Gullibell
 

Well you win, sale prices much closer to 100k than 300k most of the good longer time to run machines were in the 120/130k range plus commission. maybe not that bad a result for the Australian Defense in that you are looking at a 40yr old airframe with 10/12,000 hrs I wonder if they cost much more than that when the Government bought them originally.

The last one I flew (from memory) had about 4500 hours on it. The Army got great value and utilization out of that purchase. Compared generally with ADF aviation purchases of recent years which usually run over-time, over-budget, and under-perform. Look at Tiger, Seasprite, Taipan, etc. etc.

And it was quite robust and reliable whilst in service all those years. I recall a few that were Cat 5'd (including a friend of mine who was killed in a training accident in the Oakey low flying training area), and a few others that were bent, but quite a few of the original order have survived until this day. I'm curious now what is going to come of them.