Aircraft at Watts Bridge, Queensland, Australia

I wonder why it is that so many old British built aeroplanes seem to have migrated to New Zealand over the past half century. Maybe one day I’ll go there and see for myself one day!

It always seems to be the other way from here in Australia, aircraft seem to be going somewhere else.

I think in reality credit is often due to a small number of far sighted individuals who laid the ground work back in the mid 1970’s.

Where I live in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia the vintage aeroplane group (QVAG) was founded to arrest the departure of aircraft from the East Coast of Australia to Southern Australia (Victoria) and more importantly going overseas. One individual in particular stands out, Graham Orphan (Now publisher and editor of “Classic Wings Downunder”). Graham, was in his late teens in the mid 1970’s however had the foresight at that tender age to ge instrumental in the formation of QVAG. That in turn put the few rebuilders in the area in regualr contact with each other and gave them a focus and encouragement that was needed. People in that early group included Nick and Greg Chalinor, John Sinclair, Noel Branch, Mathew Denning, Pat Harrington and Ernie Clarke all of whom went on to complete restoration projects, in some cases many restoration projects.

QVAG still exists and has grown in size and influence. The East Coast of Australia has grown from a backwater of the vintage aircraft scene to what is arguably the major area of activity (and the great climate helped).

The threats to the future of vintage aviation in the area are the lack of affordable rebuild projects. This in turn has meant that young people have limited opportunity to become involved. The projects that are available now are ones similar to my Percival Proctor – complex, expensive and requiring a high degree of skill both in project management and technical areas such as wood working.

What is the future? Graham Orphan told me years ago when we were discussing this question, that he saw replicas of WW1 aircraft as being the answer. I don’t have any answers, maybe the answer lies in the new generation of ultralight aircraft and that these will all eventually age and require rebuilding (but they just don’t seem to have that same charisma as aircraft from the early days of aviation).

What do others see as the ways of attracting young people to the restoration/rebuilding side of vintage aviation?

cheers

New Zealand

I wonder why it is that so many old British built aeroplanes seem to have migrated to New Zealand over the past half century. Maybe one day I’ll go there and see for myself one day!

Do any of the Australian pre-war Miles aeroplanes ever put in an appearance at the QVAG fly-ins at Watts Bridge? If so, I’d love to see some shots of them.

I did have a Miles Messenger VH-BJH in my hangar at Watts Bridge for about a year. The messenger attended a number of Queensland Vintage Aeroplane Group events. If I can find a photo I will put it up here (could take a while).

The Messenger was rebuilt in Brisbane by a friend of mine, Bill Thompsen, from a basket case. I was fortunate enough to fly it into Archerfield Aerodrome (Brisbane, Queensland) once and had a number of rides in it as well.

Unfortunately for Queenslanders and fortunately for our NZ friends, in 2004, it was exported to New Zealand where it is registered ZK-CMM. Bill also owned a Auster, which by a strange series of events now is hangered in my hangar where the Messenger was parked (although the Auster has changed owners an number of times since Bill owned it.)

cheers

Miles

Do any of the Australian pre-war Miles aeroplanes ever put in an appearance at the QVAG fly-ins at Watts Bridge? If so, I’d love to see some shots of them.

Watts Bridge Airfield – Google Earth

Thought I would post a google map link so those of you who are interested can see what is it like from the air. The sat image must be old because there are quite a number of new buildings not shown in the view.

http://maps.google.com/maps/mm?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=leeming&ie=UTF8&t=k&ll=-27.096153,152.461095&spn=0.02724,0.039911&z=15

The third photo is Chipmunk VH-BBK, Does anyone know its military history?

C1/0226
Royal Air Force (RAF) as WD287
Royal Malaysian Air Force as FM1022
9M-ANI
Singapore Flying Club 9V-BAE (http://www.cnapg.org/zchipmunkc10226.htm#DHC Chipmunk.)
VH-BBK
http://www.cnapg.org/chipmunk.htm

Watts Bridge 2007

Anybody get good pics aircraft at Watts Bridge 2007? The weather was dreadful on the Saturday, however iwas buet on the Sunday of the fly-in and a great number of aircraft arrived for the day. I took some photos and will post some of the more interesting, however I like to see what others may have taken.

cheers

twin pin spares

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=284160

Fortunately we see some very nice formation flights at Watts Bridge. There is a group from Caboolture Airfield who have been practicing for a while and when the make their ‘Arrival’ at a fly-in it is normally in Formation, same for the guys from Caloundra Airfield.

