VH-BED  (2)   Auster IIIF                                             (c/n  320)

                                  

                                      The nice photograph above, from The Collection p7017-0114-051, was taken at Launceston
                                      in September 1962.  The Auster was privately owned by L.A; Hayward.  Geoff Goodall's shot
                                      below was taken at about the same time whilst he was on a high school trip from Adelaide,
                                      although on that day the Auster reposed in the Tasmanian Aero Club's hangar.  (Note the
                                      club's Safir VH-AHA in the background).  VH-BED was first registered in 1960 as VH-RCT. 
                                      It was A11-38 when in the RAAF.  After several periods of de-registration it wound up in
                                      Drage's Air World Museum in Wangaratta in 1980.  In the new millennium  it was completely
                                      restored again and is now flying as the "warbird" A11-38.  Phil Vabre's contemporary shot of
                                      it (bottom of page) was taken at the AAAA Fly-In at Swan Hill, Victoria in 2005.