Lloyd Aviation Fleet
 

I noticed on another website, so photos of Lloyd Aviation fleet from the early 1980's.

The photos show a Merlin and a number B200 Kingairs in Lloyd Avition colour scheme, where they used on the Adelaide to Moomba run?

One of the Kingairs look like it is in a NSCA colour scheme and was photographed at Cairns, any idea what they used that particular Kingair for?

Ok Tedi Mining PNG contract

Yes, true but not entirely correct. VH-MXK was used on the Ok-Tedi contract VH-KZL (not sure if that was the National safety council's rego for the aircraft, but it was purchased from them), and VH-NSR. It was late 80s and early 90s.
Both bought for a song from the remnants of the National Safety council's ashes by Guy Lloyd- an astute character.
Used then for charter in the PNG region when there was a lot of oil and gas exploration going on. They found a lot, hence Oil Search and Exxon's presence in the region now. They proved very handy after the dispute, flew lots. NSR was a -42 and a good machine.
The Merlin was based in Adelaide and was another aircraft bought cheaply-from the old DCA, I think?? but not as successful or useful. Mostly charter, but I was not living in Adelaide then so not sure.
I think the King airs ended up in Darwin on air med operations for SkyWest.

Socks

Are you able to add anything to the history of VH-MXK?

VH-MXK

VH-MXK. It has to be perhaps the aircraft that I have fondest memories of. I flew it for 5 years in Cairns.
I only know its history from 1986-1991
It was sent to Cairns in March 1986 to fly the OK-Tedi contract. A service that went CNS-Daru-Tabubil and return 5 times a week, it was about 7.5 hours. We only flew 5 day a fortnight. John Newmarch (RIP) was the base manager and check pilot. He was the pilot who flew it from Adelaide to Cairns. It was a great job lots of hours lots of time off and for a young fella a dream job, really.
When Lloyds was bought by Ansett (1989ish) they merged the operations into the SkyWest brand which was also owned by Ansett. Hence the SkyWest logos in one of the photos. It continued in the North Queensland region till around 1991.
Then it went to the west and did charter, I think, maybe the run to the Granites for a small period of time. I think it also went to Darwin and flew the air med contract for SkyWest or Pearl, I know I saw it there one time and it looked in pretty poor shape.
I didn't realise that it ended up doing the calibration contract as VH-FII, there you go.
I guess it is in Caloundra now.
Funny how you get attached to some aircraft.

Socks

Thanks for that info on the OK-Tedi contract. It will make a useful addition to the history.

Yes, the good news is that the aeroplane has been preserved at the Queensland Air Museum at Caloundra having reached her quota of 25,000 hours. Full credit to Pearl Aviation for deciding that she deserved an honourable retirement. When donated to QAM, the aeroplane was substantially complete except for the engines and props. Pearl have since donated props and exhausts so she now looks complete.

Thanks for the information.
I didn't realise that they had a base in Cairns, knew about the Darwin and Adelaide base.
Looking at some more photos it shows Lloyds having a mix of aircraft including Nord Mohawks, Bandeirantes, Cessna C402 and the Fokker F28's.

And Westwind, Citation, Casa 212, Cessna 206.....

halas

Yes Lloyds were a pretty diverse company. The Santos contract was secured in 1983(?) I think, from the then Ansett Airlines of South Australia. They Used VH-LAR a Fokker F28-4000 It ran Adelaide to Moomba and Jackson. The contract called for aircraft to be based in Moomba. They had a Cessna 206 on seismic work and the 402 running between Moomba and Jackson. The Citation flew between Brisbane and Jackson as part of that contract. They also had a bandit up in Moomba on the odd occasion, if my memory serves me right. They tried RPT out of Adelaide with the Bandits but it was not very successful.
The Nord Mowhawks were a bit of a disaster really. They are either on poles, in museums or sunk as reefs off the QLD coast. They had three. The idea was to do RPT up the QLD coast it was not successful either.
The company also had a very large chopper presence eventually sold to either a Canadian company or the Brits.
Lloyds was a great company and Guy Lloyd and his wife Adele terrific people to work for.
It was succeeded by a greater company NJS.

The Bandit and Casa 212 used to shuttle between Darwin and Troughton Island in support of the helicopter base (was that Lloyds too?).

Darwin in the 80s


Craven,

As an artificial reef the Mowhawks might have been pretty good. I heard that every operator who used them in Oz went bust.

Lloyds ran a Bandit out of BN for a while VH-MWV; while Sunnies had SD-360 VH-MVW. Made for some interesting R/T cockups when things got busy.

Only one of the four Mohawks that came to Australia is still above water. Coincidentally, that's at the Queensland Air Museum as well.

VH-HIX

Lloyd Aviation Adelaide branch
 

I worked as a loader from Jan 26 1986 to 1990
. I was so saddened to hear about Guy Lloyd’s death . Does anyone know what Adele and their Sons are doing now ?

Pretty sure the family has Vineyards in McLaren Vale. They also make Olive Oil and awesome olives.

I think that Comalco would give their business to whoever offered a pressurised turbine aircraft between Gladstone and Brisbane.
Lloyd met that requirement with the Mohawk. It flew 1,000 or 2,000 feet higher than Sunstate’s unpressurised Shorts, and not much faster.

Hello Grant, My late father Kevin was a good friend of Guy, did you end up getting any more information as i would love to touch base.

KZLs history

VH-NSG BEECH 200C BL-9 24 TYPE 3
01MAY80 Registered N6725R.
30JUN80 Registered VH-KZL. Operated by Advance Airlines and AvDev.
25MAY85 On Register to NSCA as VH-NSG.
16FEB89 Off Register from NSCA. Reverted to VH-KZL.
Operated by Lloyd/Skywest.
24DEC02 Registered VH-NTG.
01SEP18 Current to Aus West Airlines, Jandakot, WA.

Credit/source The National Safety Council and the Beech 200

VH-AHX Flying that was my first job after gaining my CPL back in '85. Believe it was last seen as a pile of bent metal behind some Hangar in Darwin.:{

VH-OAS Last I heard it had been somewhat bent on a landing incident at YPFL and was written off. Also :{