“The Historical Aircraft Restoration Society operates Australia’s largest fleet of multiengine radial engine aircraft. On 21 August, the latest addition, a Convair 440 (ZS-ARV), landed at Albion Park after its ferry flight from South Africa. With large quantities of Avgas difficult to come by in some locations, this could be one of the last ocean-spanning ferries for an aircraft entering preservation. ” – Flightpath.

In our last newsletter we wrote about the sale and donation of our three aircraft. One of the Convair planes, ZS-ARV, went to the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society in Australia and after 18 months of restoration, licensing and getting the aircraft airworthy, Captain Ross Kelly, Captain Doug Haywood and First Officer Geoff Sheppard took off from Wonderboom airport in Pretoria on the 9^th of August 2016.

The flight path was challenging as cities with Avgas supplies had to be located for the fuel-heavy Convair. Travelling via Kruger, Mozambique, the Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Bali and into Australia via Darwin, Mt. Isa, Dubbo and finally into Albion Park, the crew arrived excited and safely on August 21^st.

The historic flight was even featured on Win News and the clip can be watched on YouTube by clicking here.