VH-WWA  Republic RC-3 Seabee                     (c/n  416)

                                     

                                         Only four Seabees ever made it to Australia, and only three of those were registered (one was
                                         destroyed in a hangar fire at Bankstown in 1960).   VH-WWA had originally been imported in
                                         1954 by World Wide Air Services of Port Moresby, an American company which had a large
                                         scale operation in Papua/New Guinea using Catalinas and various helicopters. While in PNG it
                                         always flew under its US registration N6213K.  I have a neg of it as N6213K somewhere and
                                         will print it up and add to this entry (when I can find it).  It became VH-WWA in 1959 and was
                                         the first Seabee on the Australian civil register.   By 1961 it was with Commodore Aviation at
                                         Port Lincoln, SA and used as a fish spotter.   Geoff Goodall photographed it at Moorabbin in
                                         May 1963 looking decidedly dejected in a faded brown & yellow paint scheme as it was awaiting
                                         resale after being traded in on a Czech Aero 45.   Commodore Aviation registered the Aero 45
                                         as VH-WWC as a follow-on from the Seabee reg. and then used the VH-WW block on sub-
                                         sequent aircraft.    In May 1965 the Seabee finally found a buyer in K. E. Olsen of Camden who
                                         reregistered it with his wife's initials as VH-MJO. Olsen also had the Seabee VH-ECZ.  Several
                                         owners later the Seabee was struck off the Australian register in 1992 and went to Pacific Air
                                         Services of Honiara, Solomon Islands as H4-HSD.    It was repatriated in 1999 and turned up
                                         in North Queensland as VH-WET, although I understand it never received a full CofA.