Warbirds

Peter obtained the aircraft and commenced a restoration to get the warbird back in the air, with the aircraft’s Merlin engine overhauled by Ken McBride’s 51 Factory at San Martin, California.

Ryan ST-A forced landing

Ryan ST-A Special VH-SQD was badly damaged in a forced landing near Frankston, Victoria on November 15. The pilot and owner, Graham Hosking, escaped with a minor abrasion.

Graham was flying the Ryan from Tyabb to Point Cook when the engine faltered and then cut out. He conducted a forced landing onto a park near a freeway but the aircraft struck a tree before ending up in a shallow gully. As a result the Ryan suffered damage to its tail, fuselage behind the cockpit and both wings. It is believed that carburettor icing was the cause of the engine power loss.

Although it had served with the Guatemalan Air Force pre-World War 2 Graham had it painted up in Honduran air force markings, as with his Vought Corsair, VH-III.

Graham obtained the machine in the USA a few years ago and had rebuilt it to as-new condition.

RAN Firefly crash remembered

November 26 saw a memorial ceremony and plaque-laying on the site of RAN Fairey Firefly crash in Jervis Bay.

It was on that day in 1956 that Firefly AS.5 VX381 and Firefly AS.6 WD887 of 851 Squadron were doing orbits over Jervis Bay when they collided at about 2,000 feet.

VX381 lost an aileron and two metres of the starboard wing. The aircraft was unable to make it back to HMAS Albatross and ditched in 13 metres of water in Hare Bay, within Jervis Bay. The crew of two, Sub Lieutenant David Eagles and trainee navigator Don Debus, got clear of the sinking aircraft and made it into their liferaft. Later they were picked up by a Bristol Sycamore of 724 Squadron and taken to HMAS Albatross.

The second aircraft, WD887, dived into Jervis Bay some 3km off Moona Moona Creek. The crew of two, Sub Lieutenant Arthur Arundel and trainee navigator Midshipman Noel Fogarty died in the crash. Their bodies were not recovered and the wreck of the aircraft was not found until early 2016.

A bronze plaque has now been fixed to the wreckage.

Don Debus lives in retirement in Canberra, while thanks to the marvels of modern technology David Eagles was able to see the ceremony from the South Coast of the UK where he lives in retirement via a Facebook Live feed.

Tiger Moth loses its prop

The ATSB has released its report into the forced landing of DH.82a Tiger Moth VH-ARU which landed onto mud flats and rocks at Funnel Bay, near Shute Harbour, Queensland on July 2 following a propeller failure.

During a commercial joyflight the pilot was engaged in aerobatics when he heard a bang noise. The tachometer indicated maximum RPM but the engine was not producing any thrust.

The pilot endeavoured to glide back to Shute Harbour but was not able to reach it and elected to land on the shore of Funnel Bay. Photos of the aircraft show it to have finished up on the rocky shoreline.

After the pilot and passenger vacated the substantially damaged aircraft they noted that the propeller was missing. Part of the propeller hub remained but it was not possible to make a positive statement as to the cause of the propeller breaking up and departing from the aircraft.

Buzz Buggy finally gets there

The saga of the travels of Buzz Buggy, the former Australian C-47/ DC-3 being flown to a museum in China, reads almost like an ongoing serial. Now we can report that the elderly Douglas has reached its destination, Guilin.

In the December issue of AA we reported that the aircraft, VH-XUX (ex VH-MMF), had suffered a second engine failure, this time as it was some 12 miles from Kunming, China. The right hand engine shed a cylinder and it necessitated a single engine landing.

Another engine was purchased in the USA, flown to Kunming, and fitted by the resident maintenance team travelling on the aircraft.

While the engine was being acquired the crew dined at The Flying Tigers Restaurant, reputed to be the place where Hump pilots used to hang out in Kunming during the war. After the engine was replaced the flight continued and the aircraft got to Guilin and its final destination, the Flying Tigers Museum.

Original Qantas hangar to be Repaired

The Qantas Founders Museum has been awarded a $50,000 grant to carry out restoration work on the National Heritage Listed Qantas hangar at Longreach. The grant will be used for repainting, replacing and installing guttering around the building and repairing the hangar doors.

The planned restoration work, to commence in March, will have the hangar ready for the 100th birthday celebrations of Qantas Airways in 2020.

The Department of Environment describes the hangar, built in 1922 ahead of Qantas’s first commercial flight that November, as a “hardy steel and galvanised iron” that is “one of the earliest sites of civil aviation activity in Australia”.

The hangar was heritage listed in 2009 and forms a key part of the Qantas Founders Museum.

On another QFM note the museum has donated a Qantas DC-3 landing gear leg and wheel to the Winton Club to be included in an outdoor display around the club.

The Winton Club is significant in the history of Qantas Airways as it is where the first Qantas board meeting was held in February 1921. It was at this board meeting that Qantas decided to move its operations from Winton to Longreach.

The Winton Club plans to create an outdoor display of Qantas artefacts around the club to tell the history of Qantas and complement the iconic Winton Club building.

Register news

Ryan STR-KR (PT-22) VH-NEA was registered to Diane Davey of Eltham, Victoria on November 22.

Powered by a Kinner R-55 fivecylinder radial engine the Ryan had been under the ownership of Hank Ebes since May 2008 based at Moorabbin airport (with Hank having his art gallery business at nearby Cheltenham).

HARS’s Convair 440 looks set to be registered VH-TAA. The aircraft carried the marking ZS-ARV for its recent ferry flight from South Africa to Albion Park, and while at press-time the registration was yet to turn up on the CASA register VH-TAA has been seen painted on the tail of the aircraft.

Museum moves

The South Australian Air Museum at Port Adelaide is now well engaged in the building of its new display hangar after experiencing delays due to poor weather. The additional space will allow display of the museum’s recently-acquired Caribou and other exhibits held in storage.

The Bundaberg Hinkler House Memorial Museum and research Association has had a win. The Queensland State Government has agreed to donate a pair of replica number plates for Bert Hinkler’s car being restored at Bundaberg.

Q1152 was the number plate of Hinkler’s processional vehicle, a 1926 Armstrong Siddeley Tourer that carried the world-conquering aviator during his welcome home parade on Brisbane’s Queen Street.

When volunteers from the Bundaberg Vintage Vehicle Club originally applied for the registration plates they were told by Personalised Plates Queensland that it would cost $5,000 – on top of the $140,000 that has already gone into restoring the vehicle, to be displayed in the Hinkler museum.

In brief

»» As reported in the October Warbirds the South Australian Aviation Museum had initially been allocated Lockheed AP-3C Orion A9-658. That aircraft is to be retained by the RAAF for static display at Edinburgh with SAAM as the preferred applicant for Orion A9-756 instead. In part the allocation is dependant on the USA approving the ownership transfer to another party.

Contact Dave by email: [email protected]