Anson at Nhill Sat 19March2022

[pmccarthy]

It took a lot of cranking but finally they started both engines.

[Marty_d]

It's only going to go in circles unless they get that port wing back on.

[Flightrite]

Not a good spot to be sitting in there!

[onetrack]

Peter, you didn't get any of the spluttering, coughing, backfiring, and sheets of flame and smoke, on startup? I wonder how many people are still alive who flew these?

 

My brothers first boss, in 1958 - Owen Edgar ("Ted") Garland, of Perth, W.A. - learnt to fly Avro Ansons in Canada during WW2.

Ted lived a fascinating and full life, and only died in December 2019, just a couple of weeks short of his 99th birthday.

As with so many WW2 veterans, he never flew again after the War ended.

 

https://pickeringbrookheritagegroup.com/local47.html

[pmccarthy]

A well documented life story!

[planedriver]

For those that didn't know, they were often known as "the flying greenhouse" due to the fact that some had so many windows.

 

 

[JEM]

I flew in VH-ASM circa 1958 but I wasnt the pilot. The pilot that day was Sid Marshall. 

Edited April 4, 2022 by JEM

[IBob]

I believe they were used for navigation training out of Booker airfield near High Wycombe in the UK where I grew up.
We saw (and heard) them overhead pretty much daily in the '50s.

[planedriver]

Old farts like me, remember these things 👍

[old man emu]

After the war a lot went into civilian use.  Butler Air Transport had a couple. The NSW Police one was named "Nemesis". The Sydney Morning Herald had VH-SMH

 

[facthunter]

Not having "featherable' engines always limited their use and also a glued wooden mainspar. A lot were around in the 50's. Gear extension took a lot of "winding".   Nev

[old man emu]

Variable pitch props were not common in English aircraft in the 1930s when both the Anson and De Haviland Dragon were designed. The Anson has twice the MTOW of the Dragon, and its much more powerful engines give it a cruising speed of 137 kts against the Dragon's 95. Can you imagine flying from Bourke to Tooraweenah in a Dragon on an Outback Summer's day? Overall distance would near be doubled if you accounted for the vertical distances the aircraft would have travelled in air pocets.

 

The Anson wasn't available in Australia in its  original civil guise until surplus military ones became available at the end of WWII. Then they replaced the Dragons.

 

All pre-WWII wooden-winged aircraft suffered from the failure of glued joints due to a lack of anti-fungal/bacterial glues, or glues having better setting qualities due to the chemicals they were made from.  AC 43-13 states "Resorcinol is the only known adhesive recommended and approved for use in wooden aircraft structure and fully meets necessary strength and durability requirements" for certificated aircraft. Resorcinol-formaldehyde resin glue is very strong and durable which was introduced into aircraft manufacture in 1943,

[BrendAn]

A friend of mine had a great photo of an avro flying low over the football oval in Albany delivering the argus newspaper when floods had washed out the Perth rail line  .