VH-UQE  Avro 616 Avian IVM                                 (c/n R3/CN/522)

                          

                               Lots of pictures of this Avian which was registered 1 August 1931 (interestingly, three days before
                               I was born) to Australian aviator Harry F. ("Jimmy") Broadbent of Sydney who named it 'Dabs'. 
                               The photo above from the Frank Walters collection (via Geoff Goodall) shows it at Mascot when
                               brand new.   Broadbent, who later became a flying boat captain for various airlines, including Qantas,
                               flew the Avian on an historic flight Brisbane-Sydney-Melbourne-Adelaide during that same month
                               (Aug, 1931)    The photo below from the Fairfax (Sydney Morning Herald) archives (via the NLA)
                               shows the intrepid aviator back at  Mascot on 14 August 1931 following this flight.        Any ideas,
                               anyone, on the cryptic symbols on the rudder?      Photo No 3 shows -UQE at Mudgee in 1933
                               when owned by Ted Loneragan.  This shot, along with the one immediately below it, comes from
                               the family album of  Maria Anstis (Ted Loneragan's daughter).  With no hangars at the Mudgee air-
                               strip, the aircraft, when not flying, was towed with wings folded to the company garage in town
                               (behind a 1928 Chrysler?)    The Avian was named Happy Days II (Happy Days I  being the
                               D.H.60M Moth VH-UNF, sold in May 1932).      Geoff Goodall saw the old bird at the 1975
                               Berwick, Victoria Air Show, as seen in color shot (#4), whilst his earlier B&W image (photo # 5)
                               was taken at Narracoote, SA in 1964.     In truth, this restored version of the original is mostly ex
                               VH-UVX, and, as a result, carried the c/n of -UVX.    Both  aircraft were withdrawn from use (the
                               "true" VH-UQE after a crash near Batlow, NSW in 1947) and  rebuilt into one machine, circa 1959.
                               For some reason the hybrid was registered VH-UQE rather than -UVX.   To compound the identity
                               crisis I believe that, when this machine underwent yet another rebuild, (following an accident in 1982)
                               it was restored to the register circa 1993 using the c/n of the original -UQE, i.e. R3/CN/531.  It now
                               resides in the Adelaide Soaring Club hangar at Goolwa, SA. and Andrei Bezmylov took the hangar
                               shot of it there seen in photo # 6 in March of  2009. .  (Visible in the background is the only other
                               Avian still current on the Australian register, carrying the rego VH-UVX and c/n 522.   (However,
                               since much of the 'real' c/n 522 was used in the rebuild of -UQE, it is probably a hybrid of many air-
                               craft).