VH-CAG (2) Beech V35A
Bonanza
(c/n D-8783)
One of three Model V35s acquired by DCA
in the 1966-68 period, this Bonanza was seen
at
Bankstown on 6 October 1973 in the above shot by Greg Banfield.
At the time the DCA
shield
emblem had been blacked out ahead of the absorption of DCA by the
Department of
Transport on 30 November of that year. The shot below,
also by Greg shows the Bonanza
in
Department of Aviation markings at Coffs Harbour, NSW on 24 February
1987. An en-
largement of the titling and blue
ensign follow this shot. Paraphrased below is a
Sydney
Morning Herald
report of 3 November 1990 relative to this Bonanza:
"Two Civil Aviation Authority examiners from Sydney were killed
yesterday when their light
aircraft
crashed after a midair collision with a glider at Tocumwal, near the
Victorian border.
The CAA single-engined Bonanza had just taken off from Tocumwal
Aerodrome at about
13.15
hrs when it collided with the Blanik glider. Part of the
Bonanza's tail was broken off
causing it to spin out of control and crash in a paddock about a
kilometer from the airstnp.
The
bodies of Mr William Lord and Mr Paul Hardy, both pilot licence
examiners, remained
wedged in the six-seater aircraft for several hours as fuel poured from
the wreckage, threaten-
ing to ignite
and preventing rescuers from getting near.
The pilot of the glider managed to
regain control and landed, badly
shaken, but unhurt".
Greg
Banfield, who unearthed the clipping, indicates that Bill Lord had been
CFI of the Royal
Aero
Club of NSW at Bankstown before joining the CAA as an examiner not long
before his
death.
