VH-AMP  ("VH-WLQ")  de Havilland D.H.82A Tiger Moth       (c/n  DHA358)

                              

                                  The above Ted Fletcher photo (via the Geoff Goodall collection) shows VH-AMP circa 1948 while
                                  the Tiger was with the Aero Club of WA   (The club did not receive its "Royal" status until 1951). In
                                  1953 this was among the first Tigers in WA to be converted for aerial agriculture, and was operated
                                  by Bob Couper Co at Cunderdin.  Immediately below is an image by Geoff  taken on a farm near
                                  Cunderdin, WA in January 1969 after it had been fitted with the fin and rudder of  VH-WFQ.   The
                                  Fox Moth VH-USJ was also rolled out for Geoff's photo-op.  (Nice of them).  -AMP was one of a
                                  large fleet of cropdusting Tiger Moths operated by Bob Couper Co, based at the old WW2 No.9
                                  EFTS aerodrome at Cunderdin.   When the type was grounded for agricultural service by DCA in
                                  1965, Bob Couper Co was left with a large collection of dismantled agricultural Tigers, crashed
                                  aircraft and spare fuselages and wings. At that time Tiger Moth components had little value, and this
                                  whole collection, along with the Fox Moth were acquired "as is" by a local farmer and moved to a
                                  shed on his farm near the aerodrome.  A few years later the collection, which included a dozen Tiger
                                  Moth fuselages, was sold to Les Kordys at Trayning, WA and moved to a storage shed in the main
                                  street of this small wheatbelt town.  Happily, some years  later the collection of Tigers was purchased
                                  by a restoration operation at Luskintyre, NSW where a "production line" of newly restored Tigers
                                  was set up.  Photos of many of these appear on this website     However, VH-AMP did not wind up
                                  on the Luskintyre production line.  In January 1974. this Tiger, the former A17-339 and originally
                                  civilianized early in 1946, was given a minimal restoration for display in a folk museum in Cunderdin.
                                  It was meant to commemorate the many RAAF Tiger Moths which had trained pilots at the local
                                  EFTS during the war, and was painted up in RAAF trainer yellow. Unfortunately the locals who did
                                  the job left part of the agricultural spraying gear under the fuselage and, for reasons unknown, decided
                                  it should have a civil registration painted on, rather than its real  RAAF serial (A17-339).  Since it had
                                  been fitted with the fin of one of Bob Couper's other Tigers (VH-WFQ), they chose this for a civil
                                  registration.  However, to compound the felony, even this fact got lost in the translation and the poor
                                  old thing was was painted as "VH-WLQ", a registration which was never used on a Tiger Moth.
                                  The identity of this displayed aircraft has caused consternation to plane spotting enthusiasts ever since!
                                  Geoff's shot at the foot of the page was in January 1974, just after it had been suspended from the ceiling.