Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) Raytheon B200 King Air VH-VQD "FlyDoc 491" (ex VH-FDW) Calls into CQ Airports

Certainly an interesting aircraft to be noted visiting a couple of Central Queensland Airports over the last week or so has been recently re-registered Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) Raytheon B200 King Air VH-VQD which has visited Hervey Bay (Fraser Coast), Bundaberg, Biloela / Thangool and Charleville Airports as "FlyDoc 491".

File photo

VH-VQD "FlyDoc 491" started flying out of the RFDS Brisbane base last Friday 5 November having ferried across from Redcliffe Aerodrome the previous week to that.

Research reveals that VH-VQD is in fact former VH-FDW "FlyDoc 447" (pictured above) with the aircraft re-registered to 'free-up' the marking for one of the new RFDS Textron Aviation (Beechcraft) Super King Air 360CHW turboprop aircraft which are due for delivery later in the year.

It is now the second RFDS King Air to be re-registered this year with VH-FDR becoming VH-VJU "FlyDoc 445" in June.

The RFDS plan take delivery of the first two KA360 aircraft late 2021 with the aim of commissioning the aircraft in early 2022. They will receive a further two aircraft late 2022 and have an option to purchase an additional two more KA360 aircraft.

Photo taken by Brandon Giacomin  ©