Dropping some cargo near Aussie special forces near a Taliban occupied territory in Uruzgan province

Nicknamed the "BoluDO" by Austral staff, I photographed him on the SDE ramp waiting for passengers to start another regular flight. Ex G-DEVR of Airtours International, ex N881RA of Reno Air and American Airlines, ex C-FKLI of Jetsgo, and N941MT of AeroUsa. Start of service for Austral on December 2005.

Delivered to KLM in February 2008.

The history of the 319th Special Operations Squadron (319 SOS) dates back to Sep'44 when it was activated as a C-46/C-47/C-123 Troop Carrier Squadron where it served in the China-Burma-India Theater during WWII within the civic action and counterinsurgency missions (also flew T-28 Trojans). Since then the squadron was activated, redesignated and deactivated several times, but on 1 Oct'05, the SOS was activated as part of an overall expansion of the USAF Special Operations Command. It started to fly this secretive Pilatus U-28A that provides intra-theater support for special operations forces.

This colourful Kitfox was homebuilt under CAO 101.28 rules and first registered on 8 June 2005. It was then based at Penfield.