VH-UZO Ansertes
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| Type: | L-10A Electra |
| MSN: | 1107 |
| Previous Identities: | VH-UZO VH-CMA VH-WAO VH-CHD VH-ASM |
| Base: | Amberley Aviation Heritage Centre. |
History:
|
Built
as L-10B
|
|
| 02JUL37 | US Export CofA E-2870 issued. |
| 04JUL37 | Completed at Lockheed, Burbank as L-10B with Wright Whirlwind engines. |
| 09AUG37 | Arrived at Victoria Dock, Melbourne as deck cargo on the S.S. "Mirrabooka" on delivery to Ansett Airways. |
| 13AUG37 | Registration application from Ansett Airways Ltd. |
| 16AUG37 | Test flown at Essendon. |
|
VH-UZO
|
|
| 26AUG37 | Added to the Australian Register as VH-UZO. On the same day, the aeroplane was test flown by Lockheed test pilot, Moyle Stephens who gave dual instruction to Ansett pilots including R.M. Ansett. |
| 30AUG37 | First survey flight Melbourne-Mildura-Broken Hill by Captains V. Cerche and H.F. Boston. |
| MAR42 | Participated in the evacuation of Broome, WA and Darwin NT after Japanese air raids. |
| JUN42 | Leased to the USAAF for 3 years. Operated mainly Melbourne-Cairns and Melbourne-Darwin averaging 20 hours daily. |
| 12SEP42 | Forced landing near Seymour, VIC due propeller failure. |
| 05OCT42 | Taxied into a refuelling unit at Townsville and damaged. |
| OCT42 | Based at Mascot, Sydney on USASOS charter Sydney-Townsville. |
| 12OCT42 | Forced landing at Rockhampton, QLD due oil leak. |
| 17OCT42 | Forced landing at Rockhampton, QLD due oil problems. |
| 18OCT42 | Two forced landings at Rockhampton due oil problems. Engine changed. |
| 21NOV42 | Forced landing at Archerfield, QLD due to engine failure. |
| 06FEB43 | Forced landing at Old Bar, NSW due oil pressure. |
| 09FEB43 | Forced landing at Townsville due oil pressure. |
| 07MAR43 | Severely damaged during a wheels up forced landing at Somerset Dam near Esk, QLD. A blade broke off the port propeller in flight and the engine broke loose from its mounts. |
| 30MAR43 | Aircraft en route to Essendon by sea. |
| 29JUN43 | CofA renewed after test flight at Essendon after major rebuild. |
| 09JUL43 | Forced landing at Mascot due rough running engine. |
| 12JUL43 | Struck refuelling unit at Townsville damaging propeller. |
| 13AUG43 | Forced landing at Rockhampton due rough running engine. |
| 21AUG43 | Forced landing at Mascot due rough running engine. |
| 22NOV43 | Forced landing at Mascot due rev drop on starboard engine. |
| 17DEC43 | Forced landing at Townsville due engine trouble. |
| 20DEC43 | Forced landing at Mascot due oil pressure. |
| 27JAN44 | Forced landing at Archerfield due oil pressure. |
| 30JAN44 | Forced landing at Mascot due fuel pressure. |
| 06MAR44 | Forced landing at Casino, NSW due engine failure. |
| 09APR44 | Forced landing at Archerfield due instrument failure. |
| 10APR44 | Forced landing at Archerfield due engine trouble. |
| 20APR44 | Forced landing at Rockhampton due engine trouble. |
| 23APR44 | Forced landing at Rockhampton due engine trouble. |
| 27OCT44 | Trailing HF aerial struck by lightning while on charter flight Sydney-Melbourne-Sydney. Explosion inside the cabin opened the escape hatch. Forced landing at Holbrook, NSW. |
| 04NOV44 | Forced landing Rockhampton, returned after departure due rough running starboard engine. Landed at 1411 local. Cpt. Charles Gatenby, F/O Charles Eather. |
| 05NOV44 | Forced landing Coffs Harbour due rough running starboard engine. Given ground run then continued flight to Sydney but subsequently force landed at Kempsey with similar problem. The spark plugs in the starboard engine were cleaned and the engine ground run. Cpt. Charles Gatenby, F/O Charles Eather. |
| 08NOV44 | Forced landing at Woy Woy, NSW due noise on cabin roof. Found to be rubber packing from cockpit escape hatch. |
| 14NOV44 | Forced landing at Mascot due rough running starboard engine. |
| 28NOV44 | Forced landing at Mascot due oil pressure in port engine. |
| 03DEC44 | Forced landing at Mangalore, VIC due engine trouble. |
