setterJeepman
Thanks for that
I don’t think as i say we ever got any aircraft from the UK with the dihedral tail etc
As you say the Mk21 was in some ways a refined example
The armament fitted was varied a fair bit in service I believe
Regards
John p
setterI also liked Dark Blue World – some great shots in that as well
Regards
John p
setterHi James
I pretty much agree with everything you say
Perhaps one day when viewed objectively the truth will be seen a little more as it was and that would be a lot more like the book than some here would like …..
Perhaps in the future things may not be as rosey for Winston either — been reading up a lot on him lately – still he had good PR and we all know what that can do …..
regards
John P
setterHi Ron
John, the Mosquito is news to me. I know we have a few bits and pieces but nothing substantial that could be described as “a Mosquito”. I have to think that it was another organisation. (Considering that several years back some fellow imported a Dove into the country under our name I suppose anything is possible!)
Well as I went through the Caboolture mob recently and they have a Narromine 4 Blade Merlin engine on display perhaps I got confused – whoever it was got a pretty complete set of metal and a wing – All the cockpit and instruments went with it. I was at the time negoiating to buy her and was a bit nonplussed when she went but thought she went to a good home!!! Be nice to find all that stuff now !!
As for the Venturas, we are always interested but we went down this road several years ago and we found that the owners have a very well defined wants list for which the Venturas are trading stock. Please let me know if circumstances have changed.
Not the SAAFM ones but the two plus parts at Kruger wildlife park – just sitting there really looking for new homes – The SAAFM ones will I imagine come up with more reasonable conditions eventually as they are not being mobbed with Swap offers ?
On the subject of government support (or lack thereof) for QAM I must state for the record that state and local governments have always been very helpful but the Commonwealth govt just won’t lift a finger to help. Despite 30 years in the game I’m still at a loss to understand why it has to be that way.
As a Director in the State Government I am please to hear we are helping
As a former Senior executive in the Commonwealth Govt I am not surprised !!!
What about that Coffee / Drink !
Kindest regards
john P
setterHi Ant
Sorry
I’m not up on such things – can’t they just take the aircraft cut it up , chuck it in drums and build the plate onto the P39 — Just joking
Thanks for letting me know – I appreciate it
Kindest regards
John p
setterHi James and Dave
Yes it was well looked after here most of the time starting with Sid Marshall at Bankstown where it was under cover – then a few years outside at the Oaks near Sydney until sold to Col Pay who had it undercover the whole time he had it. I don’t know why Col never restored her to fly – he certainly intended to do so and it was quite feesable and she would have been quite original given her condition – right down to the original engine – I believe the work done in NZ didn’t require the replacement of much structure and I hope the old girl doesn’t suffer too much “Restoration ” in the US.
What is done is done but this aircraft and it’s export would make a great reference case for future exports of historic aircraft. There are in any country a core of airframes as we have discussed befiore (Not many) that have an ascendancy as historic artifacts and should be prohibited from export. This is one of those airframes and her perilous travels are a disgrace to our system and indicative of how robust our proceedures aren’t.
Anyway at least she isn’t at Reno with A4 wings and an R3350 up front!
Kindest regards
John P
setterHi Ron
It’s a cracking museum – especially considering the Government contribution you haven’t had!
I try to push your cause in all forums when I get the chance – let me know next time you are over Paddo way and we can have a coffee
As an aside many years ago I was living at Narromine and a Mosquito on a property called the Angle was collected by your museum and I have never heard any more about it – do you recall this and if so does the museum still have some Mossie remains ?
PS I still have access to the South African Venturas and parts if you are interested.
Regards
John P
setterG-ACOB ?as an alternative
Just a thought
John P
setterA20 shots
Hi Guys
Here are links to my Webshots pages – if you go to the A20 Wangarratta page in http://community.webshots.com/user/setter125 and the first two folder in http://community.webshots.com/user/setter126007 you will see a few of the A20s being restored – particularly nice shots of Big Nig
Regards
John P
setterHi Stieglitz
Yes I do and I will post one of her flying when I find them
Regards
John P
setterYak 11
Just so you know – I happen to like and admire greatly the team that built these and I am happy they will all fly – A little humor never hurt anybody
In any case the post was about a very nice , significant and Historic aircraft – the last complete aircraft to have attacked the Australian continent – It should never have left Aus but at least it hasn’t been butchered to make it fly.
