Register review

For the second month in a row one of the most interesting aircraft in the New Allocations listing is a Westland Gazelle helicopter. OIX has a similar history as OIZ, listed last month, however a little more is now known about both aircraft – with a mysterious three year gap between 2014 and 2017.

The latest Gazelle was marked as XX409 with the British Army before becoming G-CHYV on the British civil register with Kemet Global, London. OIX and OIZ, along with another pair of ex British Army Gazelles, were then believed to have been acquired by Paramount Aviation and taken to Africa where the other pair were operated by the Malawi Defence Force. Some sources quote all four going to the Malawi Defence Force, however, there is photo proof as well as documentation showing two in Malawi Defence Force markings but not the other two so it seems unlikely that all four were in Malawi. Another source quotes the second pair going to South Sudan, however, there is no proof and the South Sudanese military has only ever operated Russian types so that also seems unlikely. What we do know is that OIX and OIZ were in storage in Uganda for two years prior to coming to Australia.