VH-CJS  de Havilland D.H.114 Heron 1B                           (c/n  10903)

                                      

                                           This aircraft was actually the prototype Heron built as G-ALZL in 1950.  It is the example I use to
                                           illustrate a BEA machine in my European section (even though BEA never actually operated it).  It
                                           was leased to Braathens SAFE in 1954.  Returning to the UK it spent time with Jersey Airlines and
                                           several other British owners before being sold in 1966 to Dan-Fly in Denmark becoming OY-DGS.
                                           Cimber Air acquired it in 1968, and Geoplan in 1969.    It was then purchased by Altair Pty Ltd in
                                           Australia in July 1973 and registered VH-CJS.   All images in this entry are from the camera of
                                           Geoff Goodall, and the first one, above, was taken at Jandakot Airport, Perth, WA in February
                                           1974.    Altair had a need for greater capacity to carry oil drilling workers from Perth to Barrow
                                           Island, off the northern WA coast, and purchased the Heron, now upgraded to a model 1B retain-
                                           ing the fixed undercarriage and fitted with 250 hp Gipsy Queen 30 engines.   They soon replaced
                                           it with more modern equipment and by January 1975 it was with Coveair who used it on scheduled
                                           passenger services from Adelaide to Kangaroo Island and also to South Australia country towns.
                                           Photo # 2 below was taken at Parafield in October 1975.   The Heron was sold again after a short
                                           tenure, to Amalgamated Air of  Perth.     Geoff's shot # 3 shows it at Adelaide Airport in March
                                           1976 loading freight while on a charter from Perth during an airline strike.   When -CJS was retired
                                           in 1976 there were plans to restore it and exhibit it at the Aviation Heritage Museum of Western
                                          Australia, but evidently some legal harangues prevented this from happening. .   It had returned to
                                          Perth earlier in 1976 and its last flight was a three engine ferry from Perth Airport to Jandakot on
                                          the night of 21 May 1976, after which it was parked out at Jandakot.   It eventually became derelict
                                          during a prolonged legal ownership dispute, in which no side would allow the Heron to be sold to
                                          several aviation museums in Australia (the RAAFA being one of them) or, indeed, to the UK who
                                          were anxious to see the prototype Heron preserved.     Geoff's final shot (# 4) shows the poor old
                                          thing at Jandakot in October 1980 retired, with peeling paintwork and bailiff's notices taped to the
                                          cabin door
                          2.
                                      
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                         4.