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Keith Bollands has news of the Dunsfold Dove.
G-ASMG, the DH Dove based at Dunsfold until May 1986 for communications flights, is alive and well and living in New Zealand. Registered ZK-DHW in January 2003, I caught up with her in April at North Shore airfield, Dairy Flat, about 10 miles north of Auckland. In the interim she spent over 15 years in Australia with a company called Rudge Air, operating ad-hoc charter and sight-seeing flights from Essendon, Melbourne.
She still wears the BAe livery of blue, red and orange stripes, though without the logo on the cowlings, and the interior was exactly as I remembered it. There was even a hand-written card above the co-pilot's seat with navigation data for Dunsfold, Hatfield and Bitteswell amongst others!
The current owner is Ray Trubuhovich who runs an earth moving business and also has a share in a DH Devon based at North Shore. The Dove, he said, has more powerful engines and is a delight to fly. Unfortunately he had had a ground incident due to low brake pressure on start-up, resulting in some damage to both propellers. These had been removed for repair.
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