Hi All,

I have just picked up a Sword kit of the Grumman Goose at a swap meet.

Many years ago I photographed RP-C864 at Ballarat. It became VH-MBA and I have a photo of it stripped to natural metal at Caboolture. Subsequently it was repainted as DQ-AYL but may never have been exported to Fiji.

There was a cryptic message on a website that an Avenger and Goose have now been moved to Wangaratta.

The only other Geese on the Aussie register that I have found were VH-WET and VH-AAY and VH-AAZ (I think) in the 1930s.

Any information on where I could obtain colour schemes on an Aussie civil registered Goose would be appreciated.

Cheers.

Lance

The following link is to some pics of VH-MBA.

http://www.geocities.com/goosecentral/1164.html


I don't know when the change to DQ-AYL was but I do know that Barry Hempel flew this aircraft across the Pacific to Archerfield in 1999. When there it had the same scheme as the third last photo on the link provided.
HTH
Robert

Hi, The goose that came back from FSM to Australia was flown by Barry Hempel and engineer Shane Forsyth. I'm the engineer for that aircraft since 1996. The Goose is still in Australia a new fwd and main spar fitted. The aircraft is owned by Robert Keys........Regards Shane

....according to the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft in Australia and New Zealand (1983)....

"VH-CRL,exN2721A,arrived at Bankstown NSW in the colours of Tasman Airlines Australia. It remained in Sydney for some months and was then flown to Essendon,Victoria, where considerable work was performed to bring it up to third-level airline standard. It did not enter the register and finally the aircraft was sold and flown to the Dutch New Guinea territory as PK-LEH."

I have no idea what Tasman Airlines looked like but maybe you can hunt them down.

The only image of a Goose in this book is of ZK-DFC at Mechanics Bay, New Zealand,1976. It's in B/W and lacks definition.

VH-WET was/is a Grumman Widgeon. I recall seeing & photographing it at the Cairns airport some 15-20 years ago.

Perhaps that registration was used earlier by a Goose?

according to an article in the Dutch IPMS magazine "MODELBOUW in PLASTIC" nr 3 of 1993
the dutch bought a goose from the Papua Oil Development Compagny in june 1939 and registered it as PK-AFS ( ex VH-AAJ) but the pictures shown (two) are of VH-AAY. This would be of a plane with dark fuselage colour ( blue or black) white registration and a silver tail ? and engines maybe ditto wings. The pictures are not that clear and the article discusses grumman G-21A used in Borneo and the Dutch Indies.

the book Grumman Goose by Steve Ginter shows one picture of VH-AAY and mentions VH-AAZ and also ? PK-AKA and PK-AKB but these are Dutch Indies registered Grummans.

I hope this helps a bit.

Xavier