VH-TLB John Gilbert
History:
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10OCT58 | Ordered by TAA |
JUN59 | First flight |
VH-TLB
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14JUL59 | Registered to Australian National Airlines Commission. Delivered to Trans Australia Airlines as VH-TLB "John Gilbert" |
17JUL59 | Departed Burbank for Melbourne via San Francisco, Honolulu, Canton Island and Nadi. Crew: Captains J.A.P. Boyd, J.H.R. Marshall and J.R. Groves, Navigators A. Harding (BUR/NAN) and C. Randall (NAN/MEL) and Engineer T. Scrive. |
19JUL59 | Arrived Essendon |
26JUL59 | Entered service with TAA |
03MAR60 | Record Melbourne/Perth 4 hrs 38 mins (Capt W.O. James) |
19JUL60 | En route Sydney/Brisbane (Captain J. Benton) with 43 passengers, one Alex Hildebrandt attempted to hijack the aircraft, demanding that it be flown to Darwin or Singapore or he would detonate a bomb. 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) |
27JUL60 | See 27JUL70 re clear air turbulence incident. |
20MAR61 | Departed Melbourne as TN1403 for Nadi, Canton Is, Honolulu and Burbank for wing/engine mount modifications. Crew: Captains R. Widmer and G.J. White, First Officer B.J. Wales, Flight Engineer N.W. Hosking and Captain W. Cast as navigator . |
23MAR61 | Entered LEAP as LEAP #110 TAA-2 |
15APR61 | Departed
Burbank for Honolulu where the aircraft was demonstrated to the FAA
by Lockheed pilots. (Source: TAA - see below). The delivery flight later resumed via Canton Island and Nadi. |
19APR61 | Completed LEAP (Source: Lockheed - anomalous date - see above and below) |
22APR61 | Returned to Melbourne. Crew: Captains C.H. Gray and J.H.R. Marshall, First Officer J.H. Lavin, Captain M.B. Darby as navigator and Flight Engineer F.W. McDonald. |
19JUN61 | Record Melbourne/Brisbane 1 hr 59 mins (Capt A. Mahoney) |
24JUL64 | All Electras were grounded due to the discovery of wing cracks in VH-TLB. The grounding order was lifted on 27JUL64. |
21JAN66 | VH-TLB provided an escort for Airlines of NSW Sandringham VH-BRF which had turned back to Sydney with a wing defect. The flying boat was 20 minutes into its flight to Lord Howe Island when a crew member noticed what was later established to be a broken stringer in the starboard wing. The Sandringham alighted normally at Rose Bay. |
18APR66 | Departed Melbourne for Nadi, Canton Is, Honolulu, San Francisco, Kansas City and New York for wing modifications. Crew: Captains R. Meates and K. Humphries, First Officer C. Alexander, Flight Engineers G. MacArthur and R. Taafe. Navigator Melbourne/Honolulu/Melbourne was Captain Geoff Bracken. Navigator Honolulu/New York/Honolulu was First Officer K. Radke. |
30MAY66 | Returned to Melbourne. |
01OCT68 | Operated TAA's first Electra service to the Cocos Islands replacing DC-4s |
27JUL70 | While cruising at 21,000 feet over northern New South Wales, after departing Coolangatta for Sydney, VH-TLB struck clear air turbulence. Two passengers suffered broken limbs and six more received minor injuries. The aircraft continued to Sydney where the injured passengers were given medical attention. (Source: DCA Annual Report 1970/71). Note: This incident (or a remarkably similar one!) is also reported as having happened on 27JUL60 and 27AUG60. The correct date is believed to be 27JUL70. |
22FEB71 | Operated TAA's last Electra service to the Cocos Islands. Replaced by Boeing 727s. |
29FEB71 | Sold to Concare Aircraft Leasing |
30APR71 | Operated last TAA Electra revenue service TN1948 Melbourne to Sydney. Later positioned to Brisbane as TN1922 under the command of Capt B. Taber. Stored at Brisbane. 33,826 hours 26,843 landings. |
13SEP71 | Compass swing and test flight at Brisbane. Crewed by Capt Stuart Arnold (command), Capt Ron Hickey and Flight Engineer Bob Verity. (Source: Stuart Arnold's log book) |
15SEP71 | Ferried Brisbane to Melbourne direct by Capt Stuart Arnold (command), Capt Ron Hickey and Flight Engineer Bob Verity. Flight time 2 hrs 55 mins. (Source: Stuart Arnold's log book) |
21JAN72 | Sold to Concare Aircraft Leasing, Tulsa, Oklahoma. |
20FEB72 | Test flown at Tullamarine by Capt Stuart Arnold (command), Capt Aart Hofman and Flight Engineer Bob Verity. Flight time 1 hr 30 mins. (Source: Stuart Arnold's log book). |
21FEB72 | Test flown at Tullamarine by Capt Stuart Arnold (command), Capt Aart Hofman and Flight Engineer Bob Verity. Flight time 2 hrs 35 mins. (Source: Stuart Arnold's log book). |
24FEB72 | Struck off Australian Register. |
N188LB
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01MAR72 | Departed Melbourne to Brisbane on delivery to Concare Aircraft Leasing of Tulsa as N188LB. |
02MAR72 | Departed Brisbane for Nadi, Pago Pago, Hilo, Oakland, Tulsa and Miami flown by Concare crew under Captain Hofman |
72 | In the late spring of 1972, the aircraft was lease-purchased from Concare Aircraft Leasing Corp by Transair Corp of Nevada with offices in Anaheim, California. (Source: Bill Dettori) |
XW-PKB
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12JUN72 | Arrived
at Vientiane, Laos from Tulsa, Oklahoma. (Source: Bill Dettori) Leased to Royal Air Lao as XW-PKB named "Tiao Khoun Boulom". |
29MAR73 | Flew from Vientiane to Hanoi and return with a press contingent to cover the release of American prisoners of war. (Source: Phil Dreith) |
31JUL74 | Electra operations by Royal Air Lao ceased because of non-payment to Transair Corp. (Source: Bill Dettori) |
08AUG74 | Fearing seizure of the aircraft by the new Lao government, the aircraft was flown to Hong Kong for overhaul by HAECO after which it did not return to Laos. (Source: Phil Dreith & Bill Dettori) |
27OCT74 | Ferried to Seletar, Singapore after overhaul in Hong Kong. (Source: Phil Dreith & Bill Dettori) |
PK-RLX
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74 | Leased to Mandala Airlines, Indonesia in passenger configuration and full Mandala livery. For this lease, the aircraft was given the temporary registration PK-RLX. In Mandala service the aircraft was named "Pangeran Diponegoro". (Source: Phil Dreith & Bill Dettori) |
