One For The Nostalgia Buffs
 

Stickybeaking in a secondhand bookshop and came across this little gem,

The Depatment of Civil Aviation 1970 Aircraft Register.

A few of the companies featured in the registery included:
Air Express
AirFast
Ansett Transport Industries
Avis Rent a Plane
Benders Spreading Services
Civil Flying Services Morabbin and Jandakot
Connellan Airways
Davey Air Services Dubbo
Depatrment of Civil Aviation Flying Unit
Executive Airlines
Flinders Island airlines
Gilgandra Aero Club
Jack Brabham Aviation
Jetair
Nationwide Air Services Canberra
Rex Aviation
Rex Aviation QLD
Royal Aero Club of NSW
Royal Aero Club of SA
Royal Victorian Aero Club
SAATAS
Schutt Aircraft Sales
Schutt Flying Academy
Trans Australian Airways
Tamworth Aero Club
Tasmanian Aircraft Sales and Service
TBN Airlines
Townsville Aero Club

A few of the aircraft types on the register included,
Ansett-Mal Caribou,
Austers,
Beech 18's,
Beech B50 Twin Bonanza's,
Beech B55,
Boeing B727-100
Cessna 310k,
Cessna 401,
Chipmunks
Dc-3's ,
DC-4's,
DC-9,
Lockheed Electra,
Piper Single Commanche
Piper Twin Commanche
Piaggio P166's,
Shorts Skyvan,
Vickers Viscount.

The big time charter operators had a fleet of Barons, or Cessna C310's or Twin commanches. The flying schools had gone to Cessna 150 or Pa-28, but the RVAC still had some Chipmunks in use.

Bring back a few memories for the old timers?

Another few companies from the list were Premier Airlines and Bush Pilots.

The cabin class twins such as the Cessna C402(VH-ELU and ELT) and Piper PA-31/310(AWW and CFE) were just starting to appear on the register.

P***off! old timer indeed!:}

The kids are jealous..!!?? Now..Now.., shame they missed it all..

Well I can tell you that this week I have had the "pleasure" of working on one of these "CLASSIC" pieces of junk, and I have deceided that I want to join CASA so that I can get rid of these piles of junk from our skies. Actually the problem is with owners. If you have to ask, how much does this piece of JUNK COST TO maintain, then you cant afford to be in the industry, so GET OUT!!!
I think you should be able to see, Not happy Jan!

The late Humphrey Lyttleton, droll, laid back MC of 'I'm Sorry, I haven't a clue', (notable for it's sharp smut), was accosted by a non-fan of the show, a Yorkshireman.

Lyttleton, ah'm a blunt, plain speakin' man, and I . . . .

I am too. Now f*** off!


Arnold . . . go on then, join them. Get thee hence. Be another taxpayer funded cypher battening onto those who spend half their lives doing fantastic work, keeping alive our aviation heritage. (Let's know where you end up. A tip off may circumvent a f*** off.)

Brain & Brown Airfreighters - DC3's BAA, BAB?

A few more companies from the register and there aircraft,

Ansett New South Wales with a fleet of F-27 Fokker Friendships

East -West Airlines with a fleet of F-27 Friendships and a few Dc-3's

MMA Airlines with a fleet of F-27's and Dc-3's

Royal Flying Doctor Sevice NSW Section with two Beagle B206

Royal flying Doctor Service Vicorian Section with a Beech Queenair and a Baron B55.

Also for NSW & Sydneysiders,was Masling Air Services.....DC3s & Queenairs from memory.

As well as Cessna 402's.

Did Jack Masling have DC3s? I remember C402s (VH-MWD?) and Bandits?

Ah yes Tailwheel....before the bandits were even invented Maslings operated DC3s....I have a piccy of VH-MWQ,but no doubt other old timers can fill us in on the other DC3s in their fleet.

Think Jack had a twin bonanza at one stage as well? What a character he was.

Oh yeah. And then some. One "Donkey dick", there in the 60s, dubbed the boss "Happy Jack". And it stuck. So many stories about the old bugger.

And the shady buggers who worked for him. Stand by for a sample.

And for a brief period Maslings owned Aeropelican,making them one of the largest regional operators. That is how C402s VH-MWF & MWG came to be painted in Aeropelican colours.
Great thread,thanks Stationair 8.....many memories for lots of us.

Just to add a little to the Masling side of things, the main aircraft was the Queenair (4) a DC3 (MWQ) Twin Bonanza (SKY) Twin Otter 200 and then commencing in June, 1978 E110 (P2s)(4).
MWQ was originally used by the US marines in PNG then went to WA as (MMA) and later returned to PNG as P2-ANS and eventually to Masling as MWQ and had in excess of 66,000 hours when on sold to Air North. It was a great aircraft and gave fantastic service with no engine probs whatsoever after one chuffy cylinder was changed. It even serviced Lord Howe Island by delivering freight and the furniture and belongings of the met observers on changeover.

All the aircraft operated were great for their time.
The first E110 arrived in Aust on the 30th June, 1978 after a ferry across the South Pacific via Easter Island.

As an aside, Jack had special paint dots applied to the M.P. & R.P.M. gauges in The Queenairs, these were the power limits for T/OFF & Climb Power to be used by his pilots.......................Bandits were fun, still the single pilot days in OZ, only problem on The CBR-ABX run was the fact that pitot heat was the only protection from icing!!

Too true Arnold..amazing that this 'nostalgia' is still carrying paying pax the backbone of GA! As for operators getting out because they cannot afford to keep these old girls going - well, maybe, but would there be any industry at all if they did?

I'm sure I flew a black and white VH- MWD 402 in TPNG?

