VH-UFZ  Avro 594 Avian II                            (c/n R3/AV/127)

                         
                                                                         
                               I am indebted to George Jenks, Manager of the Avro Heritage Centre at Woodford in Cheshire
                               for the following historical data on this machine:  
                               Avian II c/n R3/AV/127 was built at Newton Heath, Manchester in late 1927. It was originally
                               ordered with an 80 hp AS Genet radial, but actually supplied with a Cirrus II of the same power.
                               It received a UK CofA on 01.12.27, and was shipped to Australia with sister a/c VH-UFY
                               arriving early in 1928.  Original owner was Wings Ltd. of Broken Hill.   It was later registered
                               to G. Mathieson (a partner in Wings Ltd.) of Parachilna SA and trading as Jacques Flying Services,
                               Parafield.   In 1931 it was converted to Mk.IV standard.    After various changes of owner, it had
                               its last CofA renewal in March 1944 registered to W.H.Kenny.   It was struck off charge in 1947
                               and languished at Archerfield, being recovered from a dump there around May 1980 by Alan
                               Lewis of Packington NSW, who was having it rebuilt by Bob Pope in Brisbane. Unfortunately it
                               suffered some damage by vandals before before passing to Lang Kidby as a 'basket case' for
                               A$35,000.  Lang restored the bits and pieces around a Gipsy II engine. First flight after restoration
                               was in April 1998.  It was then airfreighted to Amsterdam in a Cathay 747, and after re-assembly
                               flown from Schipol to Manston on 30 May 1998.  Flown to Woodford the following day. It
                               was based at Woodford (to the delight of the Avro Heritage Centre) until the re-enactment of
                               Bert Hinkler's solo epic in September '98.   During the Avalon Air Show in 1999 Kidby sold
                               the Moth to Greg Herrick of Minneapolis and the aircraft was shipped to the US.  Greg then
                               then organized the Amerlia Earheart commemorative flight across the USA (they were stuck for
                               a week following 9/11 when all flights were banned), with Carlene Mendita as the pilot.  Lang,
                               who had accompanied the Moth advises that he checked out Carlene on the aircraft in California
                               before the flight.   Not only was Carlene a "natural" flyer, but she even resembled Amelia to some
                               degree!   This flight was to re-enact Earheart's effort in the Avian (N)7803 (ex G-EBUG) in late
                               1928.  Anyway, Greg still owns the Moth (registered N7083) and flies it regularly to air shows.
                                He also owns a fabulous collection of other machines in Minneapolis.  Lang Kidby advises me
                                that he visited the collection during his epic round the world Fiat 500 trip, details of which can be
                                seen on his website at   www.next-horizon.org    
                                My images of -UFZ show it in the late 1920s (above), and (below) a rare shot from the Ross
                                Stenhouse collection showing it as G-AUFZ, probably at Broken Hill. In Geoff Goodall's image
                                (no 3) it is being manhandled into a hangar, date and venue unknown.  Barry Macleans' shot at
                                no. 4 shows -UFZ back in Australia after the Hinckler re-enactmen.  This rare bird is currently
                                under reconstruction by Lang Kidby at Caloundra, and Ross priovides a contemporary photo of
                                it at the foot of the page.