Where's VH-AAG ?

[18-Wheeler]

I never flew it but a lot of old mates use to flog it around in the 90's. It was old & tired back then but I see from various aviation photo sites that it was still flying in 2006 at least.
Is it still around? It must have a billion hours on it by now.
It's a Rockwell 690 Turbocommander.

[BPA]

Looks like it's with GAM.

RegoSearch | VH-AAG Australian Aircraft Registration Details (http://www.regosearch.com/aircraft/au/AAG)

[18-Wheeler]

Thanks for that. It has quite a history.

[PA39]

Bill Fuller and Swainey (aeromech/plane support) owned it for a time. Painted it etc Good old bus

[megle2]

J C Scott ( Air Charter ) in BN had it for a while when they started off about 1985. Young Doug Scott drove it and I think Les Wright was CP but I could be wrong, too long ago. There were 2 AC's, the other was ATF. Transair later operated both also

[Aussie Freight Dog]

It is sitting at Essendon with no engines at the moment. Been like that for a few years now.

[18-Wheeler]

I can remember going for a ride in it once in the late 80's, from Coolangatta to Sydney on the bank run with Morrie M flying it for Newcastle Aviation. Morrie also flew it at the Coolangatta air show demonstrating how slowly it could fly in front of the crowd. Late-ish 80's I think?
Later on when Shane C was flying it around between Sydney and Melbourne in the mid 90's, again for Newcastle, and I hitched a ride up to Sydney with him.
It was getting pretty rough & tired back then as well, I remember a bloke named Rohan taking it from Brisbane out to Emerald late one night on a freight run. The plane was so buggered that none of the internal lights worked and he had to use a hand-held torch to see the clocks .... also all the nav gear except the ADF wasn't working so he managed to fly it all the way out & back just using NDB's ... braver than me! I think he was the poor bloke that was flying it when there was a problem with one of the brakes or wheels out of Sydney on take-off ... a brief fire ...? Can't remember.
The freight work gave it a hard time as well; the floor around the door had been hammered so much it was cracked and letting a lot of air out when pressurised so had to be replaced.
I got out of the Aussie scene in the late 90's and lost track of it then.

[oicur12.again]

I spent several years flying AAG. 92-94 with Newcastle. It was a bucket when I first flew it but it got better with some tender care by the engineer at EN, cant remember his name. Got the EGT gauge fixed, the ADI and the ILS and then it was a ripper. I had a fuel contamination incident one night ex EN when both engines were down on torque climbing out. Returned to land and the engineers found sludge in both filters.

One of our pilots had a nasty incident into LT one night when he lost all airspeed indications in icing. Scary moment.

[enginair]

I remember it doing a freight run in to Mt Isa in the early 90's with zinc chromate primer on parts of it , was quicker than the King Airs at the time , first introduction to the Garrett turbine , now I have a licence on those engines

[oicur12.again]

Yep, I remember flying it with bits of green all over. Looked like a WW2 bomber. I wanted to sneak out and paint sharks teeth under the nose but instead it got the boring blue on white repaint.

[compressor stall]

Out of cycles I think I heard some ex gam guys tell me not so long ago

[Arnold E]

The plane was so buggered that none of the internal lights worked and he had to use a hand-held torch to see the clocks .... also all the nav gear except the ADF wasn't working so he managed to fly it all the way out & back just using NDB's

This was all written up on the maintenance release ofcourse.:ugh:

[60 & below]

:)I Also flew AAG for Newcastle Aviation. It was our first Aircraft in the fleet and served us well on bank/night freight runs for many years. Yes it was tired back in the 80's but everything worked. It was a very manoeuvrable Aircraft close to the ground with great get out of jail ability. When you wanted to get out of a situation you could apply thrust and get out of there very quickly. We later got the MU-2N's which pushed our fun meters threw the roof. Good mates, Good flying, Good days.

[Glitch]

I guess this thread is a bit old, (like me) but I just noticed it and can add a few details.
The VH-AAG I knew was a DH-89a Rapide, owned by Bob Carswell and I flew it out of Darwin from Sept. '61 to March '62.
Later with Ansett-ANA, then to LTU after the Holocaust in '89.
Now back to a Cessna 162 in the shed at Gatton Airpark.
Cheers, Bill Reilly

[Going Nowhere]

Bill Fuller and Swainey (aeromech/plane support) owned it for a time. Painted it etc Good old bus

The old man worked with Fuller and Swainey back from the 80’s to 00’s.

I remember spending many a day wandering around the hangar as a kid and spending far too much time sitting in the front of AAG amongst others.

[john_tullamarine]

#14. Names from the past. G'day, Bill, trust life treats you well, these days Welcome to PPRUNE.

[Dora-9]

Glitch - PM sent.

[Glitch]

Thank you John,
All good, but a shock to find Avgas is dearer than beer.
Sorry, but I can’t seem to download PM’s, I’m sure it’s finger trouble at my end.
Cheers, Bill

[tail wheel]

Bill

You need 10 posts before we let you loose in the Message system. :}

[Glitch]

Thank you tail wheel.

(That’s 3 ) 🙄

[pcx]

What is perhaps more interesting is where is 18wheeler these days.

[18-Wheeler]

What is perhaps more interesting is where is 18wheeler these days.

Quite a coincidence - I came here for the first time in many years, to find out what happened with Qatar flight QTR55E out of Melbourne earlier today. I haven't spotted a thread on it yet, but one of the first things I saw was this thread, ha!
Anyway I finished with the aviation trade in 2009, when the GFC hit and the mob I was flying for at that time out of Brisbane had to let a lot of their pilots go. I figured I'd done everything I wanted to in aviation so I was happy enough to call it quits. I'm mostly retired at home now, fiddling with racing cars and trying to learn the C computer language.