Sunstate Airlines & The Nomad
Join Date: Oct 2022
Location: Sydney
Posts: 2
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
The Nord Mohawk 298 was operated by Lloyds (around '87), then QLD Pacific (till '92 I think), then Majestic Airlines (the owner picked up 3 airframes for $500k at the time I seem to recall), all the while being based (maintained) in Bundy, She was a PT6 re-engined Nord 262 originally designed for the French Navy and then saw some use with some commuters in the US. She was a 26 seat pressurized high wing aircraft, with gear which retracted into fairings on the side of the fuselage, a bit like the Shorts 330/360, which incidentally she competed against up and down the coast against Sunstate. I flew in the jump as a kid, up to Gladstone, then back down to Bundy and Brisbane. Now and again it would appear in Sydney. I remember they didn't have an autopilot (or it was often US), and it was a REAL aircraft, in the smelly, greasy meaning of the word, with a 1+2 seating config. When I was 13 I was so desperate to have a legit reason to loiter around the airport that I begged the maintenance guys to be able to wash the aircraft, for free. Let me tell you, trying to remove the grease from behind the Pratt with a 10 foot tall broom was no fun in the QLD heat. But more often than not I'd crack the door and sit in the flight deck. Her days were numbered when Sunstate received their first Dash-8's, along with Flight West's Dash and Embraer Brasilia. There are 2 Mohawks remaining, if you can call it that. One was dropped into the ocean somewhere along the Great Barrier Reef, to help form some kind of artificial reef, and the other is sitting at the Caloundra aviation museum, VH-HIX or something similar I believe. Damn I loved that aeroplane.
Moderator
The Aerospatiale Nord 262 originally has a pair of Astazou turbines. Fred Frakes of Cleburne, Texas converted a number of airplanes for Allegheny Commuter Mohawk Airlines in the late 1970s by installing PT6A-45 engines (same as the Shorts SD3-30). The late Guy Lloyd bought two or three of those aircraft to Australia.
Bevan Whitaker
I met Bevan in the late 90s when he ran Whitaker Air to/from Lady Elliot Iskand, and also had the LEI lease. He was then well into his seventies and still had car franchises in Maryborough and elsewhere. Well over 6 ft tall he was an impressive figure even at that age.
He told me he had driven taxis as an under 18 teenager during WW2 in Maryborough, began an automotive repair business, then a cherokee 6 to get around when that expanded. He also bulldozed the Noosa strip himself and later bought the Great Keppel lease for a song and put in the electric cable from the mainland. An impressive life story.
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: South Pacific
Posts: 862
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Seabreeze , I beg to differ that Bevan bulldozed the Noosa strip in late 1975 himself, he had it constructed.
Being on the shores of Lake Weyba, when the centre section of the strip was crowned with material from the sides, just outside the allowed approved strip dimensions, the trench on the left when facing the normal take-off path south-east would fill with rainwater and support plant growth. The trench on the right facing south-east, closest to the Lake, being below the lake water table would fill with brackish water seeping through the foreshore from the lake. Its plant growth was less.
Part of my job, as well as everything else at the time, was to mow the grass at the sides of the strip. The centre gravel section had bitumen applied at the ends for run-ups, and terminal area apron, after about a year of operation, and after Graham Allen picked up a stone that chipped and unbalanced the wooden propellor of his homebuilt Minicab causing him to crash on takeoff onto the lake foreshore. His aircraft overturned on touchdown as the fixed undercarriage dug into the wet, soft, soil. He was lucky in a way that he hadn't made it as far as the lake, or he would have drowned with the canopy jammed. Later, after he had salvaged all that he could from the wreck, mainly the metal bits, he used my Land Cruiser ute to cart it up the the other end and fire it. Being made of wood, fabric, and dope, it blazed brightly for a time. He had built it in his lounge room in his Sandpiper Motel in Hastings Street. Later he built another little wooden bi-plane of 1930's design, that he kept in a hangar on the Noosa strip. He had a Commercial licence and was our backup pilot for the the Commuter and Charter flights when he was available.
frigatebird
By the way, after we had the 1959 model 182A Vh-BXO for about two years, he acquired a Beech 36 Vh-FWZ which got us to Archerfield and Rocky a bit quicker. The 182 was sold to Sid Melksham of Fraser Island.
