Good Gen
The following is a précis of information provided by Ken McBroom Chief pilot of Ansett GeneralAviation (AGA) from late 1966.
The first PA31-310 carried US registration. N9008Y and was ferry flown to Australia byCaptain Walter Moody of Globe Aero, Lock Haven PA, arriving in early 1967.
Naturally, Ansett General Aviation (AGA) as the Piper Distributor, wanted to get the first Navajo certified and flying on demonstration tours ASAP. Ferry tanks were removed, radio and navigation systems to suit Australia installed and inside 4 weeks, we had Australian certification. All our flyingwas done on “trade plates” without actually obtaining an actual VH number.
The first Navajohad 2 bladed props and engine handling was not easy. Vibration was noticeable,synchronisation was difficult, acceleration on take-off unimpressive and,because of the reduced ground clearance with the two long props, stone damage was a problem.
Our second Navajo was on the Lock Haven production line and it was reconfigured with 3 bladed Hartzell props and uprated Lycoming engines with slightly larger turbochargers. What a difference this made!
Piper shipped out the new 3 blade props and uprated engines for N9008Y.
Conversion was done at the Ansett engineering facility at Archerfield. When completed she was registered as VH-PDM, but much later than the first PA31-310 (VH-PNL) registered and delivered to Papuan Air Transport (PAT-Air) in Port Moresby.(VH-PNL was followed by VH-PNK for the same company.)
Allan Bligh, another former AGA stalwart, advises that;
“I think that the Prune correspondent ZLIN77 is correct and that VH-MCX, for Countryair (Don Milroy) in Rockhampton, was the first Navajo Chieftain (PA31-350) to enter service in OZ, it was quickly followed by two for the Coffs Harbour airline (Ross Davies) which, were registered VH-RDA and I thought VH-RDL. By the way the price of those Chieftains including delivery and certification was around $100,000 AUD.
Last edited by Seagull V; 15th Nov 2012 at 07:45.
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