A 0 Aviation Historical Society OF Australia j ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION $5.00 (AUST). VOL.X NUMBER 3. MAY - JUNE 1969. ill ■ii .... Mi* ii iii ii Ujl ill ■■ ■■1 ■ AoH.S.A. Jouraal li ■ -4?- ■ May-Juas 1969 THE PERCIVAL PROCTOR II AUSTRALIA by Go G#odalle From 1946 t© 1958 thirty-aia® Ptrcival ProctorS' w®r® brought ©at© th© Australiaa Ciiril Registere Th^led varied amd activ© lives ia CGaditioms far r©m©v©d from those they were built to operate ia^ aad ©traed respeot aad affectioa of those pilots who flew themo Only four remain in service now, and the following article covers the use of Proctors in this countryo The first Proctor to be imported was actually a military Iv!k,4 which arrived crated at RAAF Base Laverton^ ¥ic o 3 on February ETtho/ 19459 for use by the RAAF Governor-General®s Communications Flighty to be based at Canberra along with two Ansons and an Avro Yorko Although the RAAF serial A75-1 was allocated to this aircraft it was never painted on and flew under its RAF serial IP336 for its military life. In 1953 it became a civil machine as YH-BNB (see later). The first civil Proctor to arrive her© however came a year later^ when Percival Aircraft shipped an early production Mk,5 G-AGSY out to their Australian agents^ Victorian and Interstate Airways^ Melbourne. This demonstration aircraft left England on board S.S. ”Wairangi” on February Tth^ 19469 and after being assembled at Essendon was added, to our register as VH-ARV to Percivals on May 27th^ 1946. V & IA then demonstrated this Proctor throughout the country until September 1948 when it was sold to the Aero Club of Southern Tasmania. It is interesting to note that although a likoS models VH=AR¥ was actually built as a military I«Ik;o4 for'the RAl’ by Fh Hills Ltdo at Manchester, with the constructor's number of H„800, and became RM197, It was taken back by PerciTals in 1945 as one of a small batch of Mko4*s converted to civilian lvlk„5 standards before the production line of purely civil Mko5’s commenced at Luton, and given the c/n Ae.2. At the same time a Western Australian grazier^ Mr, John Money, ordered a Mko5 Proctor from Percivals, and c/n Aeol3 was painted VH-AIE in the factory for him, and in May 1946 shipped to Freemantle, After assembly at Maylands aerodrome the all blue Proctor was issued with a G„ of A. on July 3rd. 1946, had the name "Jennie Wren" painted on the nose, and departed for Mr, Money's property at Darlot, I’.A. In 1968 this aircraft was to cause the grounding of all Australian IflCoS's after a fatal crash. Next came a trio of Proctor Mkol's which were flown out from England in July and August 1946 by ex~RAF officers migrating out here. First to leave was G-AHTN, which departed Hanworth aerodrome on July EOth, flown by W/O John Dyer, en route to Perth. On arrival here he joined with a local pilot. Bob Coaper, to form a charter service named "B.E.M. Air Services" to use the Proctor and Couper's Avro Anson, VH-BEM. However the partnership was not finalised and the Proctor was not brought onto the register until 1954 after a lengthy rebuild at Kalgoorlie by Goldfields Airways and became VH-BLC. Meanwhile, Dyer had moved to Darwin with the Anson VH-BEItf purchased from Couper, and by 1950 he was in Singapore, while the Anson was in poor condition at Darwin, in the hands of his creditors. The other two Proctors were flown out by a pair of RAF Flight Lieutenants who had served in Australia during the war, and planned to return now to form an air taxi firm in Melbourne with their tvro aircraft. G-AHFX, named"Yorkshire Lass", left England on July 16th flown by Fred Ogden, with his wife and daughter as passengersi and G-AEMG named "Dominion Lass" departed on August 15th, flown by Denys Dalton, with passengers Miss Isabel Ogden and Miss A. Bartlett. These two Proctors became '\/H=AYV and AyCF respectively in October that year, and vrere used by a charter firm that Dalton started at Albury, NS’ff, named Air Taxis Pty. Ltd. In September 1948 VH-AYU was sold to Mrs. Hazel Roberts of "Ennis Downs" Station Queensland, and Dalton flew it up on delivery. This flight involved a large number of breaches of the Air Navigation Regulations, ranging from lowing flying over cars en route, to taxying down the main street of Richmond, Qld. A combined Dept, of Civil Aviation and Police report stated that Dalton was considered "mentally unbalanced" and his pilot's licence was cancelled on medical grounds. The Albury firm continued how- AoHoS.A, Journal May^June 1969 0¥er^ and YH»AY¥ flew from there with several Ansons until 1956 when it was sold* Now began a decade of Proctor deliveries from England to Australia -> many flew out under their own power, others ?