HARS FLYING DAY

[planeimages]

HARS will be having a flying/open day at Albion Park on Saturday 24th February.

Connie will be flying and the Caboulture CAC 18 Mk 21 Mustang A68-110/769 will be giving (selling) joy flights $A1390.00 for 10 minutes or so.

I understand that other HARS aircraft will be flying... Catalina, Nepune and the TAM's Hudson, Canberra and Meteor.

RAAF Roulettes ( I thought all 2007 programmes had been scrapped but apparently not) and a fly in by SAAA members.

9.30-5.00.

Camera at the ready.

[Dave Homewood]

That sounds like a great day out, but is that Mustang flight price right?

That's extremely expensive. When ZK-TAF has been selling rides here I've seen them range from $100 to $150, for a 10 - 15 minute flight, though that was a few years back. Has fuel prices and insurance really pushed it up that much? That's about NZ$1500 I guess.

[flyjoe180]

I think TAF rides are about $1500 for 20 minutes, so thats comparitive.

[planeimages]

I stand corrected, remember I said "or so".

20 minutes $1400
30 minutes $2100

This is from the Caboolture site. I read somewhere in the HARS site the figure of $1390.00.

www.mustangflights.com/gifts.htm

This is the programme for Saturday. The P-51 flights will dovetail in with these activities.


10am Connie VIP Flight
11am Roulettes
12 noon Catalina
1215 Neptune
1pm C47 Dakota
2pm Connie VIP Flight
3pm Roulettes

It would appear that the Temora aircraft are for static display only but their arrival and possible departure on Saturday should be nice to see. Failing Saturday the crews might stay overnight and leave Sunday.

[Dave Homewood]

Far Canal.

I wish I'd gone up when it was cheap then. Oh well.

[flyjoe180]

Is far canal one of your word filters Dave?

[Dave Homewood]

No, it's just something I learned from The Two Ronnies many years ago!

They were doing one of their singing skectches and it was based around Gilbert and Sullivan. Little Ronnie would sing a line and big Ronnie repeated the last couple of words with great effect. One line was "The Navy has the most eficient ships" and Big Ronnie says " Fish & Chips"

Then came "My ship is moored in the far canal" and of course, "Far canal" which was said like a swearword. Brilliant stuff, you'd have to have seen it.

[FlyNavy]

I guess I would have to wait in the "Far Queue" then? :-)

[phil82]

Believe it or not, when I was in ANZUK, we had a lot of Locally Employed people, some supervisors who had worked for the Brits for years, and we had one whose name was "Fuk Yu".

The Kiwis and Aussies very quickly renamed him "Dave" as none of them were prepared to go looking for a guy by the name of "Fuk Yu".

[Dave Homewood]

That's brilliant!!

[flyjoe180]

I remember a Two Ronnies episode where they were teaching foreign language using single letters only. Pictures were used, a city was C T; a model in a bikini was T T. Then they moved onto ordering food. Something like F U N E X? S, V F X. F U N E T? S, V F T.

Very clever show.

[planeimages]

Here is a selection of images from HARS' day at Albion Park:



Neptune take off. Note that the Westinghouse jet air intakes are open indicating that the jets are operating. The doors close automatically when the jets are turned off to prevent windmilling.







Temora Aviation Museum’s Lockheed Hudson departs before the rain.



Connie fires up



The low light level allowed the power recovery turbine efflux to stand out. Thrilled the kids.



Gently down on one wheel.



Expert ground guidance from the HARS crew.



RAAF Roulette departure



Roulette arrival in the rain.



Mustang ride departs



C-47 Dakota Wright Cyclone exposed.

[Dave Homewood]

Aeroplane photos? I thought this was the Two Ronnies Thread.

Sorry Peter, no those are excellent photos. I love the one of the Pilatus in the rain, with the light reflecting off the tarmac.

The Connie start up is nice too. And I love the Hudson as usual. A Hudson can never take a bad photo.

Why does an Australian built, RAAF Mustang have US ARMY stencilled on the side? Was this some legal thing on the design? If so, surely the Royal Air Force has a lot more claim than the US Army?

Is this the HARS's home base? If so, any news on the Fokker Trimotor rebuild?

[flyjoe180]

Yes, apologies for detracting from the topic. Great photos! The Constellation's nose wheels appear to have a strange inwards camber on them?

[planeimages]

Thanks for the comments.

I don't know anything in particular about the Fokker Tri-motor rebuild although I did hear it mentioned at a HARS induction course briefly.

You'd have strange camber on your knees if you carried that much weight. I assume it is to do with "turn in" ie, the give the front wheels some authority in each direction. Like a road grader leans its wheels, or for that matter, a motorcycle. It effectively gives positive camber to the wheel on the inside of the turn and I woud assume that the geometry causes the greater weight to be taken by that wheel in each directon.

“Our Australian built CAC 18 Mk 21 Mustang served as A68-110 with the RAAF. This warplane has been restored as A68-769 which was delivered to the RAAF in 1945 and Served with 82 Squadron Japan & 77 Squadron Korea.” www.warplanesdownunder.com/

“Delivered 1 AD ex CAC on 20/02/48. Stored successively at Benalla, Tocumwal, RAAF East Sale & 1 AD. Sold for scrap 24/08/57. Registered VH-MFT from 13/01/97. It was being restored as P-51D-NT Mustang IV A68-769 at the Caboolture Warplane Museum, Queensland. Flying as VH-MFT from 2002.

Received 6 AD ex USA on 11/08/45. Issued 82 Sqn 21/09/45. Served in Japan with 82 Sqn. Returned to Aust in Mar 1949 and issued 78 Wing (Williamtown) 22/04/49. On 30/11/50 allocated to School Land/Air Warfare. On 15/03/51, approval given for conversion to components after removal of the engine. History Card says intent was to use parts of the airframe as a target. On 1/4/52 balance issued to DAP for disposal.”

Courtesy adf-serials.com

As I understand things, CASA will only permit commercial pax-carrying ops in CAC-built Mustangs. I am not sure if this includes “serials A68-1 through to 80 which are designated CA-17 and were assembled by the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation largely from kits supplied by North American. Serials A68-81 to 120 designated CA-18 and which were manufactured in Australia by CAC.” (Spitfire, Mustang and Kittyhawk in Australian Service by Stewart Wilson, pp 124.

This is all rather a case of bureaucratic hair-splitting but likely to relate to who provides the originating design authority.

The sign on the side probably relates to A68-110 rather than A68-769 and thus showing is allegiance to both Governments.

[planeimages]

The US serial 8502 relates to A68-769 so it is a case of having one's cake and eating it too. Thus this aircraft is a replica of a genuine N.A- built machine yet legal to carry pax because it is actually an Australian CA-18 airframe.

[Dave Homewood]

Interesting stuff. Cheers.

[corsair67]

Wonderful images there, Peter. Shame about the weather though.

Did a good size crowd attend?

Connie is a wonderful machine, and I can't wait to see her on the Friday evening at Avalon: those blue flames look fantastic at night.

[planeimages]

Thanks for the kind comments. WX was OK, just a bit of rain towards the end. Most people stayed out in it.

I don't know how many attended officially. The right crowd and no crowding. It looked to me like the majority backed up again for the inspections of the cabins in Connie and the two Daks.

I will be at Avalon for the night flight and hope to shoot the exhaust plumes.