VH-APM  de Havilland D.H.82A Tiger Moth    (c/n   82566)


                              

                                  Two Tigers of the Illawarra Flying Club at Bankstown in 1954.   VH-APM was a UK-built,
                                  Australian-assembled machine which served in the RAAF as A17-12.   It was civilianized in
                                  1946, had a couple of earlier mishaps, and was permanently put out of commission in a prang at
                                  Foster in Victoria in 1959 whilst working as a crop duster. (Seen below at Moorabbin some
                                  years later, looking decidedly bedraggled).    VH-FAG on the otherhand is still flying today. 
                                  What is even more surprising is that it is still registered VH-FAG given (i) Australia's propensity
                                  for re-registering an aircraft every time the ownership changes and  (ii) the rather un-pc connotation
                                  that this rego has today (it certainly didn't when I took this photgograph fifty years ago!).