Beech Queenair
Folks
The Queensland Air Museum at Caloundra would dearly love to have a Queen Air, particularly an RFDS example. So if you know someone who owns one ...
Rgds
The Queensland Air Museum at Caloundra would dearly love to have a Queen Air, particularly an RFDS example. So if you know someone who owns one ...
Rgds
Fact 1. Army pilots did fly the aircraft as PIC without Unionair pilots
Fact 2, These two aircraft in PNG operations struggled to get above about 18000 at the weights they were operated at.
Fact 3. Helmets were not worn by Army pilots whilst flying these aircraft and the oxy system was a constant flow system fitted by Unionair
RUU at Rendani
601 if you have any more pix of Unionair ops in PNG or elsewhere I'd love to get a look at em.
Jaba, that's FDV, which features extensively earlier in this thread....
Come on 601 your not that busy
OK you are but just put some compliance requests aside for a few days
I reckon you have some interesting stuff
OK you are but just put some compliance requests aside for a few days
I reckon you have some interesting stuff
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Brisbane
Age: 77
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The Australian Army Queenairs were operated with Army pilots only initially. Bernie Forrest, Tippet, Howard and Ferguson took the first two to Indonesia 1969.
On return Bernie went off to do other things, Dick Tippet took over as section commander and I took Dick's place as the replacement pilot. We were supporting the School of Survey in Albury when Ferguson killed himself and others at the Shepparton Fly-in.
That aircraft was replaced but the incident had serious repercussions for Army Aviation across the board and, I understand for insurance reasons, a Union Air civil pilot joined the crew. This did not prevent the Army pilots flying in command and the great majority of jobs the two guys swapped seats day about.
My first job was to Wewak photographing the Indonesian border in the Star Mountains. We had the brand new replacement aircraft (actually a Beech 70 but the only difference I could see was the window shape). Pure photography at 25,000 and it took a long time to get there. Helmets did not come in until much later and we used headsets and kids airline seat emergency oxygen masks on full flow. Later we got canulas which were not much better.
That aircraft was burned to a cinder on return to Toowoomba in a hangar fire.
The bends incident was on one of our Wewak flights when the Survey Captain came for a ride. I can't recall whether he had been diving previous but we aborted the trip at around 20,000 as he writhed in excruciating pain on the floor from shoulders and knees.
Later jobs were Aerodist out of Goroka (what a godsend is GPS!), Terrain profiling out of Woomera and photography and aerodist out of Padang in Sumatra.
Wonderful aircraft but pretty terrifying in the afternoon punching into a big CB over the PNG mountains, really wished we had radar.
On return Bernie went off to do other things, Dick Tippet took over as section commander and I took Dick's place as the replacement pilot. We were supporting the School of Survey in Albury when Ferguson killed himself and others at the Shepparton Fly-in.
That aircraft was replaced but the incident had serious repercussions for Army Aviation across the board and, I understand for insurance reasons, a Union Air civil pilot joined the crew. This did not prevent the Army pilots flying in command and the great majority of jobs the two guys swapped seats day about.
My first job was to Wewak photographing the Indonesian border in the Star Mountains. We had the brand new replacement aircraft (actually a Beech 70 but the only difference I could see was the window shape). Pure photography at 25,000 and it took a long time to get there. Helmets did not come in until much later and we used headsets and kids airline seat emergency oxygen masks on full flow. Later we got canulas which were not much better.
That aircraft was burned to a cinder on return to Toowoomba in a hangar fire.
The bends incident was on one of our Wewak flights when the Survey Captain came for a ride. I can't recall whether he had been diving previous but we aborted the trip at around 20,000 as he writhed in excruciating pain on the floor from shoulders and knees.
Later jobs were Aerodist out of Goroka (what a godsend is GPS!), Terrain profiling out of Woomera and photography and aerodist out of Padang in Sumatra.
Wonderful aircraft but pretty terrifying in the afternoon punching into a big CB over the PNG mountains, really wished we had radar.
Last edited by aaavn; 1st Jul 2012 at 00:21.
601, 11 years have passed, have you had time to do those photos
sms777:-
Currently advertised for sale in Califournia, still wearing the VH-XAE registration.
XAE lives in Perth.
601, 11 years have passed, have you had time to do those photos
Retirement, Wooden Boats, Mens Sheds have been taking up my time. Don't know how I fitted work in!!
But I did scan all my slides. I know the directory they are in.
One has to remember that we did not have digital cameras back last Century. All 35mm slides.
Here is a teaser. RUU at Rendani June 1977.
VH-RUU at Rendani Airport. We had to change the fuel cell inboard of the starboard engine.
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