VH-KEN Cessna 170A
(c/n 19006)
This shot of VH-KEN was taken at Lae, New Guinea in 1970 by Alan
Bovelt. The aircraft was
originally Crowley
Airways' VH-CSD, imported in October 1955, ex N9245A. Although
dollar
restrictions were not generally eased in Australia until about 1957,
aircraft destined for New Guinea
(usually
missionary machines) appear to have been exempted from these rules, and
many Cessnas
were to be
found in PNG in the early to mid-1950s. This one
was re-registered -KEN when it
was
purchased by Ken Nizeite in November 1964. .Later, with the
independence of PNG, it was
re-registered P2-KEN.
David Nelson reports more history on this aircraft and
indicates
that it
was owned by
Four Square Missionary Fellowship and when the owner of that outfit was
killed
in another air
crash -KEN then sat on the airport at Port Moresby
for several years before
the
relatives pulled
it apart
and sent it to Adelaide David Carter
photographed it as such at Parafield
in April 1978
(below). Eventually it was restored and now flies
out of Redcliffe Queensland as
VH-JAW.