12/15/2017. Remarks by Ben Dannecker: "VH-CRF was registered to RFDS on May 15, 1974 and for several years it was the only Royal Flying Doctor Service's aircraft fitted with radar and full dual IFR instrumentation. My wife Roslyn pictured me at the controls of VH-CRF on a flight from Normanton to Mount Isa, Queensland in July 1979. VH-CRF's sister ship VH-FDS was registered to RFDS on January 17, 1978.

In the 1980s I was Base Pilot for the RFDS at Mount Isa. I was then under the old system of just one full-time pilot to cover it for two weeks straight with one day off if I was lucky. That same base now has four pilots and more aircraft – with only a 12-hour standby duty period, and if no trips come up at the end of that span, then the next incoming pilot would take it."