VH-AVR  (3)  Piper PA-23-250 Aztec B                    (c/n  27-2192)

                                        

                                              VH-AVR was employed, along with the other Avis Rent-a-Plane aircraft Aztec -AVW and
                                              Cessna 180 -AVV, on a mineral survey contract of the Solomon Islands in 1965.  It is seen
                                              above at Eagle Farm, Brisbane upon its return by Dave Thollar.  .  Unlike sister ship-AVW,
                                              however, -AVR was not new, having previiusly been Donald Campbell's Bluebird World
                                              Speed Land record support aircraft VH-FGM.      It was re-registered  again as VH-PKR
                                              before becoming Avis' -AVR in October 1965 and fitted with the cranked magnetometer
                                              tail boom and associated survey gear seen in the photo above.      This Aztec later went to
                                             Crowley Airways in PNG, then to Airfast, being re-registered P2-ABR in the Independent
                                             State of Papua New Guinea in 1974.  .