Back in Business

During the 1950s, the Heliopolis Aircraft Works of Egypt acquired a licence to build the Czech version of the Bestmann naming it the Gomhouria or “Republic” and fitting a 105hp Walter Minor engine. Heliopolis built more than 300 Gomhourias for the Egyptian Air Force and other Arab air forces with only a very few surviving today. 

Built in 1970, BEZ was the 67th Gomhouria built by Heliopolis and served in the Egyptian Air Force as number 158. Anthony Brier of Ellerton, York, acquired the aircraft in 2010 and registered it G-CGEV with an exemption to fly without the UK registration being painted on but in Luftwaffe colours and coded CG+EV. Now in Australia, it had only recorded 125 hours of flight as of 18 May last year. 

Helicopter manufacturers Bell, Sikorsky, Robinson, Leonardo, Eurocopter and Guimbal are all represented in this issue’s listing with probably the most interesting the seven Bell 412EPs in the VH-YQ block. Hawker Pacific has obtained seven of the eight Bell 412 in the Saudi Air Ambulance fleet presumably for refurbishment and then onward sale either locally or overseas. The Saudi Air Ambulance was established in December 2009 with McDonnell Douglas Explorers and a single Airbus A318 airborne hospital. It is run by the Saudi Red Crescent Authority, based at Riyad, to provide emergency medical services within Saudi Arabia and for its citizens in neighbouring countries. The Explorers were soon replaced by Bell 412EPs and these are now being replaced by Leonardo AW139s. The authority also has two Sikorsky S76s and retain the Airbus. 

The first Guimbal Cabri G2 helicopter arrived in Australia during March 2011 and has since become a serious challenger to the Robinson R22 in the rotorary-wing basic training industry. There are now 12 registered locally with the latest two, ICV and LTJ, arriving from the UK and New Zealand, respectively. ICV was operated by Heligroup Operations at Booker, Marlon, England, as G-CHAG prior to arrival in Australia and LTJ was with Tauranga Helicopters at Mount Maunganui marked as ZK-IIF. 

Sikorsky Black Hawk UHS is the first of its type on the local register and joins Aerotech Helicopters at Parafield, South Australia, becoming the largest aircraft in its extensive fleet. The Black Hawk, named after the Native American war leader Black Hawk, is powered by two General Electric T700 engines turning a four-blade rotor head and is a medium lift utility helicopter originally built for the US Army but now in use with many overseas military forces. UHS was built in 1981 with the military serial 80-23475 and was initially delivered to the US Army at Dobbins Air Base in Georgia. It was retired during February 2020, registered as N260AU and auctioned off at Huntsville, Alabama, the following April. It had its first flight in Australia on 25 March when it did the short hop from Parafield to Claremont where it joined Aerotech’s fire-bombing fleet of 16 Air Tractor AT-802s. Aerotech also has 10 other helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft on bush fire related general duties.

Three more Cessna 208 Caravans have been registered locally, all with quite different histories. Hardy Aviation’s UOP is a brand new late 2020 built EX Model registered to Gateway Air Centre as N893WY for its ferry flight to Australia whereas Air Fleet Management Australia’s DQI is a standard 2008 B Model. DQI was originally registered in Germany as D-FROB but soon found its way to India where it was registered VT-DCE with Deccan Charters at Bangalore in August 2012. From there it went to Indonesia marked as PKHVL before being imported to Australia. The second EX Model, TFB, has a slightly more exotic history being delivered to Movil Air Tours in Peru during 2013 as OB-2072-T. A short time later the suffix was changed to P and then in April last year Textron Aviation Finance repossessed the aircraft, brought it back to the US and registered it N561PE. It was transferred to Gateway Air Centre during December last year for its ferry flight to Aero Facilities at Beulah Park, SA.

Careflight has obtained a Gulfstream G150, OVG, for its rapid medical retrieval fleet and it becomes the third on the local register following Pacific Flight Services PFV and PFW. The G150 is a mid-sized twin engine business jet and is a direct descendent of the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) Astra SPX. During September 2002, Gulfstream acquired Galaxy Aerospace, which held the Astra SPX type certificate so the type morphed into the G100 and with a later upgraded version released as the G150. The aircraft is still built by IAI in Israel and then ferried “green” to the US for painting and the interior fitment.

