Pay's Warbirds (P40, P51, Hurricane & Spitfires)

[planecrazy]

Around 3.5 hours north then west of Sydney, NSW, is the small country town of
Scone, a town that serves the local farming community. My reason for visiting,
Pay’s Warbirds, founded by the late Col Pay, his son Ross now runs the business
which provides a number of aviation services. As well as restoring and maintaining
Warbirds the family has a number of gems in the personal collection. Ross kindly
took some time away from his busy day to have a chat and allowed me to freely
explore the hangars.

Harvard in US Airforce markings.


Ex RNZAF P40 NZ3094 had her engine out for inspection which is being performed in house,
she is painted up as a RAAF 3 Squadron aeroplane.




One of the first aeroplanes to join the collection CAC Mustang A68-107.




Very pleased to have a look over the southern hemisphere’s only airworthy Hurricane,
this machine is maintained but not owned by the Pay collection.








Fortunate to go over to the restoration hangar where there are two Mk IX Spitfires under
restoration.


This one is the ex Connie Edwards Mk IX that flew the most hours in the filming of the
iconic film Battle of Britain. Ross told me that Connie, who flew the machine during the
filming, was shot down over 150 times in this machine during the making of the movie.


This aeroplane will be restored with almost all it’s original parts, only one of the fuselage
bulkheads needing replacing as well as all the rivets.

[ZacYates]

Excellent photos! What a privilege to have a glimpse into goings-on at Scone. For a several years after Col's death there'd been radio silence on all things Pay, but Ross and co seem to be doing rather well now with some exciting (and surprisingly advanced!) projects. Thank you so much for sharing.

It's particularly great to see NZ3094. I've not seen any photos of it in some time and it's great to hear the engine's being worked on. I'd love to see it return to NZ one day, or even just RNZAF colours, but it's been pointed out to me she has Bobby Gibbes' autograph on one panel. I don't think I could ever condone that being erased or covered!

[planecrazy]

Thank you Zac, yeah a privilege for me as well, I too am a fan of the Kittyhawk and agree it
would be great to see any P40 in RNZAF markings. The white banded markings especially
look so unique and would make them stand out at air shows.

Re the engine out they found some small amounts of metal in the filters so decided to inspect,
lining on the crank shaft bearings were showing wear, new bearings the crank is fine. Ross told
me he believed the reason is she is not flown enough!

[starr]

It is great to see Ross has carried on with the warbirds. The Hurricane and Spitfire look different to when I saw them a few years ago. I have a lot of time for Ross as I did for Col.

[ZacYates]

Jul 11, 2017 8:56:11 GMT 12 planecrazy said:

Ross told
me he believed the reason is she is not flown enough!

At least he knows the cause of the issue

[ErrolC]

Spitfire F Mk. IX MH603 had its first engine run this week.

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