Slattery Auctions - DirectAir
 

Anyone going down the Darwin airport on Monday for the auction of direct's aircraft?

We got the pamphlet at work,

C404 x3 - VH-BUY/SKJ/SKW
C441 x1 - VH-OCS
C402C x3 - VH-NMQ/AZO/CYT
C310 x6 - VH-HEC/TFJ/XXT/JZW/BPI
C210 x3 - VH-SGX/WRD/RQD
PA-31 x2 - VH-TOT/JCH

Also on that list is PA-31 VH-CYV, but they reckon its in Bankstown.

One of those 310's is that shell from Weipa Air, over near AV8.

Thinking there may be some bargains had...

Slattery Auctions : Aircraft Auction - Darwin NT


I felt a little sick watching that. My old fleet that I worked on not that long ago.

Is it a good time to be selling aircraft ? I am sure there will be some bargains. Not a good look coming so soon after Alligator.

Saw all them in the Trader. What happened?

Some tidy looking aircraft there.

Bargins...
 

Speaking of Alligator, and fire sales and bargin A/C...

I know of one that went from this -

http://i1321.photobucket.com/albums/...ps91624c4a.jpg

and

http://i1321.photobucket.com/albums/...ps1e29de4a.jpg

To -

http://i1321.photobucket.com/albums/...pse24faaba.jpg

For 90k, including the actual cost of the plane itself.

Plane, return to airworthy service and G500/GTN650/GMA350, new carpets, a little paint, a few plastics, some odds and ends and some leather cleaner for the seats.

Goes a treat. There are good things that can come from fire sales. Just have to do your homework before hand and have a little luck on your side!

SGX and WRD two of my old favourites. SGX in particular.

Mind you that was back in Batchelor days. ;)

What happened to VIG?

So TOT is up for sale? In as-is condition, I wonder?

Saw it a couple of weeks ago.

http://i.imgur.com/DWMGGTn.jpg

Goblin: VIG is with Av8, apparently.

IIRC TOT is still looking like that.

I can recall doing a reasonable skin repair up in that wheelwell of TOT. I remarked to the apprentice that it was not going to be the among the first items on the aircraft to fail. The aircraft was not going to last another 40 years all said and done.

It may not last 4 judging by those pics. A real shame.

I have time on a few of those regos', especially a couple of the 402s'.

Didn't realise they had a 441 or 404s' in Darwin. Knew they had a couple of 441s' in Perth that dated back to 2006 but they had nothing like that in Darwin when I was there.

When I heard recently that one of the founding directors had left the company a few years ago I was not surprised that it collapsed. I seriously doubt it would have happened if he had remained with them.

What happened to direct air?

TOT suffered a wheels-up in the run-up bay a few months ago, and then when Direct Air went bankrupt, was never repaired. Sadly the windscreen was also removed along with all the avionics, and then the aircraft left open in the monsoon rains, and is a mouldy mess inside.

From what I heard, TOT was never going to fly again after that gear collapse anyway... Something about a bent spar, or spar carry-through. So being left out in the rain is neither here nor there!

Wouldn't be surprised to see TOT sporting AV8 stripes soon. Just gotta buff out those dents and further cannibalise PDN for bits. It'll be the pride of the fleet :}

VH-TOT, operated by the late Terry Burns on night freight between Launceston and Essendon around about 1986/87. Terry's son Peter flew it for a while before moving onto Ansett. In its day was pretty quick Pa-31, I think when they did the freight run they had an oxygen set up so they could get up in the mid flight levels to avoid ice. Not like the brave warriors in the Heron stuck down in the ice, while crossing Bass Strait withthe papers.

TOT was also the flagship for Malcom Catts Lincoln Airlines when it started up in late 1987.

Why did he sell it? Was it because it wasn't airbag equipped?! :E

I have plenty of happy hours in SKJ & SKW when they were Skytrans; BUY was originally Vic Polair IIRC, then bought by Qld Ambulance for the Bundy base (ergo 'BUY'), went to RFDSQLD as a spare when they took over the air ambulance gig before being sold to a Darwin operator. These were 3 of the nicest, best equipped 404s in Aus, sad to see them ending up like this.

BUY is in a million bits, I am told, and SKW and SKJ were pretty rough when I saw them 12 months ago in Townsville.