VH-BUG de Havilland D.H.82A Tiger
Moth
(c/n LES.9)
Yet another crop dusting Tiger,
appropriately
registered!. VH-BUG has lost half her tail rego during
a partial respraying at
Tamworth, NSW in 1968. Photo by
Geoff Goodall. This aircraft was one
of
those Tigers constructed from
parts in 1962 by Lawrence Engineering
and Sales of Camden,
NSW.
It was originally
registered VH-WET,
VH-BUG was
badly damaged in a storm nr Wee Waa, NSW
on 14 November
1974. The remains of it were purchased by Barry Hills
of Adelaide. After many
years of restoration it was
converted back to standard 2 seater configuration and flew again for
the first
time on on 15 May
2005. At that time, Barry was still a maintenance engineer
with Qantas. He now
owns a restoration business for
Tiger Moths named 'Adelaide Vintage Aviation' on Hindmarsh Island,
south of Adelaide.
VH-BUG was acquired from Barry in 2005 by Joe Guenther who sent me the
nice
air-to-air shot of it
below. Unfortunately Joe only gets to fly this beautifully
restored machine during his
vacations, since he
is currently working for Airbus on the A380 project and lives in
Hamburg!