VH rego - why?
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Adelaide, Australia
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When i first joined the RAAF in the early 60's, the RAAF aircraft were allocated VM registrations and used call signs of three letter groups. If I remember rightly 36SQN C130As were VM-JLx. 37SQN C130Es were VM-NUx, ARDU used VM-HJx, 35SQN used VM-JMx, etc, etc, etc. The VH register did not allocate JLx, NUx, HJx, JMx, etc to avoid confusion. Later when it became the in-thing to have 'cool' callsigns such as Stallion 123, Trojan 123, Tester 12, Wombat 56 etc., the VM allocations were released to the VH register which was running short I guess.
Years ago the VH-CXX series were retained for Commonwealth owned aircraft. The "Biscuit Bombers" of World War II that supplied Papua New Guinea all had VH-CXX series registration as well us US military registrations. The DC3 which crashed at Bamaga during the War was registered VH-CXC (from memory) and also had a US military number (commencing with "5" I think). At the time VH-CXC crashed the crew comprised one US military pilot and one ANA pilot. I suspect the Double Sunrise Catalinas, crewed by Qantas, also may have had VH-CXX registrations.
Most PNG Biscuit Bombers seem to have been right hand door DC3's and DC5's ex KNILM.
Similarly, the VK4CXX (or which ever state) series of Amateur Radio licenses were allocated to Amateurs who were part of Australia's emergency communications system. 30 years ago when I passed my License we were all required to sign a confidentiality statement. How times have changed.......
Most PNG Biscuit Bombers seem to have been right hand door DC3's and DC5's ex KNILM.
Similarly, the VK4CXX (or which ever state) series of Amateur Radio licenses were allocated to Amateurs who were part of Australia's emergency communications system. 30 years ago when I passed my License we were all required to sign a confidentiality statement. How times have changed.......