| 14DEC44 | Badly damaged in forced landing near Tumut, NSW. Trucked to Essendon for repairs. |
| 07APR45 | CofA renewed after test flight at Essendon. |
| 01SEP45 | An overnight wind storm at Parafield blew Lodestar VHCAC into VH-UZO damaging a wing of VH-UZO. VHCAC had been parked with brakes on but no chocks. (NAA via G. Goodall) |
| 45 | Returned to commercial service with Ansett Airways. |
| 24AUG49 | CofA expired and not renewed. |
| 01MAR50 | CofA renewed until 03MAR50 to allow test flights at Essendon prior to sale. |
| 01MAR50 | VH-UZO was demonstrated to Adastra at Essendon. Adastra were considering purchasing the aircraft from Ansett Airways but a sale did not eventuate. |
| 05JAN51 | Sold to South Coast Airways Pty Ltd, Wollongong, NSW as VH-UZO. To be used on services between Sydney and Cowra. |
| 03FEB51 | CofA renewed. |
| 15MAR51 | Undercarriage collapsed prior takeoff at Wollongong. |
| 11MAY51 | Test flown after repairs and CofA renewed. |
|
VH-CMA
|
|
| 07AUG53 | Sold to Christey's Motors Pty Ltd, Sydney as VH-CMA. |
| 05DEC55 | Sold to Carsair Air Service (PNG) Pty Ltd. |
|
VH-WAO
|
|
| 15OCT58 | Sold to Western Air Navigation Pty Ltd, Charleville QLD as VH-WAO. |
|
JUL60
|
Western Air Navigation advertised VH-WAO for sale in Aircraft magazine. |
| 19JUL60 | In
correspondence with Geoff Goodall and Greg Banfield, Warren Penny
stated: "Degotardis chartered my Dragon to have a look at properties
up the coast as far as Laurieton. I also did a number of trips for
them to Forster with land buyers and talked Degotardis into buying
a better and faster aircraft than the Dragon. I looked around and
came up with a Lockheed 10 which was based at Charleville. After a
lot of messing about, a price was fixed and the deal consummated,
subject to an inspection at Sydney. It was decided to form a separate
company, C.H. Degotardi Air Services Pty Ltd to operate the Lockheed
with me as Aviation Manager. On 19 July 1960, I left Mascot to fly
to Brisbane, leaving the next day for Charleville via Fokker Friendship
to bring the Lockheed to Sydney for inspection." Warren Penny's flight to Brisbane was to feature on the front page of the newspapers of the day but for all the wrong reasons. While en route to Brisbane on a latter day Electra in the form of TAA L-188A VH-TLB under the command of Captain J. Benton, one Alex Hildebrandt attempted to hijack the aircraft, demanding that it be flown to Darwin or Singapore or he would detonate a bomb. Warren Penny was one of the 43 passengers on board. The hijacker was overpowered by First Officer T.R. Bennett and Captain D. Lawrence (who was a passenger on the flight). Although two shots were fired, the aircraft landed safely in Brisbane. F/O Bennett was subsequently awarded the George Medal for his actions. (Source: Flypast by Parnell and Boughton) This was Australia's first hijacking. Warren Penny also rendered assistance to the crew, later receiving a letter of commendation from TAA. |
|
VH-CHD
|
|
| 27JUL60 | Sold to C.H. Degotardi Air Services Pty Ltd, Sydney as VH-CHD. Based at Bankstown, Sydney and used mainly to fly potential customers to inspect real estate. Named Miss Real Estate. |
|
VH-ASM
|
|
| 06DEC62 | Sold to Marshall Airways Pty Ltd, Bankstown, NSW as VH-ASM. Used for general charter and aerial ambulance work. |
| 23JUL67 | Emergency landing at Bankstown with smoking engine and suspect undercarriage. Believed to be last flight for Marshall Airways. |
| 27OCT67 | Struck off Register as withdrawn from use. |
| Sold to Graham Onus, Kensington, NSW. | |
| APR81 | Sold to Laurie Ogle, who in partnership with Barrie Spencer (Airport Manager Bankstown) began a restoration to airworthiness. |
|
Converted
to L-10A
|
|
| 20MAY89 | Public engine run at Bankstown after restoration as L-10A with P&W Wasp Junior engines. |
|
VH-UZO
|
|
| 05SEP91 | Registered to Yesterdays Air Force as VH-UZO. |
