The
month produced perhaps the most significant arrival here for many years when
the DC-4 Skymaster N9013V touched down on rw33 at Cairns on the 15th,
the first time in 15 years that an active Skymaster had graced the skies of
this country. It was 1980 when the last
Australian Skymaster (an Air Express example) left our shores after sale to
Zantop in the USA. The headline read “Skymaster conquers the Pacific”, the
usual ill- informed media hype ignoring the fact that Skymasters had been
crossing the Pacific since WW11. The DC-4 is to be operated by a Queensland
Freight Company named Pacific Air Freighters based at Archerfield, Queensland.
The
trans-Pacific ferry departed the west coast of the USA for Hilo on its first
leg and was completed in 14hrs 5mins. It
was then down the well worn ferry track to Majuro where on arrival some trouble
shooting was performed on the no.2 engine.
Following rectification it departed for Honiara, but during this leg the
no.2 began rough running again and the offending powerplant was shut down. The problem could not be fixed after arrival
so it was decided to continue the on to Cairns on three engines.
This
leg was completed in 6hr 21mins. Coming
in off the ocean the DC-4 turned over the inlet for a long final to rw33, where
it became the first four engined piston airliner to grace the new International
terminal’s apron. The next day the DC-4
departed for Archerfield, again on three engines. Following post delivery maintenance, the
aircraft was registered VH-PAF, and entered revenue service on Sep 30th
with a freight run to Noumea.
After
some 12 years service around the region, the DC-4 was donated to the HARS
organisation in Aug 2007 and delivered to Albion Park from Archerfield prior to
Xmas 2009 where it now resides.
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