VH-CMZ as
N5002U Cessna 206 Super
Skywagon (c/n 206-0002)
Here is the second
production model 206* at Bankstown on 21 December 1963. It
was the first model 206 in
Australia, having arrived in October 1963. Photo
by Greg
Banfield who
advises that the machine was finished in an attractive blue and white
color
scheme. For some reason it appears
not to have become VH-CMZ for Ansett-MAL
until 21 July
1964. Presumably Rex used it as a
demonstrator. Ansett-MAL used it in
Papua/New Guinea and, as such, it
was the first 206 in that Territory also. On 24 April
1967 it was
re-registered VH-ATG when Ansett-MAL dropped their light aircraft oper-
ations and sold it to Aerial Tours
Pty Ltd of Port Moresby. On 11 November 1968 it
went missing on a flight from Vanimo to
Imonda, and an extensive search by 15 aircraft
over
12 days failed to locate it. The wreck and the reamins of the
pilot were finally
found in January 1971.
* The prototype Cessna 206 was N3753C (c/n 646) which first
flew in mid-1963,
although the
type was first introduced to
the public as a 1964 model .