I am advised that the C-47 formerly VH-SPY has been sighted today on a private property at Edmonton south of Cairns. The aircraft is currently stored in the open inside a fenced enclosure. Wings and props are not fitted. The new owner's name is unknown.

Belfast in Cairns
 

Hi all,
I worked on an item for my
Page 49 - Photos by Friends and Guests
on Shorts SC.5 Belfast RP-C8020 at Cairns

based on
No Cookies | The Cairns Post
and posts on various forums (KeyPublishing, PPRune, Scramble)

Hope for the latest on this humongous bird...
Uupdates or add'l info appreciated

It’s been moved and turned around. Doors are open and ladders up to the fuselage. I saw pix of it recently surrounded by water after the rain last week or so..

Yep, saw that . Great to see 'something' might be happening.... to save it,???... by flying it somewhere else.???

hate to think the big bird would just be scrapped.

Thought for a moment there they'd done the right thing and dumped it in the tide...:}

It would be a very brave pair who would fly that thing again. :eek:

Why, if it has got a "ferry" permit??
Tootle pip!!

Why would you want to dump it in the tide ?? , sh*ttybits.
Its a magnificent piece of aeronautical engineering and seriously uncommon/rare. On the verge of extinction ?..is this the last of the breed ?

Would great if it only got to be parked at YMBA... great starting block for the NQ Aviation Heritage Centre..!! A small museum could be INSIDE !!

I realised it would be most irresponsible, that's why I looked again.

As to the rest, well, a magnificent piece of UKish how not to aeronautically engineer and thankfully rare. Guess the Port Authority wish it were even rarer....

Engine runs? For the Belfast, or for another application?


Short Belfast Under Resurrection in Australia?

A phone pic I took last tuesday. The old girl's not looking too shabby.
https://www.pprune.org/members/17014...ts-belfast.jpg

Phone pic?
New safety criteria? Surely not.
Always thought it was the things you couldn't see that would hurt you...

Has there been much movement on this plane? Has someone actually paid the parking fees? I wonder if they are going to fly it out like they did the 737-200 out of Perth to Jandakot one early Sunday morning.

It's been moved around in the last few months. Has been engine runs too. Not what you'd do if it was to be scrapped.
The 727-200 that sat with it a few years ago was chopped up for scrap. Parking fees on the Belfast would be in the millions, at a guess, after all these years.
Also it has been re-painted from the white to a military-like light grey. It must have some value,- being a one off.

Probably one of the pollies from that not-so-squeaky-clean country a little further North that like to spend all their down time in Cairns, have 'sold' it to their Defence Force.....

If bird **** and all the other substances are shiny, you may well be right on the money, mattyj.

Major article in the cns 'Weekend Post' re the imminent demise of 'Hector' the last Belfast not in captivity, atho a paroled prisoner.
Anyone know what was the 'legal issue' with the Airstapo that grounded it.? Not that the local environment is doing it much good.
Would make a great specimen for the newly minted FNQ Aviation Museum, 10 minutes away.
HARS reckons its not relevant to Oz. So what ? its a rare bird, pulls in the spotters and tourists, and once gone ...never to be seen again. Unless you want a holiday in the UK

So sad.
Tootle pip!!

Haven’t been to CNS in a while...
It is now 2 months on from this reported “imminent” demise of Hector, can anyone please report on the situation now?

Nah maaaate! Fire would've been out before the thing even got within cooee.....

FM eh? Haven't heard that name taken, rightfully IMO, in vain in years.....

What's the latest with FM? Did he succeed with the $45M "compensation blong me" claim?

Had the misfortune to sit next to him about 12 months ago on a PX flight from POM to CNS.
He was dressed in well worn blue slacks, crumpled white pilot shirt, with a pair of epaulettes in left hand shirt pocket, positioned so that 4 gold bars were appropriately visible through the shirt material. Longish silver grey hair.
I didn't say anything to start with until he filled out his 'incoming' card and stated his profession was an 'airline pilot'.
He openly brags about the apparent wrongful arrest and jailing with no prompting what so ever. Of course it's not his fault the Chieftain is dormant at Cairns, always other peoples fault.

Charlatan comes to mind. Just sayin' like........

Still wondering exactly which backyard that DC3 is in...

It's no longer in the yard at Edmonton. In October it was sighted at Innisfail Airport still in its dismantled state.

IFL air show abt a month ago... Dak in bits to be seen across the strip from the Aero Club FNQAM interested in it.
Belfast still there intact last week...will check again next week.

Never know, it might mysteriously disappear one night and no one will ever know where it’s gone.......

Just out of curiosity; Anyone know when was the last time that Chieftain (AFW) flew?:hmm:

Pinky,

Very long time ago when Chieftain last flew; so much so it does not even appear on FlightAware as a listed aircraft.

Fred Martens operated the aircraft in PNG on a "questionable" flying doctor service. The registered address is Fred's 'pile' in Mareeba, Qld; but the aircraft has always been registered as an operator in his brother's name since 2004 at a different address.
If you try and match up the two names; Martens was a Wheatley before the family chucked him out back in the 1970's and Fred changed his name. Fred used to hoon around Berwick in those days in an Aztec from memory. Not the smartest bunch, young brother had to go to USA to get a CPL. The Aussie systems was too challenging.

If you can get hold of a copy of the centre fold magazine that forms part of the weekend Australian, many years ago there was an article on Fred and his brother. Fred has always claimed the Government settled with him in strict secrecy and that's why there is no 'hansard' data available.... You'll piss yourself laughing if you get to read the story!

Engineering team working on Belfast to return to flight status.
Good progress being made.

[QUOTE=Office Update;11267155]Engineering team working on Belfast to return to flight status.
Good progress being made.[/QUOTE

I smell some novel scam here.
It has no hope of ever flying legally. It has little historical value - unless lemons make for good history - so it’s not even worth the cost to ferry to a museum. And good luck with a ferry permit, even on RP rego, even with brown paper bags under the desk. It would be a very courageous official who would sign it off. Crew recency? Insurance? Payment of outstanding airport charges before release?

Engineer time would be better utilised stripping all the toxic stuff out of it so that it can be towed out to sea and used as a dive wreck.

Which team? I hope they have deep pockets.

Not. A. Chance.

p.s. This is my favourite topic here....

Visting Cairns yesterday from down south.
Saw the Belfast, magnificent aircraft.
Engineer working on aircraft said almost ready for engine runs, looked to have new tyres, brakes, oleo struts etc