VH-DHV de Havilland D.H.82A Tiger
Moth (c/n
AW/TC/1)
This lovely air-to-air shot by Mick Hourigan
(via Sandy Howard - in the cockpit) epitomizes what
"it's all
about", don't you think? The shot was taken off Bass Point south
of Shellharbour, NSW in
December of
2007. VH-DHV is sporting the RAAF serial originally
claimed
by VH-ALI
(DHA436). When this aircraft was withdrawn from
use in 1959, Airwork of Archerfield, Qld
combined major
parts of it with other Tigers and registered the resultant
machine VH-AWH,
giving
it their own c/n of AW/TC/1. The hybrid was withdrawn from
active use in 1960 and then
resurrected some
years later as VH-SNJ. At that time it was
deemed that its ex-RAAF serial
should be that of
VH-ALI, namely A17-394. By
the late 1970's it had been been re-registered
as VH-IVN
and was acquired by de Havilland's at
Bankstown. After another restoration
it was
given its
VH-DHV rego in DHA's factory series, by now decked out
as a "warbird"
with VH-ALI's
old identity.
Early in the new millennium it
was flown by the Australian Aviation
College at Salisbury,
SA. It
is now operated by the Historical
Aircraft Restoration Society out of
Wollongong, NSW,
where Phil
Vabre's hangar shot (below) was taken in February 2011.