Warbirds

During a recent holiday weekend in Victoria only two cars were observed in the carpark in the mid Sunday afternoon, showing just how much attendances have dwindled. It is understood that two representatives from thewell known auction house, Christie’s, recently visited the Museum to value the collection.

Commenting on the situation, a leading Museum movement person said that even if the Airworld collection was auctioned, and one would trust that this does not happen, there is almost certainly an outstanding debt on the building and the collection itself that the sale would not cover.

Australia as a whole is suffering under a financial recession but at Wangaratta it appears to be hurting most at Australia’s largest aviation museum.

Terrific Temor a Tiger Moths

An all time record of 72 Tiger Moths lined up on one aerodrome at one time is the proud boast of the NSW town of Temora following the weekend of 27th and 28th of April.

The gathering was the combined Annual National Fly-In of the Antique Aeroplane Association of Australia (AAAA) coupled with the 50th Anniversary of the RAAF’s No 10 EFTS that operated at Temora during WWII.

For the AAAA this was the first time its Annual Fly-In had been held outside Victoria. The Fly-In saw a number of interesting aircraft not noted at previous AAAA events including Ryan trainer, Luscombe, Stampe, Fairchild and Howard aircraft. It was unfortunate to record that a Luscombe, VH-LSC, was badly damaged during a landing although the pilot only suffered a bruised ego. On the warbird side the gathering saw around eight Harvards attend and the air crackled to the roar of round P&W engines.

For the Tiger Moth enthusiast and the pilots who trained in the type at Temora during WWII, the biggest attraction was the world’s largest peacetime gathering of DH82a Tiger Moths. 72 in all plus one disassembled in a hanger. An amazing event. Before the flying display on the Saturday afternoon many a former RAAF pilot walked the flight line to look for any of the Tigers that he may have flown during his training time at Temora. For those that wanted to fly there were joyrides available in Tiger Moths, a DH Dove, a DC-3 and even a Beech 18.

In all it was a weekend that will not easily be forgotten and such a large number of Tigers is unlikely to ever be seen again in this country.

Lodestar for Australia

A Lockheed 18 Lodestar is destined to come to Australia. The twin tailed machinehas reportedly been purchased by a Sydney based syndicate after much searching in the USA for the right aircraft. The Lodestar was an enlarged version of the Lockheed 14 and was used by the USAAF, USN, RAF, RNZAF and the RAAF, amongst others. The RAAF acquired ten of the type in 1943 and allocated them to 37 squadron, later also Nos 1 and 4 Communication Units. In RAAF service they carried serial numbers A67-1 to 10. Other Lodestars were used by the RAAF on loan from the USAAF, as well as by Qantas on its wartime PNG services.

More than 100 Lodestars are still on the US civil register and thus there has been a good number choose from. It is not known when the machine selected will actually arrive in Australia.

Air Museum Mustang Lecture

Each year the Moorabbin Air Museum presents a lecture on the development and service of an Australian built aircraft. This year the lecture is to be on the North American mustang fighter. Entitled ‘Winged Charger’, the presentation will commence at 8. 00pm on Friday 5 July in the Deakin Hall, Monash University Halls of Residence, Normanby Road, Clayton, Melbourne.

The lecture will cover the development and operational career of the Mustang and will display a fine photographic essay on the Mustang right through to its final form in the Piper Enforcer. Guest speaker will be former RAAF No 77 Squadron pilot, Mr Les Reading, who flew Mustangs during the Korean War.

Overseas, such lectures have been very well attended and given this year’s subject matter the MAM lecture evening promises to be one of major interest to a lot of warbird enthusiasts.

Albury Trojan Rebuild

At Albury, on the southern border of NSW, the hangar of Agricultural operator Hazair holds a dismantled North American T-28 Trojan that is carefully being rebuilt to flying standard.

Owned by Steve Death, the aircraft has so far had its wings and rear fuselage stripped, cleaned and repaired as required. An engine and propeller have been obtained and are held ready to eventually bolt on. The next major job will be the fuselage and of course the outfitting of the two cockpits. Both cockpits had little in them when the big trainer was imported from SE Asia.

Once operated by the Royal Laos Air Force, the maker’s plate of Steve’s aircraft records that it was built by North American Rockwell as a T-28D with construction number 236 and serial number 49-1724. Of special note is that on the sides of the paint stripped fuselage one can read the civil registration, N2884G, etched into the metal. Whether the registration was a ferry marking or indicates that the machine was privately owned in the USA at some stage is as yet unknown.

The same hangar also provides shelter to North American T-6 Harvard VH-XNZ, a newly restored machine that was previously NZ1024 with the RNZAF. The construction number 88-13188 is painted on the side of this aircraft.

In Brief

• Not Warbirds but of interest. The RA AF’s aerobatic team, the Roulettes, now flying the new PC-9 trainer, has been noted wearing the service issue slouch hat as sun protection between flying performances. The previous team members, then flying Macchi jets, went out and bought their own Akubra hats but now it seems that the powers that be do not like the high country drover look and the end result is the issue of a hat, slouch, airmen for the use of.

• For pilots the area called the Bermuda Triangle, off the Florida coast, is usually associated with the wartime lose of a flight of five Grumman TBM Avenger aircraft. Put simply, the five aircraft did not return to base from a flight on 5 December 1945. Now an organisation in the USA called the Scientific Search Project claims it has found the five Avengers in a group while looking for sunken Spanish galleons. While the find is being treated cautiously, it is reported that the lead aircraft has the number 28 – the same that was on the lead plane of the ‘Lost Squadron’