OVG was built during 2007 and used the Israel markings 4X-CVL for test flying before changing to N635GA for its ferry flight to the US. It was sold to DC Aviation in Germany and became D-CKDM during February 2008 and two years later went to Triple Alpha Aviation using the same markings. During September 2012 it moved to the Isle of Man register as M-CKDM with Avcon Jet but only one month later it went back to the US to become N371GA with International Aircraft Sales at Fort Lauderdale, Florida. International Aircraft Sales sold it to Elite Aviation Taxi Aero in Brazil as PR-FSN but it was back in the US two years later as N250EA with Starwings Services then JIK Mission Lakes before a change of owner to RCD Hotels and a change of registration to N120RC. Its US marking was cancelled on 8 February and it became OVG two days later.

There are quite a few aircraft flying in Australia in fake military colours and markings, especially Austers, Piper Cubs and Super Cubs, however, Toby Dorn’s recently acquired Piper POG is a genuine US Army L-21A worthy of an appropriate colour scheme. During 1950 while Piper was building PA-18 Super Cubs for the civil market, it started supplying the type to the US Army designated L-18C and powered by a Continental O-205-1. It had no flaps and a glasshouse style cockpit similar to the L-4 versions of the J-3 Cub. After two experimental YL-21s were completed, the L-21A was released in 1951 being a development of the L-18C but with the Lycoming engine. Two batches of L-21As were ordered by the US Army and delivered to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, the first batch of 30 during November 1950 and the second of 120 the following year in the standard Piper colours of yellow with a brown stripe.

POG was part of the second batch of L-21As and was given the US Army serial 51-15732 before being demobbed and becoming N407A on the US Civil register. Dorn obtained the L-21A from Joy Smith of Kenai, Alaska, and hopefully the, now locally registered, rare aircraft will be seen at air shows in the near future. 

Network Aviation has added another Fokker 100, NQZ, to its impressive fleet of 17 other 100s and nine Airbus A320s. Their latest 100 had its first flight in the Netherlands on 8 November 1995 using Fokker test markings PH-JCJ. It was quickly sold to TAM Linhas Aereas in Brazil and became PR-MRT. Nine years later it was in France using French test registration F-WLLF and later F-OLLH before being sold to Mandarin Airlines in July 2004 and flying as B-12295. It was then returned to Fokker for refurbishment and onward sale to MagicBlue Airlines as PH-MJP and then Contact Air Interregional in Germany as D-AFKE during August 2009. Unfortunately, it suffered a wheels-up landing at Stuttgart one month later but was repaired and sold to OLT Express three years later. In 2014 it was back in the Netherlands again as PHMJP but this time with Denim Air, which wet leased the aircraft to Greenland Express for flights from Denmark to Greenland and domestic flight within Greenland. This only lasted for two years and the aircraft was then stored at Saarbrucken, Germany, from November 2016 until it was sold to Bek Air of Kazakhstan as UP-F1015 two months later. Bek Air ceased operations on 17 April 2020 after the fatal crash of one of its other Fokker 100s on 27 December the previous year and UP-F1015 then moved on to Avanti Air in Germany as D-AOLH before coming to Australia earlier this year.

In the Deletions section, three more Virgin Boeing 737s, BZG, VUU and VUV have been reregistered RQP, REX and PAG, respectively, prior to joining two others in the Regional Express fleet, with a sixth, VOM, also destined for Rex as RYU. Also re-registered are six aircraft in the VH-XV block, no doubt to enable an airline (probably Alliance) to register its future fleet additions within the same block of markings. 

Ten Aeroprakt, Tecnam and BRM Bristells have been transferred to the RA-Aus register following the collapse of Soar Aviation at Moorabbin and no doubt there will be a lot more in the coming months as the Soar aircraft are auctioned off and the remaining 28 on the CASA register find new homes. 

After only three months on the local register, Cessna 560 Citations IVK and IVZ have moved on to New Zealand and are now flying as ZK-ZGO and ZK-XGO with JR Ambler at Albany, just north of Auckland. 

Several aircraft are noted as being damaged including BAe 146 NJW and Vans RV-6A TJM. The 146 was damaged at Perth on 30 July 2019 when it is thought that the parking brake was not applied correctly and the aircraft rolled forward into a terminal building. Although not cancelled until March 2021, it is believed it never flew again after the incident. The Vans was damaged at Starke Field, Queensland, when it overturned on landing on 1 February 2017, however, it has now been repaired and is back on the register as VH-KTS (see additions). 

With the cancellations of Qantas Boeing 747s OEE and OEI from the local register that leaves only OEJ still current although even it has been at Victorville, California, since July last year awaiting its fate. All the Qantas 747s were withdrawn from use some time ago with OEE and OEI ferrying to Mojave, California, during June last year for scrapping and the recovery of useful parts. Interestingly, part of the interior of one of the Mojave 747s was recovered last year to build the 1970s First Class cabin replica recently opened at the Qantas Founders Museum at Longreach.