Van Wagner Airship Over Northern Beaches

[Grahame Hutchison]

Photographed this airship over the Northern Beaches from the balcony at lunch time. VH-JVW is an American Blimp Corp A-60+ (010) 1995 operated by and
recently registered to Van Wagners Airships. First registered in Australia on 26 February 1998, it has an envelope volume of 1900 cubic metres, and is powered
by twin Limbach 90hp engines. We received a MODE S signal only, and have been tracking it for the past 125min from 12:07-AEDT.

Length - 39 Metres
Seats - 5/5
Max level Speed - 46 KTAS
Endurance - 15 Hours (at 45 Kph)
Payload - 230 Kg (with Pilot and Fuel for 10 Hours, 35°C, Cruise at 1000 m)

http://www.16right.com/Aircraft-Images/displayimage.php?image=VH-JVW D300-20141122-001.jpg

http://www.16right.com/Aircraft-Images/displayimage.php?image=VH-JVW D300-20141122-004.jpg

http://www.16right.com/Aircraft-Images/displayimage.php?image=VH-JVW D300-20141122-099.jpg

[Robert.M]

Picked it up the other day, travelled along the Hume from its base in Victoria.
https://twitter.com/BidgeeWagga/status/534915050897551360

[Noel White]

Airship VH-JVW (7C309A) appears to have has changed rego to VH-JRW (7C300A) sometime between 25 April and 28 April. CASA shows it now as VH-JRW.

[Grahame Hutchison]

Hi Noel,

Browsing through the CASA Registration data I found the following :-

Cessna 421C (421C-285) operated by BPW Aviation changed its Mark to VH-EQZ on 15/10/2014

VH-JVW was returned as a registration to CASA on 17/10/2014. To that date, VH-JVW was registered as an A-60+ operated by Van Wagner Airships.

The Van Wagner A-60+ Airship then picked up registration VH-JRW on 27/04/2015.

So not really sure what happened to the Airship between 17/10/2014 when VH-JVW was returned to the Australian Register, and the 27/04/2015 when it picked up the registration VH-JRW.

I have ADS-B transmissions for 7C1699 VH-EQZ starting from 17/10/2014 through to 1/12/2014, which would align with the Cessna 421C VH-EQZ Mark change on 15/10/2014.

I then have ADS-B transmissions for 7C309A (VH-JVW) from 22/11/2014 through to 25/04/2015, and 7C300A (VH-JRW) starting from 8/11/2013 to the 17/05/2015. This seems a little strange, as VH-JVW is no longer on the Australian Register (from 17/10/2014).

[Noel White]

Thanks Grahame, Mark T alerted me to the change. Yes, it does seem a little strange.

[James R]

I had the pleasure of riding in this beauty circa 1999 out of Bankstown - then known as the Whitmans Airship and registered as VH-ZIC.

[Reece perram]

It is also usually seen around the macarthur area as well

[Jonathan Verschuuren]

Last Sunday, during the City2Surf running event, VH-JRW was hovering over Bondi beach, together with VH-SLU, which made for a nice photo opportunity:

http://i447.photobucket.com/albums/qq198/jonathanve/Sydney%20overig/VH-SLU_VH-JRW_sm.jpg (http://s447.photobucket.com/user/jonathanve/media/Sydney%20overig/VH-SLU_VH-JRW_sm.jpg.html)

Cheers!
Jonathan

[Paul L]

I pretty sure that, in Sydney, it's based at Camden Airport.