VH-BES   Avro 652A Anson 1

                                    

                                        The historic photographs on this page are from the album of Jack Gillies, courtesy of the Geoff
                                        Goodall collection.  Jack was a longtime LAME at Essendon who used to operate there as Air
                                        Operations Pty Ltd in 1946/50 doing civil conversions of Ansons, Avro Cadets and Tiger Moths.
                                        He even owned the Stinson Reliant VH-UXL when it was released by RAAF after wartime
                                        impressment.  The photos show MG530. which became VH-BES after its ferry flight from Port
                                        Pirie to Essendon in June 1947. It was one of seven Ansons purchased by Messrs. Murphy &
                                        Rudd of Melbourne.  I have enlarged the serial number from the above image (bottom of the page)
                                        so that purists can see that it was, indeed, MG530 in the RAAF, albeit with a line through it.
                                        Notice also the attempt to cross out the roundels on the port wing!     VH-BES was destroyed in
                                        a hangar fire at Nhill on 5 June 1948.  The same fire destroyed Murphy & Rudd's Anson VH-BET
                                        as well as a visiting Adastra Aerial Surveys Anson VH-BGO.