VH-MJD  de Havilland D.H.104 Dove 6            (c/n   04313)

                              

                                 This Dove was originally delivered to the French Cie Nord Africaine de L'Hyperphosphate as
                                 F-BFVL in 1951.   It was re-registered F-OABL when it went to Textile Cotoniere.  Returning
                                 to mainland France in 1956, it went to SNCA de Sud Ouest as a company hack and reverted to
                                 F-BFVL.    In August 1957 it was sold in the U.K. to the brewery conglomerate Ind Coope and
                                 Allsopp becoming G-APCZ.  After shuttling brewery management around for a decade it was sold
                                 in Australia to Chartwell Pty Ltd in September 1967 as VH-MJD.   Geoff Goodall saw it (above)
                                 at Adelaide Airport in August 1968 with its dba livery.  Some time later it went to Air Oasis and
                                 in 1970 it was registered in Indonesia as PK-LEA (for Air Charter) and named "Mother Goose".
                                 It was later acquired by S.A.A.T.A.S. East Indonesia, a charter outfit which operated in West
                                 Irian and, I think, East Timor before that latter state's independence.   John Wheatley took the
                                 shot below at Darwin, NT shortly after it had been registered in Indonesia.  PK-LEA was among
                                 the many aircraft badly damaged at Darwin Airport by Cyclone Tracey on Christmas Day 1974.
                                 Geoff Goodall indicates he drove from Perth to Darwin (no mean feat - Ed) in October 75 and
                                 found PK-LEA at East Point Military Museum along with a B-25D from the desert, RAAF C-47
                                 A65-104 and DC-3 PK-RDB.   Later the Dove ended up at the airport fire service practice area,
                                 where presumbly it was ultimately burnt.    Its undercarriage and parts live on in the Darwin Aviation
                                 Museum's displayed Timorese Dove CR-TAG.