March 27, 2014 at 1:25 am
VH-UXZ ex Royal Air Force NR713 De Havilland DH.89A Rapide, is close to her first flight.
Restoration which started following its importation into Australia in 1978 is nearly completed.
Painted in Australian National Airways colors she is owned by Maurice Rolfe from Moorabbin Victoria.
Image supplied from Roland Jahne.
More photos will be published as soon as I can bring them to you.
If your on facebook follow the links for more Australian Aircraft news and pictures. https://www.facebook.com/HistoricAustralianAircraft
Cheers
David Soderstrom
Historic Australian Aircraft
By: Arabella-Cox - 1st April 2014 at 09:11
Would make a “Star” visitor to Woburn…………..!!!
Planemike
By: Andy Wright - 31st March 2014 at 21:59
G’day Zac, thanks, mate. It’s a Samsung Galaxy S4 GT-19505 (whatever that last bit means). Bought purely for the camera. Does even better when it’s blue skies of course. Still haven’t downloaded the cameras (should take them to work!) but I was only there on the Saturday. Sunday, naturally, was beautiful clear blue skies and some of the members present got great shots of her.
By: flyernzl - 31st March 2014 at 21:05
The results of getting it wrong

By: DragonflyDH90 - 31st March 2014 at 06:43
More prone to the backfire also if using the internal KiGas primer.
I prime externally before first flight of the day and don’t reprime for hot starts as it doesn’t really need it (the Rapide I fly anyhow) if it cools enough I just reprime externally as before. Also have a fire watcher too just in case.
By: Zac Yates - 31st March 2014 at 05:24
Andy, what kind of phone do you have? That picture’s gorgeous!
By: ozplane - 27th March 2014 at 10:35
It might seem to be a little bit over the top but the learning points from our similar incident at Duxford were as follows. Chap with extinguisher faces the exhaust side of the cowling so he can see if there is a blowback. The pilot indicates which engine he’s going to start and the “fireman” acknowledges. Engine start then follows but if it goes wrong it is surprising how quickly the flames can take hold due to the combination of dope and fabric. It’s not rocket science but well worth doing.
By: Arabella-Cox - 27th March 2014 at 08:48
RELIEVED but so, so many were lost for just that reason. Got the passengers out quickly though. In times gone by everybody weighed a little less = nimble!
By: A-4Scooter - 27th March 2014 at 08:02
Gents I will add there were two fire extinguishers on either side of the aircraft which can be seen in the shot. The people working on this aren’t fools. Also the fire was there for a millisecond (when the photo was taken) and none was present after this photo was taken.
By: Arabella-Cox - 27th March 2014 at 07:25
Ah – that is the way so many Rapide were destroyed/where is the Co2 bottle?
By: shed_loads - 27th March 2014 at 07:24
A tad too much priming methinks.