Meet the latest Fokker jet

A former Qantas Link Fokker jet will be open for visitor inspection during a busy Tarmac Days display at HARS Aviation Museum on Friday, Saturday and Sunday 11 to 13 September.

After flying in recently from Perth to its new home with HARS at Shellharbour Airport the Fokker 100 jet will be open for visitors to walk through during the Tarmac Days.

HARS President and Chief Pilot Bob De La Hunty said in addition the museum volunteers would be flying one of their former RAAF transport Caribou aircraft on Saturday while the fast L39 Albatros jet will fly on each day.

On Saturday crew will be flying 898, the immaculately restored former RAN “Huey” Iroquois UH-1B helicopter.

Restoration is continuing with teams working on both former RAAF Vampire jet trainers on Friday and Saturday, potentially with an engine run.

Mr De La Hunty said the display on the tarmac in front of Hangar 1 will be not only the Fokker jet but also a Convair 440, the DC-4 aircraft which took part in the Berlin Airlift during its previous life with the US Air Force, the airworthy AP-3C maritime patrol Lockheed Orion, a Canberra bomber and a former RAAF Avon Sabre jet fighter.

“Inside our large Hangar 1 visitors will see the preparations underway to install the wings on the former John Travolta 707,” he said.

The engineering team at HARS, including many who worked on 707s back in their Qantas days, will be boosted with the confirmed arrival of the US team in 7 October to put it all back together.

Mr De La Hunty highlighted work since the remainder of this historic former Qantas 707B jet arrived two months ago.

“Make no mistake, this is a monumental engineering challenge, and one that will stand as an Australian aviation achievement even greater than had we been able to fly to Australia as originally anticipated,” he said.

“Also on view is the former RAAF swing-wing F111C with a special platform to allow visitors to look into the two-crew cockpit.   They can also climb into the big Wessex (Wally) former RAN helicopter.

“In Hangar 3 visitors can go aboard the Super Constellation “Connie“ and see our engineers working on an engine change . There are also lots of other aircraft to see in and around Hangar 3 including work on our Catalina and Southern Cross.”

September Tarmac Days talk

The September Tarmac Day speaker is retired airline pilot Stephen Shaw.

His talk will highlight his general aviation operations in remote Northern Territory and his regional airline flying experiences on his journey to becoming an airline captain based in Hong Kong.

The talk is scheduled for 11 am on Saturday 12 September upstairs in the Australian Aviation Hall of Fame area and is included in entry price to HARS Aviation Museum on the day.

Visitor information

While open for guided tours every day except Christmas Day, the monthly Tarmac Days allow the volunteers at HARS Aviation Museum to highlight some of their almost 60 aircraft of significance to Australia’s aviation heritage.

The largely undercover HARS Aviation Museum is open from 9.30 to 3.30 daily. All visitors will be accompanied by a HARS tour guide. The last tour starts at 2pm. It is located at Shellharbour Airport, just off the old Princes Highway at Albion Park Rail and a short walk from the railway station.

The museum’s acclaimed Café Connie is open for barista coffee plus hot and cold food at very reasonable prices … so when visiting HARS Aviation Museum you can make a meal of it.

Visitor details at www.hars.org.au