I posted this image on PBase at the end of September 2013, when I had returned to shooting (but not posting) a photo each day. The original description for this photo indicated that I was "good, productive" busy at that time. But in March of 2025, I think I need to do a full update of this description.

I had been given a joyride over the Illawarra as a present. Not in this, I hasten to add, though my plane was operated by the same company, SouthernBiplaneAdventures.com.au. No, my flight was in a Beechcraft Bonanza. I did get a few passable photos. However the combination of my 28-135 backup lens (which, the more I used, the less I liked), and shooting through Perspex windows, will never give great results. (My front line 24-105 f/4 L lens had died on a Perth trip earlier that year.) Consequently today's PAD is a shot that I took before we left the ground.

Featured is the Lilly Warra, a 1943 Boeing-Stearman Model 75. In its military guise it was known as the PT-17 primary trainer. Stearman was an aircraft manufacturer which was founded in 1926, and which was based (for the most part) in Wichita Kansas. It was merged into Boeing in 1934. Lilly was originally a training aircraft for the Tuskegee Airmen, being later sold as surplus in 1944. After a bit of commercial work (I know not how long a time) she was left to rot before being discovered by an American Airlines pilot and restored. (Where I got that information on when I first wrote this description 12 years ago I know not, but I'm sure I found a source at the time.) Shortly after the restoration she was bought by an outfit down here and began the next phase of her life as a joyflight aircraft.

From the records of CASA (the Australian air regulator) it was first registered in Australia on 1 November 2010 under the registration VH-ILW.

So she had been in service for almost 3 years at the time of this shot. If you look you should find a stack of promotional news articles about her and her company.

Right up to about 2018, anyway. Over the following 12 months the news stories, the Instagram postings, etc, etc all stopped.

Remind me again what happened in late 2019?

The company itself is still in existence, though I can't find any evidence of it carrying on its former business. One of its trading names (Five Point Aviation) was cancelled on 4 July 2024.

As for the Lilly Warra? She's currently (as of 15 February 2021) registered to a private company called Clark Rural Pty Ltd which operates out of Goulburn in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales. What they do? I have no idea. Why they bought the Lilly Warra? I have no idea. Whether they fly the Lilly Warra? I have no idea but there are no recent logs for flights of it on any of the major flight tracking sites.

One can only hope that 12 years after this shot, and 82 years after manufacture, she has a hanger to call home and mechanics to maintain her.