VH-CMT (2) Beech 65-80 Queen Air
(c/n LD-12)
These two shots were taken a month,
although many miles, apart. The above photo by Geoff Goodall
was shot
at Essendon in Janury 1964, while Greg Banfield's below was at
Archerfield in February of
the same year..
The Queen Air was owned by Thiess Brothers of Brisbane, a heavy
construction and
engineering
firm. It had been leased to TAA when the above shot was taken for
use on local airline
services within
Tasmania. This resulted in TAA ordering their own
Queenairs for these services.
Ex N1799G, VH-CMT (2) was
registered in December 1962 originally to Equipment Operators
Pty Ltd., a Division of Theiss. Color scheme
was white
with yellow and
brown trim (I have seen
many
Queen Airs with this color scheme).
It was later chartered by
Queensland Airlines during the
March-April period of 1965, whilst their
Piaggio P.166B VH-PQA
was in for a major overhaul. It
was traded in
to Hawker de Havilland
Australia at Bankstown in January 1967 and reregistered
VH-CMI. Theiss
replaced it with a King Air,
also VH-CMT. (q.v.)