D-MVCW - A Tale of Two Comets

In August 2010 I received an email from Pascal C telling me that he had just taken delivery of FK-12 Comet c/n 083 which was previously registered as D-MVCW. He sent me some photos of it showing it already painted with its new French registration letters.

One day later I received some reports from the large Fly In at Tannheim - Tankosh 2010 - among the aircraft noted at this event was FK-12 Comet D-MVCW ! 

This all seemed rather odd, I wondered if perhaps the D-MVCW at Tankosh 2010 was a misreading for another Comet that has a very similar registration D-MCVW.

I'd like to thank Grahame Bann, Nigel Hitchman and David Haines for sending me jpeg photos of D-MVCW taken at Tankosh 2010.

At first glance these photos showed an aircraft that looked identical to D-MVCW c/n 083, however this was now living in the south of France !

Closer inspection showed that D-MVCW at Tankosh 2010 was not identical to the D-MVCW that appeared at Tankosh the previous year in 2009 - take a look below.

The above photo shows D-MVCW at Tankosh 2009 - this is FK-12 Comet c/n 083.

The photo above shows D-MVCW at Tankosh 2010 - almost identical but not 100% identical. The most obvious difference is the white propeller hub and propeller - in addition look at the spacing of the 4 yellow stars on the engine cowling - also note that the blue wavy line along the fuselage is a little bit lower below the cockpit, for example the upper wing struts no longer pass through the blue wavy line. I think the undercarriage wheel spats are different too.

The mystery of the "new" D-MVCW at Tankosh 2010 was solved by Chris Vaughan who spoke to the pilot who confirmed that this was a brand new Comet delivered just a couple of weeks previously and has c/n 092- so this current aircraft is D-MVCW(2).

If you look at the previous story on this blog you can see photos of the original D-MVCW(1) with its new French markings "11-IJ" still in the yellow/white/blue colour scheme.

Thanks to the many Blog readers who helped resolve this Tale of Two Comets.


Steve