In the late 1950s DCA needed to modernise its fleet of aircraft, especially those used for the flight checking and calibration of radio navigation aids, work previously done by Douglas DC.3s. The major airlines were in the process of re-equipping with turboprop aircraft: Viscounts, Electras and Fokker Friendships. Jets were on the horizon. As the 1960-61 DCA Annual Report put it, "The DC.3 was not adequate for the task of electronic facility checking because of the limitations of speed and altitude and the dissimilarity of flight characteristics as compared to the classes of aircraft which the facilities are designed to serve."

DCA therefore purchased two new Fokker F.27s, which became VH-CAT and VH-CAV, fully fitted out for flight checking duties. A third F.27, VH-TFE, was acquired in 1965 for crew training and miscellaneous duties.