VH-AVQ (4)  Piper PA-23-250 Aztec B                  (c/n  27-2188)

                                    

                                       The fourth -AVQ (the third was a Comanche 250) was this Aztec, first registered on 12 August
                                       1966.   The Aztec B was the first of the long nosed Aztecs, incorporating a 150 lb baggage com-
                                       partment.   The PA-23-250 wss originally to have been the PA-27 (hence all Aztec c/ns are in
                                       that series) but, in the event, it was decided to make the aircraft merely an enhancement of the
                                       original PA-23 design, thus saving the expense of having to secure a new Approved Type Cert-
                                       ificate for it.     VH-AVQ at was photographed at Warracknabeal, Vicrotia by Geoff Goodall
                                       in April 1967, when it was part of the Avis Rent-a-Plane fleet which was started as an associate
                                       of Avis Rent-a-Car in Australia in 1963 by Swedish Captain Peter Ahrens.   He had migrated to
                                       Australia in 1960, flying his family out from Sweden in his DH.89 Rapide SE-CBU, which he used
                                       to establish East Coast Airways at Coolangatta Qld - the Rapide became VH-ECW and he also
                                       used PA22 -ECX, Seabee -ECZ and leased Piaggio P166 VH-BBG.  When DCA would not give
                                       a licence for his planned airline services south from Brisbane, he left and formed Avis Rent-a-Plane
                                       with a fleet of Aztec twins and Cherokee Six singles.