Transavia’s Baby Elephant

I an Bell is a man of diversity: grape-grower, sheep and cattle farmer, pilot, aircraft owner and builder. He is not short of projects. However, like so many aircraft owners before him, he has had his heart and imagination captured by one aircraft type; in Ian’s case, it’s the Transavia PL-12 Airtruk.

As a child, Ian vividly remembers watching ag aeroplanes working off the family farm airstrip at Maragle in rural NSW where he grew up. When he was seven, he saved up his pocket money for a joy flight in Wagga Wagga with aviation legend Don Kendell. Despite being the first pilot in his family, aviation was somehow in his blood, and he commenced flying lessons straight from school. While balancing a busy vineyard and farm with his flying, Ian went on to own a number of aircraft. Airtruk VH-TRJ was purchased just over ten years ago and he has another being restored and it will fly later this year; currently there are