Here is a photo of the Caboolture group.

The Queensland Vintage Aeroplane Group (QVAG) holds regular smaller fly-ins at Watts Bridge. This Chipmunk VH-RSP (was WG357) attended one of them in May 2006. There quite a number of DH Chipmunks in the area and it is not unusual to have 4-5 on the field. There is a formation team that practices at Caboolture airfield and it includes a number of Chipmunks.

In the second photo 5 Chipmunks are visible, I can’t remember the rego of the one in the front. Can anyone help me out?

The third photo is Chipmunk VH-BBK, Does anyone know its military history?

This Lockheed 12A belonges to a friend of mine, Ross Smith. Ross lives at Roleston in Central Queensland. He has rebuild several vintage aeroplanes including a Boeing Stearman, and a Tiger Moth. He also owns and flies a Cessna C185 – of which is very proud. The Lockheed is a more recent requisition and Ross has done a lot of work on it to get it up to his usual high standard.

This photo was taken at the QVAG Watts Bridge 2006 fly-in.

This YAK VH-KGU was a first of type for the fly-in. Maybe someone can remind me of the model.

1976 YAK-18T, Serial Number (C/N): 6201111

http://www.airport-data.com/aircraft/photo/076171.html

Mustang VH-MFT at the QVAG fly-in at Watts Bridge 2006. Based at Caboolture airfield (about 15 minutes by Mustang to the East of Watts). This aircraft did LOTs of flights, so we heard the great sound of the Merlin over the weekend.

The RAAF 38 Sqn Carboui’s are very regular visitors to Watts Bridge, they do night landing practice there under full blackout conditions. Very impressive to be on the field on a moonless night and stand next to the runway and have them loom out of the dark and land in front of you. This photo also taken at the QVAG 2006 Watts Bridge Fly-in.

Russian aircraft a-plenty at the QVAG 2006 Watts Bridge fly-in. They are very impressive aircraft This YAK VH-KGU was a first of type for the fly-in. Maybe someone can remind me of the model.

I think both may have been bought recently by a well known british classic aviation company as a spares source for their own aircraft.

Hi RamboII,
Interesting. Can you provide any details to that?
Cheers

A aircraft well-known to me, its mine! Tiger Moth VH-JRS formally A17-300 when it was in the RAAF. Photographed at the 2006 QVAG Watts Bridge Fly-in.

The Chippy, also at the same fly-in is VH-ZCX (RAF WD480). There were a number of DH Chipmunks at the fly-in.

The CAC Winjeel VH-IOX belongs to Bill McMonagle formally A85-438. Bill and his Winjeel have attended pretty much every QVAG Watts Bridge Fly-in.

This Twin Pioneer attended several QVAG Watts Bridge Fly-ins during the 90’s. It was one of a pair operated by a company at the Coolangatta Airport (Gold Coast, Queensland). Its rego is VH-EVB. I would be interested to find out where they ended up.

I think both may have been bought recently by a well known british classic aviation company as a spares source for their own aircraft.

This Twin Pioneer attended several QVAG Watts Bridge Fly-ins during the 90’s. It was one of a pair operated by a company at the Coolangatta Airport (Gold Coast, Queensland). Its rego is VH-EVB. I would be interested to find out where they ended up.

Not photographed at Watts Bridge, but at a private airstrip about 60 miles north and near a town called Gympie in Queensland. The photo was taken in the late 1970’s. The rego is VH-ACR and at the time it was owned by George Sutherland. I think it is now at Caboolture airfield (Queensland) and may being restored.

Aaaah Moth Minors…
A couple of shots of BFP in 1979, with the late Myles Robertson and Stan Smith, before it went across to the U.S. in 1984? Ian Gemmel was the guy in the front seat – training captain for Air NZ at the time.

Yes the DH-94 Moth Minor has nice lines. I have tracked down the rego of the one I put up in an earlier posting. It is VH-AGO.

NZ is a bit of a bolt-hole for the Minor. There is currently only one flying, ZK-ALN 94001 ex G-AFRD VH-AAQ ZK-AHI NZ596 which has been pretty continuously in use since 1939 and is currently based at Dairy Flat, just north of Auckland.
However there are at least six others stored/I’m thinking about it/under rebuild.

Nice sequence of photos there, keep them coming.