Australia’s Historical Aircraft Restoration Society (HARS) is opening its hangar doors for three days of av-geek heaven this weekend. A parade of historical and not-so-old aircraft will be displayed, with HARS experts on hand to fill in the blanks.
The HARS Museum is located at Shellharbour Airport (WOL) in New South Wales, approximately 90 kilometers (56 miles) south of Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport, and is easily accessible by road or rail. The HARS Tarmac Days will be held from Friday 14th to Sunday 16th of April and operate from 09:30 to 15:30 daily.
More than 60 on display
Apart from the opportunity to walk around a swag of beautifully restored and maintained aircraft, visitors will also witness vintage aircraft engine runs and flights and see how these aircraft are looked after. Part of the HARS experience is the team of engineers and guides who can outline the history of each aircraft and the work that goes into keeping many still airworthy.
The star this weekend is an Iroquois helicopter, Huey 898, which will fly into the display on Saturday at about 10:30. The Bell helicopter is maintained in flying order at the nearby Australian naval base, HMAS Albatross, and previously served with the Royal Australian Navy Fleet Air Arm.
HARS is restoring a full-size replica of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith’s tri-motor Southern Cross to flying condition. Last week the three Jacobs motors were fired up, which was an important step on the pathway to seeing it in the skies again.
Saturday June 10th, will be the 95th anniversary of the original Southern Cross landing in Sydney, just a day after Kingsford Smith and crew flew it from Oakland, California to Brisbane, Australia. The 11,585 kilometers (7,200 miles) trip included stops in Hawaii and Fiji, with a flight time of 83 hours and 38 minutes.
A Lockheed P2V Neptune will conduct engine runs using its combination of jet and radial engines. It is also planned to stage engine runs and some flying of former Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Caribou and Dakota aircraft, plus a fully restored vintage Victa Airtourer and a Cessna 310.
The HARS volunteers will take visitors on a walk through the classic Connie, now the world’s only flying Lockheed Super Constellation. Perhaps an equally nostalgic experience will be a walk through the Qantas Boeing 747-400, named the City of Canberra and carrying registration VH-OJA.
The start of Project Sunrise is here
Many of the HARS team worked with Qantas as pilots, engineers, and cabin crew and have a special affinity to the 747-400 and so whatever a visitor wants to know there will be someone around to provide answers.
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The one at HARS holds a special place in history, as it was the first commercial aircraft to fly nonstop from London to Sydney, achieving the feat in August 1989. The flight took 20 hours and nine minutes to cover the journey of 18,000 kilometers (11,200 miles) with just 23 crew and passengers onboard.
In its career, VH-OJA served Qantas for more than 25 years, operated 13,833 flights, carried more than 4 million passengers and flew nearly 85 million kilometers (52.8 million miles). After retirement, it was headed for a desert boneyard in the US before Qantas had a change of heart and donated it to the HARS Aviation Museum in 2015.
There will be more than 60 aircraft on display, including a submarine-hunting Tracker, a former US Cobra attack helicopter and the chance to sit in the cockpit of a former RAAF swing-wing supersonic F-111.
Have you visited the HARS Aviation Museum? Let us know in the comments
