VH-DFT Cessna 172G
Skyhawk
(c/n 17254098)
VH-DFT was registered in August 1966 after being shipped
from the Cessna factory in Wichita
in a crate. When David Carter caught up with
it in 1969, it was being flown by Bankstown-based
plane-sharing group
Alpha Aviation. –DFT was caught in a violent storm at
Archerfield on 16 Dec-
ember1980 and smashed. There its
story seemed destined to end. However, 19 years later, in
August 1999, the
Cessna made a return to the register as VH-DFT, which must have been
reserved
pending
restoration. In August 2016, it was still current and based at
Laverton in Western Australia’s
Goldfields region.