Tnxs 'Dog' yr obviously knowledgable on this one.

I would have loved to have flown the Heron, the Dove was as far as I got with Pommy planes. The ergonomics of the old Doves was a nightmare, I guess the Heron might not have been that much better. Instead of 2 of everything placed hickeldy pickeldy (in the DH104's) it might have been 4 off !:(


CW

The original Series1 Heron had fixed gear and two bladed fixed pitch props.

Prinnair that operated 25 plus Heron's in South America had Continental TIO-520.

Don't forget the Saunders ST-27 Heron, with a lengthened fuselage and the piston engines replaced with 2 PT-6's.

But nothing beats the mighty Airfix Heron complete with Shell VIP flight or for the RAF VIP Fleet.

Did Max Langshaw fly the Herons for Kendall's?

Capt Wally the bloke who designed the Dove and Heron cockpits migrated to Florida and did the instrument layout for the Twin Comanche!

Series 2 still had the two blades, but variable pitch with NO pitch control (or mixture for that matter) on the quadrant. T'was automagic.

That lead some to assume that they only had fixed pitch also.

The Twin Commical was a bit higgeldy in the A and B models, but they had it pretty well sorted out in the C onwards.

Dog One

The first time I heard the "hunting lodge" story it was believed that it was the fuselage of CLT. However, on further digging, it seemed more likely that it was that of ZK-TAJ which was shipped over from Vincent Aviation in NZ but found to be corroded beyond economical repair. Do you have any thoughts on this? Don't suppose there are two Heron hunting lodges?

Rgds

Series 2 still had the two blades, but variable pitch with NO pitch control (or mixture for that matter) on the quadrant. T'was automagic.

That lead some to assume that they only had fixed pitch also.

The Twin Commical was a bit higgeldy in the A and B models, but they had it pretty well sorted out in the C onwards.

Why would you go to a lodge to hunt herons ?? :E

I believe CLT was the original lodge, it was moved up by one of AOT's engineers, well before the Vincent aircraft arrived in Tassie. I am not sure what happened to the fuselage or wings. Maybe AOT bought anything servicable from Vincents. The fuselage may have gone to the Evandale Tip where the fuselage of CLY was eventually dumped.

Having spent many hours in the Jandakot Heron VH CJS it was sad to see it rotting away at Jandakot. VH CJS was, if my memory serves me correctly, the first Heron built. Imported to Aust from England in early 70's.
Fixed gear and Gypsy Queen 30 engines. I did my initial CIR in the beast.
A pleasure to fly - "Fill the oil and check the fuel"

DesertDuck

Did it really have fixed pitch props ?
Must have been a swine to synch. Would've sounded like a DH86.

I believe the old fixed gear Gypsy Heron that operated out of Auckland Int. in the early '70s, was once given a clearance to "track via your previous oil slick"

Kendall Herons?
 

Did Max Langshaw fly Kendall (Kendell) Herons - Yes

Stationair8
Max Langshaw flew Herons at Kendalls, he was Chief Pilot at the time.

tinpis,
Ours, EJM, BBM and EKO were not operating out of Auckland until 1976, so the oil slick early 70"s must have been someone else's.;);):D

Geez mate,an old fella can be a cuppla years out cant he? :uhoh:
Actually the fella what was flying it at the time went on to the whistling wheelbarrow across the Cook Strait and then to ANZ.
Last heard of traversing the ditch in a 737 but more than likely retired/about to.
Know who I mean? ;)

What routes did Kendall's operate the Heron on?
What happened to VH-CLW?

Launy Heron
 

Does anyone know if the Heron bought by the museum in Launceston is stored
or on display? I think it's VH-CLX. Used to fly it (and the other 2)for Airlines of Tas in the mid-90's.

Stationair , here are some blocks from a 30 yr. old log book of KendEll Heron flying in NSW and Vic. - The port identfiers are a bit out of date.

WG - ML - WG , WG - GTH - WG - CB - WG - GTH , WG - ML - WG - NAR - GTH - ML - GTH - NAR - WG , WG - CB - MER - ML , GTH - ML - MER - CB - WG , MEL - MER - MCO - ML , WG - GTH - ML - MER - ML - GTH - WG.

There were various other combinations linking these ports.

Stationair8

VH-CLW went to Sunflower in Fiji as DQ-FDY. It is now with the Aust Aviation Museum at Bankstown, still as DQ-FDY.

Bigbus330

The Queen Victoria Museum in Launceston have CLV & CLZ. I believe that one is on display and the other is in storage. I don't know which is which. Anyone in Launy had a look recently?

Rgds

Fris b
Thanks for the info. VH-CLX resides in another museum on the mainland. My
logbook shows me and the skipper (Nigel Peart) crewing it's last flight ever,LT-FLI-LT on July 8th 1994. 30,000 hours airframe was the limit I recall! :ok: