Air Australia?

[marshallarts]

It's looking to me like Air Australia, based at Jandakot, might have closed its doors.  Lots of aircraft being auctioned at the moment, and al lot of them look like they were in the Air Australia fleet.  Anybody know anything about this?  They were there when I did my training in the 1980s, for heaven's sake.  The principal, Chuck McElwee, famously put a stricken aircraft down in someone's backyard some years ago, in a suburb near Jandakot, and survived to tell the tale.  Them wuz the days!  Sad to see another aviation business (apparently) disappearing, but I'd guess that Chuck would be well into retirement age.

[red750]

From Wikipedia:

 

Air Australia halted all flights and was placed into voluntary administration on 17 February 2012, and into liquidation on 23 March 2012.

 

For the full history, click here.

[marshallarts]

That doesn't look like the same Air Australia to me.  The one at Jandakot definitely did not shut down in 2012 - it has been active until quite recently.  They were mostly into pilot training I believe.

[onetrack]

Air Australia still has a fully operational website, and nothing is stated on there about the company being placed into liquidation - as would happen, if liquidators were appointed.

 

Are you sure you've checked the dates on your information? Webpages stay up for years with outdated information from 10 yrs ago. Way too many webpages don't even have dates on articles, which infuriates me.

 

https://www.airaustralia.com.au/

 

I keep track of every auction in W.A. (and sometimes, other States as well) and there are currently no aircraft being auctioned at Jandakot.

 

However, Grays Auctions did sell this F-104 Starfighter out of Jandakot, in May 2021, for just $9! 

 

https://www.grays.com/lot/0016-9023163/memorabilia/f-104-starfighter-model-aircraft?tab=Inspection & Collection

 

Edited June 9, 2022 by onetrack
...spellink

[marshallarts]

I was looking at planesales.com.au.   The most recent listings on there include several which were/are owned by Air Australia, and their premises are clearly visible in the backgrounds of some of the pics.  They are all (or mostly all) auctions by Grays, which struck me as a bad sign.  I'd love to be wrong, which was why I was asking if anyone had better info about this.

[marshallarts]

I just had a closer look - checked the ownership of the listings that have just appeared.  3 of the aircraft are shown as owned by Chuck McElwee, the others (4 or so) are owned by various others.  So it is unclear what's going on, if indeed anything is going on!  But quitting even 3 aircraft is not insignificant, especially by auction.  One of the Air Australia ones - a Robin R2160 - has been for sale for quite a while, but not by auction until now.  It just seems a very large (unlikely?) coincidence that so many aircraft should come up for auction at the same time, in WA.

Edited June 9, 2022 by marshallarts

[onetrack]

O.K., thanks for the additional information. The aircraft auctions have only just been listed, and they do not actually start until June 13th, and the bidding ends on June 24th, 2022.

 

In Grays leading page for the entire lot of aircraft up for auction, it simply states ...

 

Under instructions from:
The Vendor

Reason for sale:
Surplus to Requirements - Retirement

 

So it's made clear, all the aircraft are being quit, because Chuck McElwee is officially retiring, and he's obviously winding down his investment in the business, and turning his flying assets into retirement cash.

 

https://www.grays.com/sale/9031932

 

The photographic information is quite deficient, as there appears to be only one photo of each aircraft. One would normally expect at least 8 or 10 photos, or more. Grays may post more photos, as the auction start gets closer.

I just noticed one of the Robins does have 4 photos attached to it.

There's an ATC-810 Flight Simulator as part of the sale, and the simulator has 8 photos attached to the description.

 

Edited June 9, 2022 by onetrack

[onetrack]

Grays have previously auctioned the Avions Pierre Robin R2160, VH-JXY, in Sept 2021. Bidding reached a maximum of $26,500 and it was passed in ("referred"), and the seller obviously decided the bid amount was inadequate.

 

https://www.grays.com/lot/0001-9025423

[KRviator]

Wouldn't mind putting a bid on the Cardinal, but I'm on shift so couldn't get it off-site in time...

And it has 2,600TSO and a prop that needs an overhaul in less than 100 hours too. No mention of the spar inspection either, for what is a fairly high-time airframe. If that doesn't pass, you've got a 2,000lb paperweight - replacements are rarer than unicorns!