Partenavia IYI to the Solomon Islands, BAe 125-1000 LMP to San Marino, Hughes 500D MDL to Finland, Yak-3M YZK to South Africa, Embraer 190 ZPM to Ireland and Agusta A109 XBN to Ecuador.

Seven aircraft have been deleted due to accidents including the much publicised crash of Beech Super King Air ZCR on departure from Essendon in February which claimed the lives of the pilot and four American tourists. Piper Cherokee Arrow HVX was on a commercial pilot licence test flight from Bankstown to Orange and return when it crashed after a simulated engine failure on departure from Orange. The pilot was unable to recover from the simulation and landed heavily just outside the airport boundary. Vans RV-6A JON was on a local flight from Moorabbin during October 2014 when it crashed at Chelsea, 8km south of the airport. During the short flight witnesses observed objects falling from the aircraft before it crashed leading to the assumption that the canopy had opened in flight and the pilot lost control of the aircraft after being distracted by the open canopy and the cockpit contents flying around. Unfortunately the builder/owner/pilot was fatally injured in the accident.

Luckily the pilot and instructor only suffered minor injuries in the crash of Schweizer 300C LTO at Redcliffe, Queensland, on June 18 2012. They were conducting practice auto-rotational landings in light wind conditions when the tail rotor struck the ground and directional control was lost resulting in heavy damage to the helicopter. Air Tractor AT-802A NIA was destroyed and the pilot killed whilst spraying crops 31km west of Narromine, NSW, during November last year and Robinson R22 was substantially damaged on a property 23km NE of Roma, NSW, whilst mustering cattle.

The helicopter was moving slowly at low level and in light wind conditions when buffeting caused the main rotor to sever the tail and the cabin to spin to the ground coming to rest on its side. The pilot was uninjured. The two people on board Cherokee SWV were not so lucky and received serious injuries when the aircraft crashed 2km north of Camden during April. The pilot reported and engine problem to Air Traffic Control just prior to the crash which caused major damage to the aircraft.