Thanks werbil.

It’s good to ‘hear’ that MMA is flying once again, especially on this restricted ANZAC Day.

The Hardy family have done a great job over many years now with Ashburton, not only as a commercial venture with Air North back in the day, but also with regular flypasts to commemorate the bombing of Darwin and today’s flight, marking ANZAC Day.

I’m pretty sure it was VH-MMA (might have been CAN) that John Hardy sent to Sydney from Darwin to meet up with other DC3s to celebrate the type’s 50th anniversary. (198?)

Darwin and Ambon are sister cities and Air North used to run charter flights between the two flying Cessna 310s, 402s, 404s and Conquests. In the 80s the Gull Force Association would converge on Darwin from around Australia, and charter aircraft to Ambon for the annual ANZAC Day service (in Ambon). The Gull Force Association maintained strong friendships with the Ambonese, who harboured and protected Gull Force members from the Japanese during the war at great personal risk.

One year, instead of using Spam Cans, the Gull Force Vets chartered MMA for their annual trip to Ambon. This was in the eighties and numbers had dwindled but they were delighted to spend 5 hrs + each way in that old DC3.