Regards
john p
setterDo you think it Could get on the UK register ?
Regards
John p
setterHi a few articles from the time to show what was achieved in gathering all the Beau stuff
Regards
John P
setterHi Dave
John,
Do you have any info/pictures/websites…. on the current disposition of all remaining Boston/Havoc remnants left over from the two rebuilds ?
Eg: Where is ‘Big Nig’ ?
Cheers……..
A deal has been done and all the remaining A20 parts from the restorations of the two Bostons / Havoc were /are being transfered to Wangarratta from Point Cook. 4 are to be made airworthy and Two of these will go to the US. “Big Nig ” as we speak sits on the floor of the restoration facility at Wangarratta in fantastic condition and lots of pics are up on my Webshots account which I will post tonight as I am at work at the moment and forget. “BigNig” will be staying as Murray Griffiths personal aircraft and be a flyer.
The first set of A20 wings are in the Jigs as well.
It is rummored that some of the RAAF stuff went to the UK and US restorations but this has never been confirmed – There were remains from 10 aircraft involved although not all of these were complete.
Regards
John P
setterHi Folks
The Beaufighter recovery – history of events in Australia is very interesting and Aussie Beaus account for the majority of the breeds survivors worldwide. In this post I don’t purport to be the world authority or anything like it. I have just had a long held interest in the breed. Firstly so we all understand there are two broad categories of Beaus which served in Australia. Those coded A8- ** were Australian constructed Mk 21s and those coded A19-** were imported UK early series machines. The easy way to tell was the MK21s had the nose bulge for the compass and a dihedral horizontal stabilizer – Nearly all the imported aircraft in the A19 series had no nose bulge and a flat horizontal stabilizer.
Aussie Beau survivors / recoveries include but are not limited to
A19-43 / T5049 a Mk 1c which was in the care of Moorabbin Air Museum but which was later traded to the USAFM and rebuilt partly by HARS with parts from other Australian recoveries Inc A8-371
A19-144 Now at Duxford and discussed at length here
A19-148 Also discussed here
A8 186 at Camden Museum of Aviation in NSW – almost complete – lacks a few minor panels
A8 -328 at Moorabbin Aircraft Museum in Melbourne Complete
A8 – ** A “kitset” of parts held by HARS / Rob G at Bankstown – currently moribund whilst other projects are attended to
A8 -** Another kitset as described by Mark Pilkington and with the RAAFM – I would really love to see the manifest of Beau holdings there.
As I said in an earlier post I believe a lot of other Mk21 material and the partial remains of A19-148 made their way to the UK along with A19-144 at Duxford.
It would be nice if Mark P or HARS could reveal how much and what was included in the MK 1 rebuild for USAFM – I have not seen much coverage on this aircraft and what was involved – it would be very interesting.
At the time of the HARS recoveries a lot of material including I think 3 or 4 more fuselages were recovered as well as the unused Centre section mentioned earlier – from memory one of the fuselages had never been used either.
I personally think it would be great to gather all of this stuff together in much the same way as the Bostons/Havocs at Wangaratta and build them all together and avoid splitting the resources in this way you would get a static for the RAAFM, a flyer for HARS, buy the Skysport example and restore it as a flyer and sell it and the AWM would obviously have an interest in the Leftovers which could be assembled into a representative Mk21 for it’s collection. The East Fortune example could also be outsourced to this facility to speed up their process. I am not going to be territorial here and say this should happen in Aus but that would make sense. The mass rebuilding process could also make use of the fantastic resident intellectual property with the Duxford Crew and Ralph Cussaks Beaufort crew here in Brisbane who has a lot of experience with Beaus and Beauforts as well. Perhaps a couple of Beauforts could be done as well for Moorabbin and RAAFM?
Tonight I will edit this and put in some old articles and some pics I took when this was all happening in the 1980s – 4 Beaufighters in a shed was a real sight!
As I said this post is not definitive and Mark P and others please feel free to jump in as well
Regards
John P
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