VH-AVV Cessna 180 Skywagon
(c/n 32654)
VH-AVV
was one of the first Cessna 180s imported into Australia, being first
registered
to the Catholic Mission of
the Divine Word in Wewak, New
Guinea in December 1956.
Through their world-wide resources the
Catholic Church were able to acquire hard to
come by
dollars to ensure
that
their missionaries were provided with good, up to date,
transportation. Geoff
Goodall took the above shot at Swan Hill,
Victoria in March 1965,
after the machine had "gone
south". Geoff also provides the evocative color print (below)
from the Paul Howard collection
which was taken at Vanimo, PNG circa 1962, while
the
Cessna was in service with the
Catholic Mission. The
mission operated under a
charter
licence as well as their own
mission flying, which could
explain for the presence of the
military
chaps in the picture. Geoff
saw -AVV again at Kilmore, Victoria three years
later
(photo at foot
of the page) wearing a
very smart, if non-standard (for Cessna), paint
job. Goodall advises
that, at
that time, it was owned by Dr. Ralph Capponi who also
had the
Mustang A68-119 which DCA refused to register but did allow him
to fly on
permits
from 1964 to '67. VH-AVV was a 1956
model and had originally been assigned
the US
registration N7757A. It is doubtful that it ever
carried the US tail number,
most
likely going instead straight to
New Guinea. It was written
off
in a
crash at Labertouche,
Victoria (near Warragul) in August of 1971.
