Aussie DC-3 Historian Passes Away

[Fris B. Fairing]

I regret to advise that Australian DC-3 historian, Allan Bovelt passed away in Sydney recently. Al never graduated to cyberspace so his prolific letters will be sadly missed by his many correspondents worldwide. Our website listing extant DC-3s in Australia, which is based on Al's research, will be dedicated in his memory.
http://www.dc3.adastron.com
RIP Al

[barit1]

He's shared his research with me and many other historians - a really thorough and generous guy. Sad to see him go.

[Fantome]

Anyone who can provide any info for an obit for Al please PM me.
He evidently flew for Ansett-MAL in the 60s and later set up a business in PNG which had close links to refuelling and Talair. Today he was still lying in the morgue in Glebe. No next of kin has been located as yet.

[Torres]

Farewell Al. Gibbsie, Junior, Biscuit Ears, Blackjack and many of the old crew should be waiting for you.

Blue skies Mate!!

Bob Fulton
(Papua New Guinea 1963 - 1985)

[Torres]

Sky News tonight:

Al Bovelt's sister has been located in New Zealand and family will attend his funeral. A funeral home in Sydney has offered free funeral services.

His ashes are to be scattered from a DC3.

Al was 78 years old.

[PPRuNe Towers]

Further to the post by Torres a very kind lady called Cherie has been in touch with us at the Towers and wants us to pass on the following:

Hi,

Regarding the notice re Alan Bovelt. Sadly I'm the neighbour who found Alan and since his death have Googled his name in the hope of something popping up! Tonight Channel 9 did follow up to the segment on Alan aired on Monday!

Alan's sister has been located in Christchurch NZ, but she is unable to travel.

A funeral service has generously been donated by Euro Funerals, 890 Canterbury Road, Roselands. I called them and as yet the logistsic's are not in place. A service for Alan will be held next week, with possibly a memorial at the Aviation Museum, Bankstown and Alan's ashes will be scattered from a DC3.

In the just over a year that Alan lived here we were mates and I so hope that someone might take the landlord, the NSW Dept. of Housing to task over the way they dealt with Alan's possessions! I cared for and found a home for Alans' much loved three legged cat, Matey aka One Down, who is living a charmed life in Newtown.

I trust you will forward this information on to anyone who knew Alan, I knew him as a quiet, private, kind and caring man.

Kind Regards,
Cherie

[Fris B. Fairing]

To all Allan’s friends and relatives, please be advised that details of his funeral are as below :
Date : Monday, November 19, 2007
Location : The *Main Crematorium, West Chapel, Rookwood Cemetery
Time : 3.30pm
Funeral Service : Euro Funerals (who are kindly offering their service free of charge)
* There are 2 Crematoriums at Rookwood. One is the Catholic Crematorium, the other is known as the Main Crematorium. The latter is where Allan’s funeral will take place.
Please pass on these details to any known friend of Allan’s or anyone from the aviation fraternity interested in attending.
Most of you will know that with the permission of Discovery Air Tours and Chief Pilot Jack Curtis, I intended to scatter Allan’s ashes from a DC3 shortly after the funeral.
Regretfully the aircraft in question, VH-DNA, blew an engine in flight while on parachute dropping operations. However, Rebecca, a grand niece of Allan’s has promised to take care of his ashes until such time as VH-DNA is repaired.
Kind regards and hope to see you all at the funeral. I will post a tribute to Allan on the Museum web site (www.aamb.com.au (http://www.aamb.com.au)) later today.
Trevor Dean
Curator
Australian Aviation Museum
http://www.aamb.com.au