VH-BFA —

Beautiful shot of the Bristol Frightener. Slopey Essendon tarmac clearly visible!

Thanks Chris
I am fortunate to have access to some of the great photo collections in Australia as part of populating the Australian Air Data website, worth a look if you don't know it

http://www.austairdata.com.au

Many thanks Ian.

We had those in the RNZAF..called 40 thousand rivets flying in formation and bl...cold to fly in

Nice. I love the old photos, they're classics. Like me.

flew in one in borneo was called the Bristol vibrator on landing everyone moved to the back seats must of had a cofg problem

was operated by the New Zealand airforce

Transformer ?

Remember seeing one of these at Speke Airport,now Liverpool John Lennon, way back in the 60's,Cambrian Airways i think.

"...cold to fly in"? The Royal Canadian Air Force, Trans Canada Airlines, Wardair and Lambair also operated the Bristol 170 in Canada's north. The sleeve-valve engines were powerful but a bit of a maintenance hog. I remember they had pneumatic brakes. Good photo.

Thanks all

I will put some more pics of Bristol Transformers as Luc called them

Very interesting to see this picture. I believe that this aircraft along with a sister ship VH-BFB was operating in Papua New Guinea during 1965/6 with Ansett MAL and based in Madang. I worked in Madang as a LAME (radio systems)during these years and was responsible for the maintenance of their radio systems. My recollection of the few flights I did in them was that they were cold and extremely noisy. TAA also operated 2 Bristol freighters out of Madang at that time. As a point of interest, the aircraft registered as VH-BFC operated by Ansett MAL after the departure of the Bristols was to my knowledge the only Caribou aircraft in civil service. I cannot recall whether the VH prefix was changed to P2 in Papua New Guinea at self government in 1972 or until independence in 1975.

Many thanks Laurie for you interesting background information

P2 must have started in 1972 because I have photos from 73 and 74 with that series

AA Data also has PNG and Pacific Islands databases

www.austairdata.com.au

The Caribou was the only OZ civil one that I am aware of - again you can search AAD for confirmation

Regards, Ian

Hi Laurie. As a ten year old kid I can remember the Bristols being parked outside De Havillands at Bankstown in the mid '60s after they were ferried down from PNG for their overhauls. Maybe a 15 hour ferry each way from Madang??