VH-SAE Auster J/5F Aiglet Trainer
(c/n
2735)
This shot of the Aiglet Trainer VH-SAE
dropping supplies in outback Queensland in the 1950s is
from the Neil Follett
collection. It was one of seven Austers flown by the diminutive
Somerset Air-
ways, most of which were
re-registered into the company's VH-SA series. This one was
formerly
VH-BYF and acquired by Somerset in
June 1956. Below it is seen dismantled in a
hangar at
Cairns in an image from the Geoff Goodall collection. It
was withdrawn from use and struck off
the register in 1964 following a
September 1963 accident some 20
miles south of Iron Range, Qld.
In 1987 it
appears to have
passed to Mick English of Bathurst,
NSW. Almost a decade later
(1995) it appeared in the Auster
Club News as being for sale by
Geoff Scott as an unfinished re-
build for $A5,200 (fuselage
only
rebuilt). In 1996 an Auster
registered VH-BYF to C. Bridgeman
of Maitland NSW appeared on
the
register. Both Air Britain and
Australian Aviation report this as
being ex VH-SAE. However,
an
IAC Newsletter for 1999
indicates that Graeme Smith of Kemp-
sey, NSW is seeking a
suitable
fuselage for an Auster project.
based on VH-SAE (despite the fact
that the 1995 report said it was
complete). There is registered today an
Aiglet Trainer restored to
the registration VH-BYF carrying the serial
FM170 owned by Graeme
Smith of Dondingalong,
NSW. However,
170FM (a reversal of
this spurious c/n) was the frame number for the Aiglet
Trainer VH-BYE (c/n 2733, which was struck off
the register in
August 1969), so whether the
current
-BYF is made up the fuselage of
that aircraft and the wings VH-SAE is, at the
moment,
a
matter of conjecture.
