Moorabbin Air Museum

[Keith Webb]

Or to give it the correct name, Australian National Aviation Museum... has an excellent collection of aircraft, I spotted this great diorama with the standard C15A model next to the very real and very impressive Beaufighter.

[Keith Webb]

Here's the 1/32 model:



And the 1:1 version as seen through the restored front section of one of two Beauforts held in the collection:



Neither Beaufort is complete although they have enough parts to eventually build two static examples.

[motto]

Looks as though they have some dedicated and talented people down there.
I wish them well.

David

[Keith Webb]

They sure do, although the Beaufort cockpit was restored by Ralph Cusack and his team.
One of the things they will be doing more of is firing up some of the engines which will be worth seeing.

[Mike K]

I rode my push bike there more than once in the 1960's as a kid . The main attraction was a complete static display Mustang , they had a walkway rigged up over a wing so visitors could peek inside the cockpit . At the time there were a few relics of aircraft at the museum, nothing to rave about , but it was a beginning .

Around 1970 they had a airshow there , during the parachute jump display, a chute became tangled and the whole crowd watched in horror as he plummeted to earth . He managed to unbuckle the chute and he deployed his backup chute about 500 feet above the ground ..it was a close thing . The commentator on the loudspeakers at the show was Brian Naylor the channel 7 TV newsreader who later perished in the black Saturday bushfires .

Mike

[Tony Wheeler]

Originally Posted by Mike Kelly

Around 1970 they had a airshow there , during the parachute jump display, a chute became tangled and the whole crowd watched in horror as he plummeted to earth .

I remember going to that airshow with my father, I think Keith came too. I don't recall the parachute incident but I clearly remember seeing Mustang VH-IVI fly that day, it was the first warbird I'd seen flying and I was quite excited. I remember taking lots of photos with my cheap plastic lens Kodak camera, which was a hand-me-down from my sister, and when I got the B&W prints back from the chemist the Mustang was just a small blurry smudge! Sadly VH-IVI crashed a few years later with the loss of the pilot/owner.

[Keith Webb]

Originally Posted by Tony Wheeler

I remember going to that airshow with my father, I think Keith came too. I don't recall the parachute incident but I clearly remember seeing Mustang VH-IVI fly that day, it was the first warbird I'd seen flying and I was quite excited. I remember taking lots of photos with my cheap plastic lens Kodak camera, which was a hand-me-down from my sister, and when I got the B&W prints back from the chemist the Mustang was just a small blurry smudge! Sadly VH-IVI crashed a few years later with the loss of the pilot/owner.

I don't remember the parachutist either, maybe the excitement of the Mustang erased that memory. I do remember seeing the Firefly on the flight line and being disappointed it wasn't started up as promised. The other interesting to me aircraft was the Brain and Brown Anson which also flew. The Mustang seemed incredibly loud to my young ears.
I took a few pictures with my 2 1/4 square Welmy 6 camera and could not wait for the photos to be ready at the chemist, riding my bike there a couple of times a day.
The Mustang you mentioned Mike was of course the famous Fleetwings garage machine which had been rescued by Dick Hourigan and restored by Judy Pay's Old Aeroplane Company. As a 15 year old I could never have imagined as I stood intently peering into the cockpit I would one day fly in the back seat of this same aircraft.
Dick had to 'rescue' this aircraft again from the Museum back in the late 60s or early 70s by craning it over the fence and it was stored for some time in Mildura.

[Scrivo18]

Back in 2005 There was a air show in Swanhill and I was lucky enough to be the first passenger up in the 2 seater Mustang and showed the pilot around the area :-)

WOW will never forget that as long as I live

Tim

[Mike K]

Originally Posted by Keith Webb

I don't remember the parachutist either, maybe the excitement of the Mustang erased that memory. I do remember seeing the Firefly on the flight line and being disappointed it wasn't started up as promised. The other interesting to me aircraft was the Brain and Brown Anson which also flew. The Mustang seemed incredibly loud to my young ears.
I took a few pictures with my 2 1/4 square Welmy 6 camera and could not wait for the photos to be ready at the chemist, riding my bike there a couple of times a day.
The Mustang you mentioned Mike was of course the famous Fleetwings garage machine which had been rescued by Dick Hourigan and restored by Judy Pay's Old Aeroplane Company. As a 15 year old I could never have imagined as I stood intently peering into the cockpit I would one day fly in the back seat of this same aircraft.
Dick had to 'rescue' this aircraft again from the Museum back in the late 60s or early 70s by craning it over the fence and it was stored for some time in Mildura.

Funny how we were all there that day and now we are on this medium many years later !

The Anson I do recall . For the airshow, they organized a low atlitude pylon race around the airfield perimeter and the Anson was last by a long way . That Anson was a Bass Strait veteran, it flew over to King Island on a regular basis , it was modified to meet safety standards - the wing spars being upgraded and it was re engined too.

I went with a friend . A few days before the show, I actually rang the airport to confirm the P51 would be flying .

[Keith Webb]

Originally Posted by Mike Kelly

Funny how we were all there that day and now we are on this medium many years later !

The Anson I do recall . For the airshow, they organized a low atlitude pylon race around the airfield perimeter and the Anson was last by a long way . That Anson was a Bass Strait veteran, it flew over to King Island on a regular basis , it was modified to meet safety standards - the wing spars being upgraded and it was re engined too.

I went with a friend . A few days before the show, I actually rang the airport to confirm the P51 would be flying .

It's amazing how things come together in a place like this.

The Anson I believe was re-sparred with Canadian spars which were metal. EDIT: It was fitted with Avro Anson XIX parts:

"Work commenced in 1961, using a spare Avro XIX metal mainplane
and tailplane purchased from RAAF stores in Adelaide, left over from the two Avro XIXs used by the
RAAF at Woomera, VM374 & VM375. Avro XIX style windows and the fitting of Cheetah XV
engines completed the modification. The conversion was finally finished and the highly modified "new"
VH-BAF took to the air at Moorabbin in May 1963."

Here's how it looked around the time we saw it...

[IMGhttp://www.edcoatescollection.com/ac1/austb/VH-BAF5.jpg[/IMG]
Link with more info.

And how it looks now, after a very authentic restoration by New Zealander Bill Reid.


Link

This pic was taken by Gavin Conroy who was sitting in front of me in the Caribou last November.

[Keith Webb]

This is more like how it looked when we saw it.

[Mike K]

The kid who went to the airshow with me was more interested in eating hot dogs than looking at the aeroplanes .We rode our bikes there as we lived in Sandringham , not too far away .

That same kids father was a licensed surveyor and he flew over to King Island many times in that same Anson for work reasons . I think it scared the crap out of him every time he flew in it .

I do recall somebody at that show doing stunt flying a Cessna of all things, he threw it all over the sky and it handled it well .

One of the VMVC members ( unnamed ) was in the ATC during WW2 , his mob, pimple faced youths , all went went down to Sale or Bairnsdale two years running for their annual flight . The first time he went up in a Airspeed Oxford which went OK, the next trip was in a Anson and he said it was vibrating so badly they all thought it was about to fall apart . White faces and ground kissing stuff .

Mike

[Tony Wheeler]

Originally Posted by Keith Webb

I do remember seeing the Firefly on the flight line and being disappointed it wasn't started up as promised.

It's all coming back to me now Keith, I remember buying an Airfix Firefly after seeing the one at Moorabbin. It was one of my favourite models, partly because the 5 blade prop spun really well, which made for good photos when we used to string them up with cotton and blow on the prop!