VH-CEB  CAC CA-28 Ceres B                                    (c/n 2)

                                  
                                                   
                                        The Ceres was developed from the famous Wirraway trainer of WW II.  The prototype of this
                                        purpose-built top dressing aircraft was flown in February 1958.  A total of 20 was built (although
                                        21 c/ns were allotted).  Six were exported to New Zealand.  Converted from Wirraway A20-697,
                                        VH-CEB, the second Ceres built, first flew on 6 June 1957 from the Commonwealth Aircraft Corp's
                                        Fisherman's Bend field in Melbourne.   The photo above was taken by Greg Banfield at Tamworth,
                                        NSW in November 1965.  Airfarm Associates was its only operator.  Geoff Goodall's B&W image
                                        immediately below was at a similar time and venue, whilst the third photo by Richard Hourigan
                                        shows it outside the factory in August 1958 just after being registered.       Originally DCA had
                                        reserved the block VH-WIA to -WIZ for Ceres production (presumably for "Wirraway") but this
                                        was changed later to VH-CEA to -CEZ.   Peter Binskin advises that his father (Brian Binskin) was
                                        flying -CEB when it crashed in 1967.  Apparently it was his first time in the Ceres after flying Pawnees.
                                        He said that the trim tab controls are reversed on the two planes so he ended up not being able to
                                        achieve lift and he collected the fence at the end of the strip ripping the engine off.   The results are
                                        seen in the photo at the bottom of the page.