Warbirds

Cameras were clicking! Overall the Temora warbirds airshow was a great event. Lots of sunshine and clear skies. An event to savour!

HARS hands in maintenance approval

With the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society (HARS)’s hangars at Albion Park, NSW closed while work continues with the installation of fire safety equipment comes news that HARS has handed its maintenance approval back to CASA.

The move has effectively stopped major maintenance on HARS’s aircraft. This did not prevent HARS sending three aircraft to the Temora warbirds airshow, but may prevent major maintenance in the near future.

“There is no issue, it is just we are restricting all works except for construction,” HARS president Bob De La Hunty told the Illawarra Mercury.

“We are limiting the amount of work we are doing while the construction work is forging on – it makes sense to do that.

“We can’t work on all the aeroplanes, that is the bottom line. ” HARS declines to comment on maintenance issues with some of its aircraft.

Inquest into 1950 Wirraway crash

The Queensland Coroner is conducting an inquest into the December 30 1950 crash of a RAAF CAC Wirraway on Maroochydore beach that resulted in three deaths.

Three children were killed and 14 other people suffered injuries when Wirraway A20-212 stalled and crashed near a patrol tower while conducting a shark patrol over the beach. The crew later reported that they saw a shark and were manoeuvring the aircraft at low level and low airspeed when it crashed. Pilot Flight Lieutenant Herbert Thwaites suffered a broken leg while his observer, Sergeant Jeffery Neil, escaped with minor injuries.

Both crewmembers continued theirRAAF careers and have since died, while the Wirraway was written off, with the fuselage detached from the wings. It was officially converted to components in March 1952.

A series of inquiries failed to attribute blame despite witness reports that the aircraft was flying too low, too slow and directly over the beach. Brian O’Connor, a brother of one of the deceased children, has been able to convince the State Coroner to review the case citing new evidence that was not considered at the time.

Sugar Bird Mooney down

The fate of Mooney Super 21, marked VH-REM, is up in the air after it was recently blown down from its stand and damaged in a storm.

Mounted at the entrance to Jandakot airport near the RFDS hangar, the aircraft was erected in 1978 as a memorial to famed RFDS pilot and nurse, Robin Miller Dicks. Robin died due to cancer in 1975 aged 35. The aircraft was never registered in Australia but was acquired from the USA and painted up like the Mooney that Robin had flown around WA on her RFDS rounds.

Jandakot Airport Holdings has advised the aircraft belongs to the RFDS. A decision on its future is expected soon.

Register review

The Vintage Aviator at Masterton, New Zealand has been busy again with a Sopwith Snipe replica c/n 0114 registered to it on October 21 as ZK-SBY.

Also in New Zealand Piper PA-22-125, N2473A c/n 22-812 has been imported from the US to become ZK-EZI on October 29 to Chris Batten of Silverdale.

Across the Tasman and 1946 Cessna 140, VH‑OFO c/n 10901 was added to the Australian register on October 28 to Eric Shipton of Somerset, Qld. It is ex-N76469.

Tiger Moth VH-UYE c/n 83120 was added to the register to William Finlen of Boonah, Qld. on September 12. It is ex-VH-CKA.

A classic Bell 47G-3B1, VH‑APS c/n 6567 was struck off the register on August 27 as having been sold back into the USA.

Luscombe 8E, VH-CAI c/n 5339 was transferred to the RA-Aus register on October 1.

Hawker spark plug

Harry Hawker may have passed away in 1921, but recently a small piece of history connected to him was presented to the RAAF Museum at Point Cook.

That small item was a spark plug used in a Sopwith seaplane that Hawker and mechanic Harry Kauper were flying in the 1913 Daily Mail newspaper-sponsored Circuit of Britain Race.

Of the four pilots who originally entered the race, Hawker was the most successful. Not only was he the sole entrant to start the race, he flew over 1,000 miles of the 1,540-mile race before electing to land near the small town of Loughshinny, near Dublin. While Hawker went for parts to repair the aircraft, it was effectively stripped by locals! One item removed as a souvenir was a spark plug. For many years that spark plug lay in someone’s drawer. It ended up in a local folk museum. Acknowledging that this was the first time that 1,000 miles had been flown over an outward course, Daily Mail management presented Hawker with a special prize of £1,000.

In recent times Melbournehistorian Jim Dale was given the spark plug by an Irish historical society. Dale passed the plug to the RAAF Museum.

That DC-2 Uiver

The Douglas DC-2 memorial to the 1934 England to Australia flight that put Albury on the world stage is in the spotlight again. This time for all the right reasons.

The aircraft, not the original aircraft that landed at Albury in a storm at night back in 1934, but another that represents the original aircraft, has been languishing for some years pending a decision to rebuild it and house it at Albury, or get rid of it.

In recent times the Uiver Memorial Museum Group has reached a long-awaited milestone with an agreement with the Albury Council for the restoration of the machine to begin. The Uiver Group and the Council have agreed to build a hangar to restore and house the historic aircraft at Albury. The plan is that the rebuild will take some five years. During that time additional funds will be sought to build a more permanent building to display the aircraft and turn it into a museum in its own right.

The Albury Council is providing an interest-free loan of $300,000 to build the hangar and has offered to make land available for premises to house the aircraft while it is being restored. Until recently the aircraft was a long-term resident of the general aviation parking area. It has since been moved to another area of the airport, but is still stored outside. It will be restored by the SmartAir company at Albury.