VH-CLW de
Havilland (Riley) D.H.114 Heron 2D
(c/n 14108)
This Heron had 'been around the block' before Connellan Airways
acquired it in 1970. It was
originally
built for the post-war Luftwaffe as CA+001 (they only had two, I
believe), and was
then civlianized in 1963 as
G-ASFI. It was then sold to Guinea-Bissau (Portuguese
Guinea) as
CR-GAT. Eddie
Connellan must have scoured the world for Herons to come up with this
one.
Anyway, it was registered to
him on 21 July 1970 and converted eighteen months or so afterward
to Riley Heron standard (Lycoming
engines), and given the new yellow and green livery as seen
in the
shot above by Roger McDonald at Alice Springs in July 1973.
Connellan sold -CLW in
1977 to Kendell Airlines who
operated it from their Wagga, NSW base to country centres in NSW.
and later on
local services in Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia. Photo #
2 (immediately below)
was taken
by Mike Madden and shows it in Kendell service at Melbourne's
Tullamarine Airport in
June
1980. Earlier that year they had leased it to Executive Air
Services of Essendon, and Mike's
# 3 shot shows it at Essendon in April 1980.
In May 1981 Kendell leased it again, this time to Air
Tungaru in the Republic of Kiribati (Gilbert and
Ellis Islands). By the way, that's pronounced Kiribass.
This,
I am told, since that is the local name for 'Gilberts', and that's the
way the pronunciation came out.
Ron Cuskelly
saw it at Brisbane Airport in that month and provides shot # 4
below. It was eventually
re-registered T3-ATA into the
Kiribati register (the island chain must've had all of three aircraft).
In
November 1984 c/n 14108 changed
owners again, this time to Sunflower Airlines of Fiji. I believe
it
may have originally been VQ-FDY
for a short while, but was soon re-registered DQ-FDY. The
Heron eventually returned to Australia and was purchased by the Central
Australian Aviation Museum
in
2012 from Paul and Christine Ewold. A new hangar will be built
where it will be put on public
display.
Ian Mcdonell saw it (foot of the page) at Alics Springs in August
2017..