15FEB75 | Mandala lease terminated, mainly due to the Indonesian civil aviation authorities demanding reduced TBO (time between overhaul) on the power plants. The aircraft was later positioned to Singapore and it made no further flights for Trans Air Corp. The aircraft was subsequently seized, along with msn 1061, because of defaulted payments by Transair Corp. Apparently the aircraft was never de-registered as N188LB during its ownership by Transair Corp. (Source: Phil Dreith & Bill Dettori) |
N188LB
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late 75 | Sold to American Jet Industries as N188LB. The aircraft was flown back to the U.S. by famed Lockheed test pilot Herman "Fish" Salmon. (Source: Phil Dreith) |
14OCT75 | Noted at Van Nuys, California as N188LB. (Source: AL) |
24APR76 | Noted at Van Nuys being stripped for conversion to L-188AF freighter by AJI. Aircraft carried the name "Pangeran Diponegoro" on the nose. (Source: AL) |
YS-07C
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05JUN76 | In
service with Transportes Aereos Centro-Americanos S.A., El Salvador
as YS-07C by this date. (Source: AL) (Earlier reports that the aircraft was named "Pangeran Diponegoro" in TACA service are almost certainly incorrect as this is a name from Indonesian history which is known to have been carried by this aircraft during its earlier lease to Mandala. Photographic evidence and a physical inspection by Gordon Reid in September 1978 confirm that the aircraft was not named in TACA service). |
02FEB80 | While starting number 4 engine at San Salvador International Airport, the number 4 fuel tank exploded in flames. Both fire bottles were discharged into the number 4 engine with no apparent effect. After shutting down the aircraft, the crew evacuated without injury. Although the airport fire services attended, the wing failed outboard of the number 4 engine and the wing tip contacted the tarmac before the fire was extinguished. The aircraft was not repaired after the fire and it was eventually parted out and the airframe presumably scrapped. (This account and the accompanying photographs were kindly supplied by Albert Johnston via Daniel Castro) |
Issue | Date | Remarks |
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23
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31MAR24 |
Added
an image of VH-TLB in service with
TAA thanks to Peter Gates.
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22
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22MAR23 |
Added
a nostalgic image of VH-TLB at Eagle
Farm thanks to Peter Gates.
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21
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28DEC22 | |
20
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05DEC22 |
Added
a slideshow.
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19
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06AUG22 | |
18
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19NOV19 |
Added
a reference to the DayGlo livery.
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17
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29MAY19 |
Added
a new image of VH-TLB thanks to Eric
Allen.
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16
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03APR16 |
Refreshed
page layout with no change to data.
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15
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15MAY12 |
Added
one image of VH-TLB thanks to Peter
Gates.
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14
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25APR06 |
Added
further details of the period 1972-1974 thanks to Bill Dettori
who was the Flight Engineer on the aircraft.
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13
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07APR06 |
Added
more detail of the Mandala lease including the registration
PK-RLX. Thanks to Phil Dreith.
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12
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02APR06 |
Added
more detail of the freighter conversion and subsequent service
with TACA drawn from Aviation Letter by Gordon Reid.
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11
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01APR06 |
Added
much detail of the aircraft's time in South East Asia thanks
to Phil Dreith.
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10
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22DEC04 |
Deleted
reference to possibility of aircraft being painted as N188LB
at the time of the test flights in FEB72. It is now considered
more likely that it was painted as N188LB closer to the date
of departure on delivery to Concare (01MAR72).
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9
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20DEC04 |
Added
details of test flying around the time of the sale to Concare.
Refer 13SEP71, 15SEP71, 20FEB72 and 21FEB72. Information contributed
by Stuart Arnold who was in command of these flights.
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8 | 08FEB04 |
The
clear air turbulence incident which was previously recorded
on this page under 27JUL60 is now believed to have happened
on 27JUL70 (which see).
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7 | 06FEB04 |
Amended
the names of the navigators on the ferry flight to New York
in April 1966. Thanks to Gil White and Gordon Reid.
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6 | 24JAN04 |
Added
several crew names thanks to Gil White.
Also added extra details of the hijacking drawn from "Flypast" by Parnell and Boughton. |
5 | 03JAN04 |
Added
an account and photos of the incident which led to the aircraft's
withdrawal from service. Thanks to Albert Johnston and Daniel
Castro.
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