Auster III's

Just been looking through a book on Auster’s I have (titled ‘Auster’ strangely enough :p) and there’s a photo of G-AHLK – in the photo she has a civilian converted rear canopy in the style of an Auster I, in the photo I saw she had an Auster III canopy so good to see her being returned to original status.

AREI can be seen at Bodmin Airfield in Cornwall this weekend where it will be on display at the PFA 60th Anniversary Hangar Dance on Saturday night. I believe there are still some tickets left, so phone the Cornwall Flying Club if interested!

Martin

Have you got the Sword model kit of an Auster III, Rob?

Yep, finally got around to starting building it last night, nice little model, Kiwi Resins makes a 1/72 resin one which i’m tempted to buy as well.

Quote:
Originally Posted by STORMBIRD262
well it’s still an Auster!

Mmm – that looks remarkably like an Autocar to me – either a J/5B or G?

Had a look on the CASA website (cheers JDK – until yesterday I thought CASA only made merlin engined Heinkels!) and turns out it’s a J5P, to me the Autocar has always looked a bit odd because of the high back.

Fingers crossed i’ll be down in Devon sometime in August to see G-AREI, although it’s a shame the Auster doesn’t really get the recognition it deserves (I heard of someone landing an Auster at an airshow, and when they parked it, were asked to move somewhere else so more ‘interesting’ aircraft could take it’s place), it’s a good job there’s still plenty flying, including some of the wartime ones

well it’s still an Auster!

Mmm – that looks remarkably like an Autocar to me – either a J/5B or G?

well it’s still an Auster!

G’ day Rob, and other’s

Here’s one that’s nice in Oz.

Ask if JDK :rolleyes: , can con the bloke to get it cheap for ya Rob, gotta watch us convict’s, you know,… steal a leg off a table, and talk granma out of her false teeth 😀 , old habit’s die hard.

Who will fly out to you I don’t know.

Could send it, ” Airmail ” 😀 :p I suppose!!

Door on the left, ONE cross only :p .

G-AREI owned by Richard Webber, airworthy and in the colours it wore in Burma as MT438

I worked on this one when it was being restored by Ron Eastman. I did all the fuselage woodwork.

G-BUDL no idea on this one, owned by someone called Mervyn Pocock, saw on the internet that it was airworthy in the Military Auster Flight (disbanded for a few years)

Ron as working on this one too and I supplied a kit of parts for it. I have no idea if it was ever finished. The last time I saw Mervyn was over coffee and buns in the Middle Wallop cafe with Ron.

Ron was one of the more interesting characters in vintage aviation. He was a great bloke but people tended to think he was a bit stupid because he had a thick Hampshire accent and a stammer. He was far from stupid. He was one of the country’s leading wildlife film cameramen and many of those doing it today acknowlege Ron as their influence. He did the wildlife scenes for “Tarka the Otter” and won a Bafta for “Day in the life of a Kingfisher”, which he filmed near Whitchurch where he lived. In his house he had full 70mm film projection equipment.

Ron was also one of the best swearers I ever met (the other one was Viv Bellamy) and he often made me laugh a lot. He died about ten years ago from a succesion of three heart attacks (you’d need more than one for someone like Ron) and it still annoys me I missed his funeral.

Rob, if you see the Rearwin somewhere come and say hello and I will tell you some Ron stories. There are a couple that are priceless.

Cheers, Rob

No, thank you Rob for allowing me to spend a few minutes remembering Ron.

Auster IIIs are pretty rare and we can’t afford to lose any of the small handful in the UK. Therefore it was sad to see G-ATAX exported to Australia in 1979. Here she is at Sywell in July 1976 painted red and at Sywell the following year in military guise as NJ916. Talking of Australia, here also is VH-BCG in RAAF colours as A11-40 at Canberra in March 1986. Have you got the Sword model kit of an Auster III, Rob?

Royal Netherlands Air Force Historical Flight

We also have one, PH-NGK; it was in fact flying this afternoon.

check for details : www.skhv.nl

Australia.

Running Auster III through the CASA website comes up with 13 examples.

List Here

Due to empire preference, there were a lot of Austers imported to Australia, but even so it seems a particularly health number!

Maybe Glenn Alderton can illustrate? I don’t recall seeing any Auster IIIs in Aus, so far, although later models have been noticed around.

Cheers