C55 Baron VH-CFG

[stilton]

What a great looking Baron, the finest light twin ever made from the 'Boeing of light aircraft'


Spent many nights by myself in one through some pretty crappy weather and it took very good care of me, simply the best !

[Dora-9]

BSD:

Another Manjimup photo from the same time as the earlier one, this is B55 VH-CFO:



stilton:

I totally agree, they were (are) great aircraft - I loved every minute I spent in Barons.

[gerry111]

Thanks so much for the photo, Dora-9.
I'll bet that sounded rather well for those on the ground!
Low and fast in a Baron? You sadly don't get to see that often these days!

[Stationair8]

Dora-9, I showed these photos to a friend who is a retired MMA traffic officer and mentioned that the CFS Barons racked a huge amount of hours each week on crew changes. He mentioned something like 1500 hours plus a year?

Didn't Civils also have the first 690 Commander in Australia on crew changes as well?

[BSD]

Dora-9,

Cracking photo! What a lovely, evocative shot. Makes looking at PPRUNE worthwhile.

I'm away "down route" but I have a similar photo of myself also taken at Manjimup at home. I'll see if I can find it and post it here for a swift game of "Baron snap"

Happy days, great planes.

BSD.

[Dora-9]

Stationaire:

I'm not sure what you mean by crew changes. I left CFS in 1970 for other (greener) pastures, the only turbine in the fleet then was His Majesty's B90 King Air.

[Stationair8]

Dora-9, he was referring to rig or mining FIFO from out of the North West shelf project.

[Dora-9]

Only thing I recall fitting that description was Barrow Island when they moved a rig into the splay making it too short for MMA's Friendships...

[Givelda]

For a while in early 1979, I flew for Peter Rundel who had one of the first contracts to carry out Coastal Surveillance in the Gulf. I arrived from Bundy in our Aero Club's C310R, VH-TDS, but was also given an endorsement to fly the Baron in Peter's collection of his own and cross hired aircraft.

I took this photo of "CFG" in Townsville I believe, in April 1979 (with my trusty but none to clear pocket Kodak 110 camera) and by the look of the markings on the tail, this was one he "imported" into his fleet.



The other Baron I flew at that time, was this one - VH-TOE. I think this was taken up in Weipa.

[Dora-9]

TOE is an old friend, it was purchased new by Wigmore Tractors in Perth in the late 1960's, and flown almost exclusively by the late Don Attwell. It was painted in a ghastly overall yellow colour scheme, which reflected all the heavy earth-moving equipment they sold & serviced.

[triadic]

Speaking of Civil's in the west late 60's - early 70's.... Is Barry Tate still about?
Last heard of in CBR with his own outfit.

Sad to about Don Attwell. Used to see him in DB fairly often back then.

[Dora-9]

triadic - PM sent

[triadic]

Dora, thanks... check yours