VH-FCB CAC CA-18 Mustang 22
(c/n
CAC-192-1517)
This Australian-built Mustang first appeared
on the civil register in 1958. It had been delivered
to the
RAAF in 1951 as A68-192 but, other than some four hours of
acceptance/test flying, was
never used by that arm. When Mr. F.C. ("Chris") Braund (an East
West Airlines pilot) bought
it
in 1958 it was, then, to all intents and
purposes, brand new. The color shot above from Greg
Banfield
was taken at Coonabarrabran, NSW in November 1965.
Richard Maclean's shot
immediately
below shows it
at the beginning of the 1964
R.M. Ansett Air Race from Brisbane
to
Adelaide, when it
was being flown by Jack McDonald. . Geoff Goodall's shot at the
foot of
the
page
shows it at a very windswept
Bankstown in May 1962. In 1969 it
was sold in the
Philippines as PI-C651. After a landing
accident in 1973 the
aircraft
was shipped to Hong
Kong
and
rebuilt by the Hong Kong Aircraft
Engineering Company and registered in
the
colony
as
VR-HIU. In actual fact, most of the bits and
pieces used in the
rebuild came from another
P-51D,
44-72917. The resultant aircraft
went to the U.K. in 1985
and was registered
G-HAEC
as "Big
Beautiful Doll"
of the 78th F.G.,
although in fact, was based in Germany. It was
reregistered D-FBBD in 2011 and crashed that same year at the Duxford
Legends Air Show
.when it
had a mid air collision with a Skyraider.