/ere shipped out* Most were private imports^ but a small number were brought in by aircraft firms for resale on arrival. One concern named Overseas Corporation (Australia) Ltd® advertised around 1950 ^^Proctorss =- fly away Melbourne or Sydney^ ten to twelve weeks after date of order’ll Bankstown based Morris Air Service imported peveral Proctors^ in conjunction with Suttons Motors/ Sydney, and also did maintainence on the type, Sydney pilot Arnold Class formed a company named Australian Aviation Investments Ptyo Ltd*, to import Proctors for immediate resale« In Octohar 1951 AAI purchased three Proctors from private owners in England and they were overhauled at Croydon, painted in Aust^ ralian markings TO-BQO, BQP and BQQ and then flown to Eanowrth for crating and shipment to Sydney, The next year a fourth was bought, and became UH^BQR. The last Proctor to be added to the register was 'theMkoS ¥H-BXQ on July 15th, 1958, This aircraft was flown out from England as G->ANGC the previous December, and was, by coincidence, the last Mko3 built for the RAF, having made its first flight on December 2nd, 1943 as LZ804o The delivery flights were made by various routes, the most popular being England-: Franoe-Italy-Cyprus=-Lebanon-Syria-PerBin Gulf-Pakistan-India-Burma-Siam-Malaya»Indonesia« Australia® No doubt most flights were.very eventful, but only one aircraft' sustained major damage en route, and that was Mko5 G-AIEV, which was being flown out by Mr® Jesse Luxton, who had been appointed manager of Somerset Airways, Longreach, Qld® He depart-ed Blackbushe, UoK o $ on November 1st, 1951, to deliver the Proctor to his new employers and on the l?th of that month, ?/hile landing at Ifaingapoe, of the Island of Soembain eastern Indonesia, a violent wind gust hit the aircraft damaging the starboard under- carriage and splitting the centre section® As local repair was impossible, the wings were removed and the fuselage placed on blocks on the edge of the airfield® A fortnight later the aircraft was transported seven miles to the coast, and floated out to a visiting boat on a pontooHo The boat took the Proctor to Djakarta, and it was rebuilt at Kemajoran airport by Garuda Indonesian Airways® In February 1952 he continued the journey to Queensland and the Proctor became VH-A.LR with Somerset Airwaysc While G-AIEY was laying damaged at Waingapoe, another Proctor passed through on its way to Australia - G-AIIL, a lGco3 being flown by a Sydney pilot, Martin Cherryo He had left Croydon at lOoOO am on November 9th, 1951, with two companions and had also run into trouble in Indonesia® At Palembang the tailwheel valve collapsed and as no replacement was available, a small tailwheel from a Piper Cub was fittedo This lasted until'Djakarta:_.was reached, where a more permanent, but still makeshift, job was done by'-re-fitting the original" tyre and stuffing it with grass® The tyre gave no more trouble, and the flight was continued via Waingapoe, Portugese Timor and Drysdale Mission, on the northern WiA® coast® From Dysdale, G-AIIL flew to Wyndham where .b ..j HeMo Customs ordered the three weary aviators to proceed to Darvvin for customs clearanceo They chose to ignore the instruction and flew to Sydney via Daly Waters and Charleville, and found themselves accused of smuggling on arrival at Mascot on December 3rd. However everytliing was sorted out and Cherry announced he v/as returning to England immediately by sea, to marry and English girl and fly out another aircraft for a honeymoon flightI Conversely, about the same time in Melbourne, Hon* Simon iarrander of London, married a local girl and settled in Yictoriao He sold his Proctor 5, G-AGSZ, to Fred Edwards in August 1951, after flying it from Essendon for the previous two years as a Britisir aircraft. G-AGSZ had arrived at Darwin on June 13th, 1949, with Warrender and two companions after flying from England® Fred Edwards brought it onto the register in December 1951 as YH-ADP. Well known novelist Neville Schute flew his Proctor 5 G-AKIIT, from England to Australia in February 1949 to gain material for a book he ¥fas planning® The aircraft was fitted with long range fuel tanks for the flight and after a short stay in Australia A.Ip.S.A. Journal -49- May=June 1969 he returned to England along the same route. Howevers in June 1950 he returned to live permanently in Australia and G-AKIW was shipped to Melbourne^ assembled at Moorabbin and added to the register as 1/H-DIW in October that year under his full names leville Sohute Norway.