Can anyone refresh my memory? I remember as a young teenager back in 1979 visiting the airfield at Hal Far, Malta. At that time it was desolate apart from some building works. I do remember 3 wrecks though. From recollection these were two McDonell Douglas props parked in a farmers chicken field and something similar to a Beechcraft on the apron? Can anyone help me further or does anyone have any photo’s?
In addition what happened to the Lockheed Connie near Luqa Airport that was converted into a Cafe? Is it still there?
Many Thanks.
By: merlin70 - 13th August 2004 at 10:23
I took a photo of the Connie in 1996. A year or so later vandals got at her. a/c destroyed by fire.
By: XV148 - 13th August 2004 at 08:15
I was there stayng at RAF Hal Far with the ATC during the last year the RAF where there in 1977. There were tons of DC3s and stuff there then, have some parts somewhere!! Also we did some tours around a burnt Victor, does anyone know which Victor this might be ?
By: FLY.BUY - 13th August 2004 at 08:00
Thanks
Mant thanks to everyone who replied.
By: dhfan - 12th August 2004 at 05:30
The Connie may have nominally been at Safi but was actually much nearer Luqa in a built-up area. Despite being a small island, Safi is out in the sticks. Our holiday rep, who was Maltese, was staggered when we said we’d been to Safi. She said would have had to ask directions on how to get there. We did 400 miles in a week, which takes some doing on an island that size!
There were several Caribou(s, x?) at Hal Far in 1988 when we were there.
There was an article in one of the mags a few years back about activities at Hal Far. IIRC, there is/was a company there overhauling radial engines.
By: teal'c - 10th August 2004 at 22:07
I am sorry to report that the 2 dc3’s and the dc6 were burned at the fire school at halfar in the late 1990’s and the last dc3 was saved by the guys at ta qali for the museum. unfortunatley the connie befel the same thng when it was vandalised, the only thing to survive were the 4 engines and props.
I was there in 1984 and they had 6 dc3’s together with a few carabou’s that were used for the oil fields in libya. Ahh happy days
By: Flood - 10th August 2004 at 20:26
European Wrecks and Relics (1989) has DC-6A N90703 (c/n 42856, previously G-ARFU & JY-ACF), at Hal Far from about 2/77. All the others mentioned (three DC-3s) arrived in 1987.
The Connie is/was on the former RAF Safi site, and was a former Biafra gun runner marked 5T-TAF (c/n 4618), arriving on 16/2/68, was impounded for having a false registration (5T-TAF was a Cessna 206, in fact) whilst carrying 113 Constellation tyres needed for the on-going airlift (flying from Lisbon to Malta, where it should have gone back to Lisbon in order to avoid paying high Portugese export taxes, as its load would then technically have been in transit from Malta!), and eventually sold at auction on 10/1/73 to become a bar/restaurant.
EW&R1 is a sort of ‘catch-up’ volume, with information on WFU aircraft at specific locations back into the early 70s. Additional info from Shadows, Airlift and Airwar in Biafra and Nigeria 1967-1970 by Michael I Draper.
Flood.™
By: Puukka - 10th August 2004 at 18:53
Hello FLY.BUY
The only what I can say is, that I visited Malta seven times the last years and I was looking for interesting planes but couldn´t see one exept in the aviation museum. I guess, they donated all interesting wrecks to the museum. The Luqa airport seemes to be in restored condition. They also build up a lot of new stuff like big hotels and yacht ports. The busses will soon be all of modern kind and I guess, they´ll finally tear down the ruins of the royal opera house.
My first visit was in 1997 and since then, Malta changed a lot. Seems, they take the EU membership serious.
Cheers,
Herbert
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August 10, 2004 at 8:27 am