T-28 A

New photo of Tim Berry

New photo of Tim Berry over the Jungle Down Under

Tim Berry in Toowoomba

Tim wrote to me looking for ideas on the automatic primer and here he describes his A model.

On my local airport here there are another 4 T28 B and D models. We have only 16 Trojans in Australia and we have 5 based here in Toowoomba. I am always on the hunt for good parts. Here in Australia we have no suppliers of any T28 parts at all and we import everything except basic everyday items.
 
I have owned my T28A for a year now. I purchased it via Courtesy Aircraft sales (Mark Clark). It has been registered NX3336G/NX221LH and now VH-VBT. I was initially looking for a Vultee BT-13 (thats why my callsign is VBT) and had put a deposit on one only for the deal to fall over at the last minute. I had been looking for a BT for over a year with no luck. Christmas 2010 I was looking at various T6's in the US when N221LH caught my eye.  No one here in Australia had ever flown behind an R1300 or an "A" model before. After much research and emails, I purchased the aircraft late Jan 2011. Cliff Wileski at Heritage Aero Services, Rockford, Illinois conducted the pre-purchase and then the dis-assembly and containerisation of the aircraft and organsied the shipping to Australia. Cliff did a fantastic job.
After a massive sea voyage via the atlantic ocean, suez canal, singapore, hong kong and taiwan (twice),eventually she arrived in Brisbane, Australia about 85 days later.

Australian Customs won't inspect aircraft in a container so we had to go to the port and unload her at the dock. We were unable to re-load back into the container so we loaded fuselage and wings onto flatbed semi-trailers, with tailplanes, fin and rudder on the back of my ute.
Aerotec Toowoomba re-assembled the aircraft over a two month period. Eventually on November 3 2011 I flew her for the first time in Australian skies.
We have so far done 20 hours and had one airshow appearance.

I have no military history at all on the aircraft and don't know where to start looking. On the net is a court transcript where T28A 50-221 NX3336G was "stolen" and sold and flown illegially to Haiti in the 60's with all being arrested. If you search NX3336G you will see it. When I was repainting the registration I was rubbing back the paint and NX3336G clearly came through the old paint. So I sort of have a bit of history.