17-Feb-2011 Source: HeliHub.com
Two Bell AB206 JetRangers were delivered by road to Airwork’s facility at Caboolture Airfield in Australia today. Coded 3C-JF and 3C-JM, these were previously operated by the Austrian Air Force and retired from service in 2009.
Austria bought a total of 25 AB206/OH-58s, a first batch of 13 AB206A models, followed later by 12 OH-58Bs. Both of these examples come from the earlier batch of JetRangers built under licence by Agusta in Italy. From the original thirteen, two were written off in 1983 and 1986, while a third was retired to the aviation museum at Zeltweg (see www.Luftstreitkraefte.at). The remaining 10 were then put up for disposal and the two which appeared today in Australia are the first two to have appeared outside Austria and thus assumed sold.