Temora Aviation Museum is excited to announce that the Super Constellation will be part of our Easter Flying Weekend on the 11th and 12th April 2009. The weekend will involve flying displays by the Museum’s Tiger Moth, Wirraway, Ryan, Hudson, Spitfire Mk XVI, Boomerang, Canberra, Vampire, Meteor, O-2A and Cessna A37 Dragonfly. Also joining us for the weekend will be the Dakota C-47 from the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society (HARS), David Salter’s Harvard, and Doug Hamilton’s Lockheed 12.

The Constellation or ‘Connie’ as it is also known has made several visits to the Museum, and is always a popular attraction. The aircraft will participate in the Flying Displays during the weekend, as well as be stationed on static display which will enable visitors to climb aboard the aircraft to walk through and view its vintage interior and cockpit!

Constellations were used as both civilian and military aircraft, this particular one, VH-EAG ‘Southern Preservation’, is an example of a militarised version. It served with the United States Air Force from 1955 and then served with the Air National Guard in the United States during the 1970s. It is similar to the Super Constellations that were used by Qantas during the 1940s and 1950s as their main long-range passenger aircraft, which pioneered their around-the-world service. The restoration project of the Connie to get it back into the air was undertaken by the team at HARS, and consisted of a whopping 16,000 volunteered man hours! We are pleased that this 35 metre-long aircraft will visit us once again so that visitors can appreciate the work that has been undertaken in order to see her fly again.

Gates will open at 10 am on both Saturday and Sunday with flying commencing at 11 am. We look forward to seeing you there on April 11 & 12!

Please check our ‘Visitor Information’ link for further information regarding our Flying Days.

Extraordinary flying took place in Temora over the Easter weekend against a cloudless blue sky. Visitors to the Museum were lucky to witness the visiting aircraft from the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society participate in the weekend’s events. The impressive Neptune took part in the Flying Schedule both days, while the Catalina flew on the Saturday only, due to other commitments elsewhere.

The Lockheed Super Constellation, from the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society, was a hit with more than 1000 visitors taking the opportunity to check out the vintage interior, which was once used to ferry military personnel around the world.

Within the vintage fleet of Museum aircraft, visitors were able to observe the Tiger Moth, Wirraway, Ryan, Hudson, Boomerang, Spitfire Mk VIII, Vampire and Meteor perform flying displays over the weekend. There was also appreciated involvement from Gordon Glynn’s Cessna 0-1, Steve Death’s Trojan, Doug Hamilton’s Harvard and Tom Moon’s Extra 300S.

We thank our visitors for coming along to see the spectacular aircraft displays and we ask that you start planning for the 19 & 20 May weekend, which is set to be big… watch this space…

Engineering

The Canberra Bomber’s fuel tank is being refitted after repairs. We are planning to fly the Canberra over the May Flying Weekend as part of the vintage trio of jets.

Check out the Canberra’s picture on the photo gallery page, along with recent photos from the April Flying Weekend.

The Easter Flying Weekend is growing closer, and plans are in place to attract many visiting aircraft to the event on Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th April.

From the Museum’s fleet, we expect to fly the Spitfires, Tiger Moth, Wirraway, Hudson, Ryan, Cessna 0-2A, Boomerang, Meteor and Vampire. We are also expecting aircraft to visit from the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society (HARS). They are bringing their Super Constellation (Connie) and Lockheed Neptune, with the possible inclusion of their PBY Catalina.

Visitors will be given the opportunity to explore the interior of Lockheed Super Constellation VH-EAG, while it is here in Temora. The Connie and Neptune will also have a slot in the flying programme on both Saturday and Sunday.

The aircraft has an interesting restoration history, which began back in 1991. HARS started the extensive restoration project on the Connie when it was based at the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona. Due to the Connie being overseas at this time, the restoration project proved to be a costly and time-consuming venture. All work was carried out by volunteers, who would travel to Tucson to systematically overhaul the aircraft. Five years later, on the 3rd of February 1996, the Constellation arrived in Sydney after an incident free crossing of the Pacific, taking 39.5 hours flying time. It’s amazing to note that 16,000 volunteered man-hours were expended on the Constellation restoration project, with $800,000 cash raised, and approximately $1.2 million being raised in sponsorship services to fund it.

Temora Aviation Museum is currently organising our upcoming flying weekend on 17 & 18 February 2007. At this stage we are excited to announce that the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society (HARS) will be bringing the Super Constellation and the PBY Catalina. The Connie will be open for our visitors to go on board for a tour of this magnificent machine. Most of the Museum’s aircraft are also expected to take to the air.

Meanwhile, in the Engineering Hangar, the Temora Aviation Museum engineers have been working on the Hudson and Dragonfly VH-XVA. The Hudson has just undergone an airworthiness directive, which entails pulling the propellers apart and inspecting the blades for corrosion. Once the inspection is complete the blades are reassembled into the hubs and the propellers are installed onto the engines.

Dragonfly VH-XVA is in the final stages of its annual inspection, which has included an eight-year structural integrity program inspection. This program was developed in Australia as part of the ageing aircraft programs that are currently carried out on many aircraft worldwide. The program helps to ensure the continued airworthiness for the Museum’s Dragonflys now that they are no longer in mainstream service. As part of the inspection, the Dragonfly had its left-hand engine removed for repair, which will be refitted next week. It is planned that the aircraft will be ready to fly on our February Flying Weekend.

Six Royal Australian Air Force F/A-18 Hornets from 77 Squadron at Williamtown descended upon the Temora Aerodrome to participate in the record breaking flying days on August 5 & 6. Two F/A-18’s arrived on Friday with another four aircraft arriving straight into their spectacular four ship formation display on Saturday. Squadron Leader Paul Simmons demonstrated the awesome power, noise, speed and manoeuvrability of this modern frontline fighter/attack aircraft as he pulled over 7g and reached speeds of 550 knots during a solo display. One Hornet was kept on static display over the entire weekend so that all visitors had an opportunity to view it up close. 77 Squadron personnel were on hand to answer any questions while defence recruiting answered questions regarding career opportunities in Australia’s Defence Forces. On the way to Kalgoorlie Captain Bob De La Hunty and the HARS team overflew the Museum providing visitors with an opportunity to see the Constellation in flight. Two HARS C47 aircraft landed at Temora participating in the show. The co-pilot in one of the C47’s was Museum Volunteer Fred Kell. Chief of Air Force Air Marshall Geoff Shepherd AO, was able to join us over the weekend and had this to say: “What a great day. I was pleased to have been able to attend and see our RAAF F/A-18 aircraft first hand in their support of the Museum’s Flying Weekend.” Also contributing to the weekend flying programme was a Boomerang, Col Pay’s Kittyhawk and a Mustang. Ted Sly, ex-WWII Spitfire pilot and author, launched the new edition of his book The Luck of the Draw and was autographing copies, which were on sale over the weekend. The Luck of the Draw highlights Ted’s life during and after World War II and features many photos from Ted’s personal collection of Australian Spitfire Operations. This book is available from our online gift shop. The Museum also hosted members from the Sydney Jet Flyers Association NSW, who exhibited a number of their turbine-powered scaled model jets for display. These jets attracted much interest over the weekend, and were a small example of a much larger contingency of model jets that will be flying at Temora on the weekend of 7 & 8 October. An update of this will be published closer to the event.