Masling's initial reg 203 flights introduced the 402. Masling was a Cessna Dealer in those early days. I understand that later on the 402's were replaced by the Queenairs for better capacity

And I flew VH-MWF in Aeropelican colours when the company I worked for in 1980 cross hired it for a few weeks.....I tell you that was the oldest,most tired aircraft I've ever flown.

Executive Airlines at Essendon, Shrikes, 680FL's, 680FLP and 690. Also had a base in Launceston, as well as the Victorian Air Ambulance contract.

Early to mid 70s,Burnett Airways operated 2 Trislanders & a navajo from Brisbane to regional centres in southern Qld. They were taken over by Bush Pilot Airlines.

'Dog One' I used to work for Exec's back in the good 'ole days. Was fun then, no security to speak of. People used to wander about the A/C almost unchallenged.
I recall we had the Aero commanders in various sizes. The 'Gomad' contract to make 'em fly properly:} Enstrom choppers new out of the box, funny looking Tabago's etc (funny way back then) also new out of the box. Steve Nott was a young skinny apprentice back then (may he RIP now). The times we made him sweep the floors & get our lunches:}
Vh-ALH, may that A/C RIP also, sad story there, ugly actually:sad:
Did I read a couple mention Vh-MWQ? Flew her today, well an old Beech with the rego of the old '3' & it still has round engines:ok:.

Does anyone recall the PBY that lived at EN late 70's to early 80's? Survey craft I believe & once heard that if it ever landed on water that would be it's final resting place, well at the bottom of the ocean that is!:}
And those Canberra Bombers up at the old EN Grave Yard................ahhhh you could almost smell aviation back then:ok:
I truly reckon that the youth of today keen on aviation missed out on a lot, oh well such is life, nothing is 4ever:ok:

Wmk2:)

Qantas were operating Boeing B707 and DC-4 for passenger flights and retained a DC-3 and the two Hawker-Siddely HS125 for crew training.

Found a nice shot of Flinders Island Airlines Beech 18 taken at Point Cook airshow in 1974 on Airliners.net

Anyone know what SAATAS did was it charter or RPT?

Stretching the memory a little, but I think the Tri(s) were BSP and BSG...
Navajo was PNK (ex PNG)...
Plus a pretty tired Aztec, MBX.

Roger, Bundy

Wally, John Edwards was one of the pilots of the Catalina you mentioned and I flew with him at Air Express, a really nice bloke and many interesting stories. VH-EXG if I remember correctly. I often wonder what happened to all those people. MBX was one of Australian Air Charterers first Aztecs followed by MBU and that awful 'F' model MBQ. Ice would build up on the 'F's elevator horns and pump the stick back and forth, really horrible. MBU was an 'E' and quite nice for a 'Aztruck'. Ah, the good old days.

The aforementioned EXG, operated by Geoterrex Surveys. Now in the RAAF museum, Point Cook, despite no RAAF service.

Used to see the poor buggers stagger out of VH-EXG at Kununurra after a loooooong day low level survey around Kimberlys

Aye ess,

Aeropelican owned MWF and MWE (402's) well before Masling bought his share in the company, although they were ex Masling aircraft. MWG was never with Aeropelican

Aeropelican started with 7 402's (MWF, MWE, CKU, ROX, ELT, BOZ, EVF) and by the time Masling bought his share in Aeropelican they also had 3 x twatters. (MMY, TZL, TGY)

Aero duck
The lady that came to grab the landing fee was known as "The Lone Haranguer" :p

frigatebird,

classic, thanks for that :ok:

Did about 600 hrs in EXG back in the '70's all over the country. Was in BHI when Whitlam got the sack! Some really interesting flying and no GPS then - all the nav visual from aerial photos that were taken in summer and u were then in winter! The noise was painful without a headset - you could actually reach out the window and touch the prop tip! The aeroplane was something else, it would actually talk to you and had personality plus. The work on survey was hard yakka - all at 400ft agl on line, but at the end of the day it was fun and a great experience. It had Wright 2600's installed for the water bombing role and went very well. The orig had 1830's I recall.

John Edwards was great to fly with - he was an ex croppy and could turn the Cat around better than anyone else at the time. He went on to fly a CASA 212 which picked up the same work for Geoterex after EXG ceased flying. It sat in the northern park at EN for a while then went to PCK and I understand went to Amberley for rebuild then back to PCK now.

Most of the guys at Execs got a gig on it at sometime back then. Back in the days of Wes Guy, Stan Tayler, Chris Moody, Bob Barnes and others I cant recall right now. (getting old!) Great times...:ok:

Tinpis, that was "Mrs Paul".

To start a business in EN in those days all one needed was a tiny office, a potted rubber tree, phone, pictures on wall (Lear Jets) and a secretary with da bigga tits

With regard to Geoterrex crew, Bill Balmain was another. Middle of winter in Cootamundra, Standing on the wing in Green Shorts And brown boots.

Tinnpis, no different to the Essendon operaters today.

In the directory the first of the mighty Cessna C207's UBV and UBW appear.

tinpis and renurpp
That was indeed Mrs. Paul. One scary Lady(?) I was once told there was a bus stop out the front(bus No 348) get out and use it. Just finished a demo para drop on the Central Coast and couldn't get back to MND so dropped into PLX due summer storm. Tied the A/c down and wandered into the Pax lounge full of irate pax as the 402's couldn't get to SY at that stage to arrange a lift back to MND. She was not amused with me as they all saw this A/c land so why couldn't they t/o. Ignorance is bliss I s'pose.The Pilots Rig(emerg Parachute) I had over one shoulder probably did not amuse her. I've seen her actually chase A/c taxiing out to score them for a landing fee even though there was no one round at the time.Although something sticks in the brain. Wasn't there an honour box on the fence in the early days?

Frothy

No Maslings did not operate DC3s