Since VH-POM has now flown for the first time in almost two years, now seems like an appropriate time to start a blog about it.
This if VH-POM:
(photo from 31/10/2015, when I first had a look over it. It hasn’t changed much).
I bought VH-POM in December 2015. It was being offered at a very low price anyway (although still more than I could justify), but the owner was keen to sell and we were able to agree on a price that was practical for me. The downsides were that it hadn’t been flown for quite some time (since 04/07/2014), there was no current maintenance release, and it’s badly in need of an avionics update. The paint is also not doing too well, but this is par for the course on a plane that’s been sitting outside for years.
VH-POM is a “basic” PA-30 (not a later PA-30B, PA-30C, or PA-39). It’s number 114 off the production line, which may even make it the oldest Twin Comanche in Australia. It was built in 1963, which puts it closer to World War I than to today, and its Australian Certification of Airworthiness was issued by the Department of Civil Aviation on the 16th of December 1963.
Since I bought it, it’s been sitting at Caboolture (just north of Brisbane) awaiting maintenance. Yesterday, after agreement from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), the Licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineer (LAME) who has so far spent over forty hours working on it, and the ferry pilot, it was flown down to Murwillumbah where it’ll be prepared for further flying.
More to come, as the maintenance gets done…