VH-ATQ (1)   de Havilland D.H.82A Tiger Moth               (c/n  DHA113)

                                   

                                       The photographs here of the first -ATQ were supplied by Aaron Betts, grandson of Fred Betts*
                                       who had purchased this Tiger from RAAF disposals at Western Junction, Launceston, Tasmania
                                       (my old home town) in 1946.  I'll post the shot showing the rego above.  In the photo immediately
                                       below, that's Betts and his sister, with wife Nellie (Aaron's grandmother) in the cockpit.   Anyway,
                                       since Fred was not permitted to carry a passenger across the Bass Strait  back to Geelong, wife
                                       Nellie was forced to return home via the Avro Anson mailplane!  (Flinders Island Airlines?).   In
                                       1953 VH-ATQ was acquired by SuperSpread who turned it into a single-seater crop duster and
                                       re-registered it VH-SSB.   This Tiger still flies today as VH-APB.

                                      *  Fred also owned several more interesting aircraft including:-  the D.H.60 Gypsy Moth
                                          VH-UKY (which he wrote off at Barwon Heads in January 1947, the Junkers A50
                                          Junior VH-UCC (from 1951-1953), the Beardmore Wee Bee VH-URJ (1938-1940),
                                          the Comper Swift VH-UZB (briefly in 1945), and the Aeronca K VH-ACK.