VH-RVP (2)    Piper PA-22 Tri-Pacer                            c/n    22-5792

                                    

                                           This Tri-Pacer was the first of the 'modern' aircraft to join the RVAC fleet in 1958.   This
                                           photograph was taken shortly before I returned to the USA.  It unfortunately crashed at Selby
                                           in the Dandenong Ranges soon after this photograph was taken in 1958 with the loss of four
                                           lives.  A second Tri-Pacer was acquired to replace it (c/n 22-6342) and also registered
                                           VH-RVP.  Barrie Colledge advises that this was soon re-registered VH-RVA following a
                                           DCA (as it was then) decree that no aircraft of the same type could carry the same rego if the
                                           previous one had been involved in a fatal accident.   Evidentially the two -RVPs can be identified
                                           inasmuch as the first one had a gap in the white stripe to leave a space for the rego, whereas by
                                           the time the second one was born it was normal for the markings to be on the fin and rudder any-
                                           way, hence the stripe was continuous.