Wednesday, October 22, 2014

New Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) Beech B200 King Air VH-FDO "FlyDoc 489" Spotted at Gladstone Airport

Local plane spotter Anthony S popped down to Gladstone Airport on Wednesday 22 October just in time to capture a couple of quick photos as one-of-two new Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) Beech B200 King Air VH-FDO as it conducted an ILS approach followed by a go-around.


VH-FDO was delivered and registered in July and has only entered service this month.  VH-FDO is reportedly to be based at Mount Isa, and was part of a Queensland-wide competition to give the aircraft a name.  The aircraft's name was unveiled on Tuesday, with the name "Cooee" added to the front of the King Air.



VH-FDO positioned from Mount Isa to Brisbane on Wednesday, flying via Cairns, Townsville, Bowen, Gladstone and Bundaberg.

VH-FDO has been assigned the radio callsign of "FlyDoc 489".

Of interest, the other new RFDS King Air is registered VH-FDL.

Meanwhile, Anthony spotted another King Air parked at Gladstone Airport on Wednesday 22 October in the form of Wagners Development Company Hawker Beechcraft B300 Super King Air VH-WJW which visited for most of the day from its Toowoomba base.



A couple of other light General Aviation (GA) aircraft to call into Gladstone Airport on Wednesday 22 October were Cessna 310 VH-FFA of J.M. Kelly (Project Builders) - which called in from Rockhampton - and also Beech V35A Bonanza VH-ILC, which called into Gladstone from its Bundaberg base.

Local Careflight Bell 412EP VH-XCY was captured arriving back into Gladstone Airport after earlier being heard and seen flying around Rockhampton seemingly on a med-evac mission.  It was heard to be using its med-evac radio callsign on "Rescue 544".




QantasLink Dash-8-Q400 Next Gen VH-LQK was photographed operating the morning QLK2301 'milk run' from Cairns to Brisbane via Townsville, Mackay, Rockhampton and Gladstone.



Finally, it was noted by Anthony that Gladstone Airports Aviation Rescue Fire Fighting (ARFF) Service has seemingly taken delivery of a third Fire Truck - Tender 13.


This makes four fire service vehicles for the airport - three Tenders and a rapid response car.

Thanks to Anthony for allowing us to share his great photos!

All photos taken by Anthony Schulz  ©

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