Register #385 | New gliders & a radial engine Kitfox

Peter Krauss’ Kitfox PDR is the first of its type in Australia, and one of the very few in the world, to be powered by a radial engine. Peter has always been interested in radial engines and whilst on holidays in Europe he visited the Verner factory in Sumperk in the Czech Republic to have a look at their range of radials. After a flight in the company demonstrator fitted with a seven-cylinder radial he was impressed by the torque and thrust of the engine, and after a quick chat to Pravoslav Verner, the owner of the company, Krauss found himself the Australian agent for the little engine. Verner produced three versions of its radial, five, seven and nine-cylinder and Krauss decided on the smaller five-cylinder 3390cc 78bhp model. Back in Australia, Krauss sourced a partially complete Kitfox IV and began the task of modifying the front end of the Kitfox to accept the new engine. The aircraft was ready to go in May 2021 but with hold ups in CASA paperwork due to COVID it did not make its maiden flight until 19 November. The little Kitfox is painted all-over yellow and looks and sounds great.

Stuart Caling has imported a very rare Yeoman Cropmaster from New Zealand where it has been for the past 56 years. The Cropmaster lineage goes back to 1958 when Kingsford Smith Aviation Services at Bankstown formed Yeoman Aviation to design and built a dedicated agricultural aircraft to replace ageing Tiger Moths that were being used for crop spraying and spreading at the time. Kingsford Smith had obtained a number of ex-RAAF CAC Wacketts after their retirement from military service and converted four of them to KS-3 Cropmasters in the second half of the 1960s. The conversion involved no more than fitting a hopper into the rear cockpit area, re-routing control cables around the hopper and cutting a hole in the wooden wing centre section to allow dispersal of the load. The Yeoman Cropmaster, by comparison was a completely new aircraft, although using the basic design of the Wackett fuselage. A new metal wing was designed along with a new fin and control systems and a Lycoming O-540 engine was installed. 

During 1965, Yeoman, along with several other Australian aircraft manufacturers, applied to the Australian Tariff Board for protection against overseas built aircraft being imported. The application was rejected and Yeoman, Victa, Transavia and Aerostructures soon went out of business. 

In all, 21 Yeoman Cropmasters were built before production ended with stiff competition from the cheaper Piper PA-25 Pawnee and no government support. All the jigs and fixtures and two further airframes were shipped to the US where production was planned to resume but this did not eventuate. 

The first 12 aircraft were basic Cropmaster 250s fitted with the Lycoming engine, the next four being 250Rs fitted with Continental IO-470 power plants whilst the last five were 250R Srs 2 models with the undercarriage moved forward to remove a tendency for the aircraft to nose over on landing. 

Caling’s aircraft YPQ is serial number 119 and therefore the third last built and a 250R Srs 2 version. It was first registered TPM to Cropmaster Aircraft at Bankstown on 19 July 1965 but was exported to New Zealand six months later to become ZK-CPW with Southern Aviation at Gore. It remained with them until September 1995 when L Nichols of Oamaru obtained the now rare aircraft. It is believed to have been stored somewhere in New Zealand for several years before ending up on display at the Ashburton Aviation Museum and subsequently coming back to Australia, this time as YPQ. 

On the lighter side Kavanagh Balloons have now produced more than 600 hot air balloons with the 600th becoming ODI with Global Ballooning and the Melbourne Institute of Technology have added eleven brand new Cessna 172S Skyhawks to their massive fleet. Another Aeroprakt Foxbat LTK has joined the register making 18 Foxbats and eight Vixxens flying on the VH register with a massive 156 Foxbats and 36 Vixxens on the RA-Aus register and 18 Foxbats and five Vixxens flying in New Zealand. One must wonder about the future of this Ukrainian built aircraft with the current situation although it is believed that all the jigs and fixtures to produce the aircraft were moved to Poland before the invasion of Ukraine began.

With the airline industry showing signs of recovering as the effects of the pandemic ease local airlines are increasing their fleets again to cope with the increased patronage. Virgin have obtained a Boeing 737 IXJ from Silk Air, Singapore, and two Airbus A320s VNR and VKQ. Both Airbus’ were previously operated in Australia by Tigerair between 2010 and 2020 as VNK and VNO, respectively. They were returned to the leasing company Avolon Aerospace and registered in Austria as OE-IMY and OEINN before returning to Australia. National Jet/Cobham have added an Embraer ERJ-190 ULH, from Mandarin Airlines in China and a Dash 8 IYP previously used by Nok Air in Thailand. The Dash 8 flew as HS-DQH until it was returned to leasing company GECAS who registered it VP-CRF from October 2021 until it was delivered to National Jet in February this year. Alliance Airlines have added another three ERJ-190s to their ever-growing fleet. UZD, UZH and XVM all started life with US Airways and then transferred to American Airlines when the two merged. The three new aircraft are part of the deal with Jetrans for 16 ERJ-190 signed in December 2020. Jestar Airways has transferred another Airbus A320 XNN from Jetstar Asia where it flew as 9V-JSM and Network Aviation have acquired another Fokker One Hundred from Germany. The Fokker was originally delivered to TABA in Brazil, then to TAM also based in Brazil, then GirJet in Spain and finally Avanti Air in Germany. Between each airline the aircraft returned to Fokker for refurbishment. 

Two aircraft are shown in the Aircraft Returning to the Register section with Reims Cessna 150 Aerobat back in VH markings after 13 years on the RA-Aus register flying as 24-7227 and classic Comper Swift UVC back in Australia after more than six years in New Zealand being completely restored. The British built Swift first came to Australia in October 1934 and flew with the Australian Aero Club (Victorian Section) which morphed into the Victorian Aero Club and later the Royal Victorian Aero. It crashed at Moorabbin on 14th November 1959 and its registration was cancelled during August 1968. It then went to New Zealand where it flew for a while as ZK-UVC but is now back in this country taking up its original markings of VH-UVC. 

As normal the majority of entries in the Deletions section are exports although re-registrations follow a close second and thankfully there are only five aircraft listed as being involved in accidents. Of the exports America is the favoured destination with six aircraft now flying in that country including AgustaWestland AW139s CGX and ZFV now registered to TVPX Aircraft Solutions of North Salt Lake, Utah, as N124MR and N389BG, respectively. SAAB 340B EFW and Beech Hawker 850XP SGY are now N440CL and N850XR and both hiding their true owners behind the Bank of Utah Trustee name. Bombardier Global Express CCV is now N8988 and is registered to the mysterious name of JC 18 Matos in New York, and Challenger JEC is now flying as N878EM with EM3 Enterprises at Chino Hills, California. Other exports include Navajo Chieftain IBI, Gippsland Airvan MFX and Beech Baron SWT to the Philippines, Cessna 182 LMA, and Cessna 172s NYP and PNQ to Germany and Twin Otter DIU to the Maldives after less than three months on the local register. The Twin Otter arrived from PNG late last year after 13 years as P2-KSB with Hevilift Aviation at Mount Hagen. Bell JetRanger SAI is now in Zimbabwe, Cessna CitationJet ING is in France, Airbus A330 XFD in on the Guernsey register and Dornier 328 PPJ is now in the Netherlands flying as PH-EAE. Two aircraft have gone to New Zealand with Maule Lunar Rocket MEZ very easily becoming ZK-MEZ with Southbranch Farm at Belfast and Zenair Cruzer MHO not yet registered as this report is compiled.