Nederlandse Modelbouw en Luchtvaartsite

Dutch Modelling and Aviation

In Memoriam

Klaas Willem Jonker
(Wilko)
† April 30, 2018

On Monday 30 April 2018, Wilko Jonker died after a long illness at the age of 58. He leaves behind a wife and two children. The Dutch military aviation and plastic modeling were his hobby and on this website he shared all the knowledge he has collected over the years. His hobby has been able to distract him from the persistent disease in his body until the last week of his life. The contacts with other hobbyists were a major support for him.

This website will be maintained by different people for as long as possible, so that other enthusiasts can continue to benefit from extensive content.

Commonwhealth CA-6 Wackett

In service with NEIAF.

In May 1946 on Java the primary flying course started. In October the advanced training would start, alas no aircraft for this training were  available. The Wacketts were available on the surplus market at that time, about 90 aircraft were handed over to a merchant  J.T. Brown. About 50 of these aircraft, were sold to ML-KNIL. The Australian unions refused to take care of this load, because of the Dutch- Indies politics, so it took til April 1947 to deliver the aircraft in Batavia. The machines were assembled at airbase Tjililitan, some of them were used for spare parts, so in the end no more then thirty aircraft were used operationally.
The first seven aircraft were ready in August 1947. In September fourteen aircraft were ready for use. Because the long period of storage the aircraft were in rather poor condition and the Technical Service had lots of trouble to keep the Wackets up and running. Because of cooling problems of the engines, the cowling was soon removed.

The performance of, for instance, the Tiger Moth was better than the performance of the Wackett. The CA-6 was quite save, as just three of them were written of because of accidents.

May 20, 1948 an aircraft crashed in the mountains during a blind flying training, in August a second aircraft was written of and in February 1949 a Wackett crashed at Kalidjati.

After Juyi 1949 no further information is available, it is possible the aircraft were handed over to the AURI (the Indonesian air force), but the AURI probably didn't use the Wackets.

Trainer Wacket Commonwealth, voor de E.V.O. ,ready for take-off op Kalidjati, solovlucht van l.l.o.o.vlgr Eijkelboom op 30-08-1948
Elementary trainer Wacket Commonwealth, ready for take-off at Kalidjati; solo flight of l.l.o.o.vlgr Eijkelboom on August  30, 948.
[Enclosed photo from BeeldBank NIMH. Click on photo for ordering information]
Commomwealth CA-6 Wackett lesvliegtuig voor de eerste vliegopleiding van de ML/KNIL
Commonwealth CA-6 Wackett trainer of NEIAF.
[Enclosed photo from BeeldBank NIMH. Click on photo for ordering information]
Commomwealth CA-6 Wackett lesvliegtuig voor de eerste vliegopleiding van de ML/KNIL klaar voor de start met maximaal toeren draaiende motor. De blokkenpaai moet nog in actie komen
Commomwealth CA-6 Wackett.
[Enclosed photo from BeeldBank NIMH. Click on photo for ordering information]
Crash van Wackett trainer B.308, Eerste Opleiding School op Kalid Djati, West Java, Indonesië aug. 1948
Crash of Wackett trainer B.308, at  Kalid Djati, West Java, Indonesia August 1948.
[Enclosed photo from BeeldBank NIMH. Click on photo for ordering information]