Spotted this bird on the tarmac of the Ampara air-base when flying around on Google Earth 
. Can’t be sure if its a single or twin engine aircraft. It COULD be one of those Sri Lankan Airlines air taxies. I thought Ampara air base was a military only field but seems I was wrong.
The Ministry of Defence has a weird section on their site about free flights for civilians on air force planes. You got to see it to believe it. The bird picture above might be one of those birds. Any reader whose flown to Ampara could shed some interesting light.
March 20, 2008 at 11:20 am
[...] post by cerno and software by Elliott [...]
March 20, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Daya Liyanage, an innovative businessman, uses his private plane to travel to Ampara where he has a lot of business. This is probably his plane. He is entering politics, I think. A person worth watching.
March 20, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Sorry, the name is Daya Gamage, not Liyanage.
March 20, 2008 at 3:18 pm
Rohan: Thank you that’s very interesting
Could it then be a Daya Aviation (Pvt) Ltd RMA Beech Craft that’s listed in the Sri Lanka civil aviation web-site registry (line 21) ? From the Daya Aviation web-site they do have a twin engine aircraft. And Daya Gamage IS the boss of the outfit.
Curious as to why you think he is a person worth watching?
March 20, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Seems correct. Very innovative businessman. The exact kind of person who should be in politics.
March 21, 2008 at 12:17 am
its a twin engine Harbin Y-12 of the SLAF. its box shaped STOL wings are a dead giveaway!
normely SLAF has a Y-12 operating out of (not based) Ampara air field to support Para trooper training for the Army Commando and SF. since these pix are takend during 2004/5/6 , this perticuler Y-12 must have been there to support the Commandos earn thier ‘wings’.
even resently there was a passing out of 100 odd Para qualified Commandos in Ganemulla , with Chief of Maldives Defence Force as the chief guest .
he was there cause there were a group of 20+ Maldivian DF officers and other ranks (must be members of a elite formation of MDF -not sure the details of such units) who got para qualified for the first time and they were all trained in Ampara, including para stuff.
i read about this in the papers, though not sure about the dates, think late Feb or early March.
Mr.Daya Gamage is into politics, but more than that he is a proud son of Ampara , and a friend to many small and medium scale buissnessmen there.
that i got to know from my old work mates in Ampara.
great post Cerno.thanks for this.
March 21, 2008 at 1:52 am
I’m with Tinker on this one mate ! It looks like the Harbin Y-12 used by the Para’s at Ampa. Nice Shot ! I think SLA has abt. 6 left !
March 21, 2008 at 4:31 am
Rohan: Seems Daya Gamage is involved in something called “Business for Peace Initiative” which does seem innovative. I guess he’ll run in Ampara?
tinker: Thank you for the detailed info
Very enlightening as usual 
Rajarata: Thank you – now I’ll have to rummage through your flickr site to find a pic of a SLAF Y 12
Good way to deal with insomnia 
March 21, 2008 at 8:03 pm
i can’t wait when google earth becomes real time hahah
i’ll spend hours on it
March 22, 2008 at 8:31 am
sevenpics I doubt you’ll have to worry about getting addicted to real time Google Earth data – its very unlikely that will happen for free – even if its technologically possible.
March 25, 2008 at 5:54 am
Wow… are we seeing live pics ? Goodness Cerno can you see my car as well ? I thought Google Earth gives old pictures…
March 25, 2008 at 3:41 pm
niro:
Don’t worry no live pics/ Just still images taken around 2006 or so. Not sure what colour your Aston Martin is but you can see Colombo traffic in all its glory 