VH-BCE (2) Piper
PA-25 Pawnee 235B
(c/n 25-3729)
A Geoff
Goodall photograph taken in the hangar at Cunderdin, WA in January
1969. The Pawnee
was owned
at the time by Bob Couper Pty Ltd. This firm was a pioneer West
Australian agricultural
aircraft
operator. A mishap at Colac, Victoria put -BCE off the
register for a year between 1972/73
and it was
damaged in a crash at Jeparit, Victoria in August
1974. Gippsland Aeronautics collected
wrecked Pawnee airframes to be converted to their two-seater GA-200
Fatman design at their hangar
at
Morwell-Latrobe Valley, Victoria. VH-BCE was restored to the
register as a Pawnee in August
1990. A change of type was issued on 11 April 1991 and it became
the first of seven developmental
GA-200
aircraft and was given the new c/n of 200-9101, and registered to
Moore's Airspray of Innisfail,
Queensland. It later went to Field Air at Ballarat,
Victoria.. The GA-200 had a wider fuselage to.
accommodate two in side by
side seating and also had an enlarged
hopper. Below is a shot of -BCE
as a GA-200 taken by Clive Wilson
over Angle Vale, Victoria in 2006.