His first twin a bit later was a Beech 55 Baron Vh-ATB (ex Cairns Aerial Ambulance).
Then came the Cherokee 6 Vh-PYD - and later Vh-PPK.
Being on the shores of Lake Weyba, when the centre section of the strip was crowned with material from the sides, just outside the allowed approved strip dimensions, the trench on the left when facing the normal take-off path south-east would fill with rainwater and support plant growth. The trench on the right facing south-east, closest to the Lake, being below the lake water table would fill with brackish water seeping through the foreshore from the lake. Its plant growth was less.
Part of my job, as well as everything else at the time, was to mow the grass at the sides of the strip. The centre gravel section had bitumen applied at the ends for run-ups, and terminal area apron, after about a year of operation, and after Graham Allen picked up a stone that chipped and unbalanced the wooden propellor of his homebuilt Minicab causing him to crash on takeoff onto the lake foreshore. His aircraft overturned on touchdown as the fixed undercarriage dug into the wet, soft, soil. He was lucky in a way that he hadn't made it as far as the lake, or he would have drowned with the canopy jammed. Later, after he had salvaged all that he could from the wreck, mainly the metal bits, he used my Land Cruiser ute to cart it up the the other end and fire it. Being made of wood, fabric, and dope, it blazed brightly for a time. He had built it in his lounge room in his Sandpiper Motel in Hastings Street. Later he built another little wooden bi-plane of 1930's design, that he kept in a hangar on the Noosa strip. He had a Commercial licence and was our backup pilot for the the Commuter and Charter flights when he was available.
frigatebird
By the way, after we had the 1959 model 182A Vh-BXO for about two years, he acquired a Beech 36 Vh-FWZ which got us to Archerfield and Rocky a bit quicker. The 182 was sold to Sid Melksham of Fraser Island.
His first twin a bit later was a Beech 55 Baron Vh-ATB (ex Cairns Aerial Ambulance).
Then came the Cherokee 6 Vh-PYD - and later Vh-PPK.
Last edited by frigatebird; 29th May 2023 at 02:41. Reason: additional info
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: South Pacific
Posts: 862
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Can't say. Perhaps someone who lives locally will answer that.
I am retired back up in Wide Bay now, and the last time I drove out to the point at the northern end of the lake the entrance road gate was locked with Private Property and No Entry signs.
But then it has always been Private Property, and access was restricted to passengers, and friends of the owner with private aircraft, even in my time.
I am retired back up in Wide Bay now, and the last time I drove out to the point at the northern end of the lake the entrance road gate was locked with Private Property and No Entry signs.
But then it has always been Private Property, and access was restricted to passengers, and friends of the owner with private aircraft, even in my time.
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: South Pacific
Posts: 862
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Another story of those times - I was takeing-off towards the south-east on a commuter run in the QueenAir Vh-CTE one time,(Jack Brabham's old ship that he used to fly around Europe in when Formula One Racing in his heyday), and after applying power on this marginal length strip for its operation I just passed the point for a successful abort when a seabird (shag) came out of the vegetation on the left side into the centre of the strip and flew straight ahead down it. As I was committed, even if I had an engine failure, and with no room to manoeuvre, as the wheels left the surface I ran him down. Later It reminded me of a Disney cartoon of the Road Runner and Wiley Coyote seeing the poor bird looking back over it's shoulder at the gaining aircraft just before contact. Landing at Brisbane I checked the left engine but there was only a smear of blood on a propellor blade. Back at Noosa later, I had another look around and discovered the beak driven (speared) into the outside of the aluminium cowl in line with the propellor arc.
frigatebird
frigatebird
Is the Noosa strip still active in any way? I live in the UK, but own a house in Tewantin and we are moving there in the next couple of years.