| 06SEP91 | First flight after restoration. Captain Jack Curtis (16 November 1924 - 10 January 2015) with a wealth of taildragger experience (DC-3, Wirraway & P-40) was in the left hand seat. Lockheed 10 owner and current pilot, Fred W. Patterson from California was in the right hand seat. |
| 28OCT98 | The aircraft was painted in KNILM markings for use in a re-enactment of the arrival in Sydney of the first regular scheduled international airline operation. The first flight took place on 5th July 1938 and was operated by Lockheed Super Electra PK-AFM. An honoured guest at the ceremony was 96 year-old Captain Gerson van Messel, who was the Captain of the inaugural service. |
| NOV99 | Flown as G-AFTL in connection with the production of a video documentary on the famous Australian aviator and inventor, Sidney Cotton, who operated clandestine photographic flights over Germany prior to WWII using Lockheed 12A G-AFTL. The video is being produced by well-known aviation enthusiast and television presenter, Jeff Watson. |
| 08DEC01 | Arrived at Nowra, NSW on loan to Australia's Museum of Flight (AMOF). |
| 25JUL02 | Struck off register as withdrawn from use. |
| Gifted to Australia's Museum of Flight by Laurie Ogle (Vintage Electra Pty Ltd) | |
| 01DEC10 | OGLE, Laurence George (Laurie) 25.6.1935 - 1.12.2010 Passed away at home in Mosman, NSW. Dearly loved husband of Coralie. Loving father of Lauren and Lisa and grandfather of Hugo and Alexander. (Source: The Daily Telegraph 04DEC10) |
| 21MAY19 | Departed Nowra by road for the Amberley Aviation Heritage Centre. |
| 27MAY19 | Arrived at the Amberley Aviation Heritage Centre. |
|
NOTES
|
|
|
1
|
During
restoration, the aeroplane was fitted with Pratt & Whitney engines in place of the original Wright engines because of the owner's desire to install feathering propellers. This effectively converted the aeroplane from an L-10B to an L-10A and the aeroplane is now officially regarded as an L-10A. |
|
2
|
To assist in the restoration, part of an L-10 fuselage was imported from N.Z. for use as patterns. Subsequently, the badly corroded remains were scrapped. This fuselage section came from L-10A msn 1060 ZK-ALH (ex VH-UXH). |
|
3
|
Special thanks to Geoff Goodall and Laurie Ogle for their assistance with this page. |
Message from Ansertes' restorer
| Issue | Date | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| 30 | 27DEC22 | |
| 29 | 28NOV22 |
Added
a slideshow.
|
| 28 | 20SEP22 |
Added
an image of VH-CHD thanks to Eric
Allen.
|
| 27 | 02AUG22 | |
| 26 | 01FEB22 |
Added
a mention of Barrie Spencer at APR81.
|
| 25 | 26JAN22 |
Added
an advertisement for the sale of VH-WAO.
|
| 24 | 29JUN21 | |
| 23 | 12APR21 |
Added
a reference to Warren Penny's trip to Charleville on 19JUL60.
Thanks to Geoff Goodall.
|
| 22 | 10APR21 |
Added
a rare colour image by Warren Penny
showing the aircraft as VH-WAO. Thanks to Greg Weir.
|
| 21 | 06NOV19 |
Added
thirteen images thanks to Bob Livingstone. See rows 2, 3, 4
and 5 of the image table.
|
| 20 | 02NOV19 |
Added
a recent image thanks to Peter Dunn.
|
| 19 | 12JUN10 |
Added
four images of the forced landing near Somerset Dam on 07MAR43
thanks to the Civil Aviation Historical Society.
Image 1  Image
2 Image
3 Image
4 Added an image of the aircraft with Laurie Ogle in 1996 thanks to Maurice Austin. Added two images of the aircraft arriving at Amberley on 27MAY19 thanks to Air Force Heritage. Image 1 Image
2 |
| 18 | 26MAY19 |
The
aircraft has been moved from Nowra by road.
|
| 17 | 03MAY19 |
Added
an image of VH-ASM taking-off at Bankstown
thanks to Eric Allen.
|
| 16 | 15DEC18 | |
| 15 | 04APR16 |
Refreshed
page layout with no change to data.
|
| 14 | 06SEP06 |
Clarified
the sequence of events involving three forced landings on 4/5NOV44.
Thanks to Bruce Hoy and Geoff Goodall.
|
| 13 | 06MAR06 |
Added
detail of ground incident on 01SEP45 thanks to Geoff Goodall.
|
| 12 | 06FEB06 |
Added
change of ownership from Laurie Ogle to AMoF.
|
| 11 | 08JUN03 |
Added
an image of VH-CMA in REDeX markings and another in Carsair
markings thanks to Ed Coates.
Added a reference to a demonstration flight for Adastra on 01MAR50. |
