VH-GSE Noorduyn UC-64A Norseman
(c/n 249)
BY the time Ben Dannecker took the above image,
VH-GSE along with its stablemate -GSF had
left Gibbes Sepik to
do a turn at crop dusting in NSW. Bob Neate saw it in the hangar
(below) at
Narromine, NSW
in
November
1963. VH-BSE was the
former VH-ASN which had
been
released from
the RAAF (where it
served as A71-5) at the end of 1951. It was reregistered into
the Gibbes Sepik
sequence as
VH-GSE in 1960. When Bobby Gibbes sold out to Mandated the
Norseman passed to
Ansett-MAL when ATA took over that latter carrier. -GSE was then
acquired
by Pay
& Williamson of Narromine,
and was one of
three
they converted into very successful crop-
dusters. It was destroyed in a
crash near Armidale,
NSW in September 1966. At the foot of the
page is a rare,
albeit somewhat blurry shot from the Fred Niven collection of -GSE in
full Ansett-MAL
livery.