A HARS homecoming

HARS, where I serve as the Caribou project manager, has a proud record of preserving and restoring to flight significant and wide ranging civilian and military aircraft. Readers may be familiar with the Lockheed Constellation project, to which many others have been added, including Neptunes, C-47s, a Catalina, DC-4 and smaller types. We have always been keen to acquire a Caribou and in November of 2010 members travelled to Oakey to see what was in store.

What greeted us a year after the Caribou’s retirement was an amazing sight, one that was reminiscent of post WW2 where large numbers of aircraft sat outside awaiting disposal or destruction. One of our fellows said they were like Caribou grazing in a paddock! There stood eight aircraft on concrete pads or PSPs, intakes taped over and windscreens covered, looking rather forlorn and very much mothballed. It was an exciting prospect and we resolved to pursue the acquisition of at least one of these aircraft.

The Commonwealth finally released a Request for Tender in early 2011. Two airframes were restricted to bidding by historic flying organisations that would commit and have the capacity to keep the planes in flying condition. We then prepared to bid for those aircraft, A4-210 and -234 along with a comprehensive spares package and some spare R2000 engines. It is pleasing to see that governments are finally recognising the importance of maintaining historic artefacts in an operational condition if at all possible.

We teamed up with our major sponsors, Australian Aerospace for the bid. Australian Aerospace was contracted by the RAAF to provide through life support for the Caribous and did so right up until their termination from service. Australian Aerospace CEO Dr Jens Goennemann was very keen to ensure a flying example was kept airworthy to showcase the aircraft’s service and demonstrate his company’s commitment to preserving Australia’s military aviation history. Australian Aerospace, through predecessor companies, has actually been maintaining Caribous going right back to the 1960s at Bankstown.

We learned around the middle of 2011 that we had been successful in our bid for both the historic Caribous and the spares packages. The remaining seven aircraft and spares were awarded to Amrock Aviation, who we understand are planning to re-engine its aircraft with turboprops and use them for aid work in Papua New Guinea. So our two radial powered birds will be the only ones with the sweet sound of a round engine!

Now the ‘easy’ part was over and it was time for us to roll our sleeves up and bring home our aircraft. To the un-initiated this may sound like a straightforward task – simply refuel and re-oil them, start the engines and fly them down! However, nothing is easy in the modern world and we started many months of preparation to ensure a successful outcome.

We had to organise many different aspects, including engineering requirements, fuel and oil replenishment, finding qualified pilots, seeking CASA approvals, liaising with the Museum of Australian Army Flying, Army Base Oakey including security issues, OH&S requirements, accommodation needs and last but not least, even the Dept of Transport and Infrastructure for a Noise Certificate Exemption.

Our team arrived at Oakey ready for business on the morning of October 24. We had up to 18 engineers in the field at any stage of the week. Our HARS engineers are the cream of Australian industry. They all come from senior or supervisory backgrounds in Qantas, TAA, Rex or GA and most are retired. We arguably had the most experienced radial engine experts ever assembled in recent times.

I set out what seemed to be an ambitious schedule of starting work on the Monday and flying the first aircraft out by Saturday. The second aircraft was due to fly on the following Wednesday. As the pilots came from the RAAF and the airlines, I was constrained by their availability. We planned for the first week to cover inspections and replenishment of fluids and the second week was there if there were major defects to sort out.

Within minutes of being let loose on the planes, the cowlings were flung open, duct tape ripped off and tie-downs removed. It was like watching bees crawling over a honeypot! These aircraft had been sitting dormant for two years and it was imperative that they were thoroughly inspected and tested before flight.

We soon moved the aircraft nose to nose onto a concrete flooring that had once sat under a hangar in WW2. Interestingly, where the Caribou were situated at Oakey was the site of a smelter where many fighter aircraft were melted down in the late 1940s. If one rummaged through the light scrub nearby you could kick up various unidentifiable bits of scrap that were once at the vanguard of our war effort!

All our maintenance work had to be carried out in the field which of course had its problems. At least the concrete foundation provided a secure flooring for our engineers and aircraft. All systems had to be inspected and tested. One of the most nerve-wracking moments came when we had to jack both the aircraft up for a landing gear retraction test. This is normally done in a hangar but this option wasn’t available to us.

To make matters worse, our HARS semi-trailer (generously loaned and driven by Alan Lever) which had the jacks and test rigs was beset by mechanical breakdowns and couldn’t make it to Oakey until late in the week. The aircraft jacking had to be done in still air which meant we had only a small window of opportunity in the early morning or late evening. Our supervisory engineers, Bill Smith and Clive Gibbons could be heard having a major sigh of relief when this was completed!

We had some bother trying to locate the engine oil that we’d ordered. They were “lost” somewhere on the Army base. One would not believe how difficult it is to find two 44 gallon drums of oil! Finally our fuel arrived, generously donated by Shell. After some more interesting moments during the refuelling, both birds were topped up.

A4-234 decided to give us some grief when her flexible fuel pipe couplings weeped some fuel. Peter Brook and the engineers had all the panels off in a jiffy and applied copious quantities of Vaseline and elbow grease, thus fixing that issue. The couplings had dried out with no fuel over her lay up period. Leon Smith christened her, ‘The Beast’ after that episode. Of course, -210 is now ‘The Beauty’!

Engine runs were completed by Friday afternoon, and all the CASA approvals were finally in hand. Our first crew, captained by RAAF FLTLT Chris Jaensch, caught the early flight out of Sydney and arrived at Oakey to be greeted by exhausted engineers and a resplendent Caribou, ready for its ‘first’ flight. Loadmaster David East commented that the aircraft looked like it was still in RAAF service! A tribute to my HARS engineers and the fabulous maintenance carried out on the aircraft by Australian Aerospace previously.

An uneventful flight down the coast ensued and the aircraft was met by a cheering crowd of HARS supporters at Albion Park. A4-234 flew down on Wednesday, commanded by Bob Hazell.

An interesting sideline to this story is that the loadmaster on the second flight, Bob St. John, actually flew Caribous in Vietnam and was on the original delivery flight from Canada of A4-210 in the early sixties. Young Bob would never have believed that in 2011 he would still be flying Caribous!

As a tribute to their Vietnam service, the aircraft will form the basis of a ‘Vietnam Veterans Memorial Flight’. They will be a fitting reminder of the service and sacrifice of the young men involved in that conflict.

VH-VBA and -VBB are now tucked away in our hangars at Albion Park, undergoing maintenance prior to being classified under the Limited Category.

We hope you will get to see them at an airshow in the very near future.