Temora Aviation Museum’s June Flying Weekend is rapidly approaching with the event to take place on Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th. It is expected to be a huge weekend with the inclusion of visiting aircraft such as Matt Denning’s fabulous WWII Boomerang and the Caboolture Queensland based CAC Mustang, to be flown by Tony Alder. This particular Mustang (A68-769) is an Australian built aeroplane which was sold overseas, after its removal from RAAF service. Years later it was acquired by a consortium of pilots and brought back to Australia where Sandora Aviation took on the job of restoring the aircraft. The Mustang was completely rebuilt and repainted to represent Mustang aircraft flown by 82 Squadron in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), as part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Forces in Japan post war. Its paint scheme features distinctive nose art markings of a large Pegasus and a little cartoon dog called Snifter. This dog was a popular comic character during the war and appeared on many RAAF aircraft. This Mustang is now kept on display at the Caboolture Warplane Museum.
The restoration of Matt Denning’s rare WWII Boomerang fighter aircraft called “Suzy-Q” has been a personal life-long commitment for Matt. The Boomerang project was something Matt started as a fifteen year old (with skeletal aircraft remains) and which took him 27 years to complete. “Suzy-Q” artwork was adapted to his aircraft’s side cowl in memory of the name given to Boomerang A46-122, by its assigned pilot Paul Bash, who spent most of his RAAF service life with 83 Squadron. The restoration of Matt’s airworthy Boomerang is an amazing example of his devotion for historic Australian aircraft.

Also flying over the June weekend will be the Museum’s fleet. This includes aircraft such as the Spitfire, Tiger Moth, Canberra, Wirraway, Dragonfly and the Meteor. The RAAF operated Gloster Meteor F.8’s in Korea in the early 1950s, with the Meteor F.8 being the last RAAF aircraft involved in air-to-air combat.

Helping local charities

The Museum relies on the volunteer efforts of the Temora Branch of the NSW Fire Brigade (and families) to donate their time to manage the lunch and refreshments venue, the ‘Mess Hall’ at our Flying Weekends. The Mess Hall provides tasty items such as steak and sausage sandwiches, hot dogs, pies, sausage rolls, sandwiches, ice cream and hot and cold drinks. All profits made go directly to local charities.
The Museum would like to thank Captain Greg Matthews and his team, they volunteer every Flying Weekend to exert themselves with much preparation and cooking. To date, the Museum and the Temora Fire Brigade have raised more than $66,000 for the benefit of the Temora township.