VH-FIE (1) Cessna 185A Skywagon
(c/n 185-0393)
When DCA grounded the Ansons
in 1962, Alan Rae, founder of Flinders Island Airlines,
replaced them with
Skywagons. Seen above is the first VH-FIE at Moorabbin in May
1963.
FIA had acquired
this machine exactly one year prior to Geoff Goodall taking this
image.
Sold off by
the airline in 1966, it became VH-EIE, thus leaving its rego open for
the Beech.
VH-FIE later went
to New Guinea and was damaged in a crash at Balimo in 1972. When
restored, it went
onto the PNG register as P2-EIE. It began life on
the US register as
N4193Y.