[i30premy]

HARS? Historic Aircraft Restoration Society

Spent the recent weekend down in Kiama in a B&B, very enjoyable. No activites raelly planned & ended up stopping off @ Illawarra Airfield where HARS has 2 restoration hangers & a donated "City of Canberra" 747 outside.

Not a museum as expected but working restotaion hangers. Visitors are taken through the hangers on 90? min tours by volunteers & need to wear safety vests & get a safety talk before heading off.

Surprisingly, some of the stories on how the aircraft were aquired were very interesting. Even had a civvy aircraft that had been seized by the AFP for drug running. Been sitting in hanger for close to 2 years, HARS haven't been given any indication on what is to happen to this aircraft & HARS would like to keep it, but can't get an answer from AFP as to what they want done. Can't be sold as no log books - apparently without these, clearance to fly is not allowed.

Everyone is looking forward to having John Travolta's 707 join the HARS fleet as it has been gifted to them.

Tour finished off with a walk though the 747.
They do have 747 "experience" tours which are done by active & ex airline crew, these need to be booked & cost a bit more ($100-$175) than our $15 admission.

 A visit to HARS is highly reccomended if ever you are in the vicinity.

[Surferdude]

Looks interesting.
There's a great air museum in Darwin which I went through a couple of years back.
And my daughter and I visited the QANTAS museum in Longreach which included an extra cost visit to sit in the cockpit and a wing walk. THAT was awesome.
Our local Caloundra Air Museum is pretty interesting too. They have a day every so often when they run up some of the engines and cockpit days (popular with the kids).
Both Caloundra and Darwin have F111s on display.
I think there's only about a half dozen of them around.

[Dazzler]

Thanks for that Neville (some hidden gems around)

Did the Ansett Museum in Victoria a while back, small but interesting.

[i30premy]

Wing Walk - the 1st question I asked, unfortuantely they have plans to do them but only early days yet.
F111 - also had one of these in the hanger, that's one big aircraft.
Conny is normally there but was away getting a new paint job. Had a replica "Sothern Cross" that they were restoring.

Other aircraft they had there - Catalina, DC3, Grumman Tracker & others. They were all packed in together so not a good opportunity to get some decent pics.

[Dazzler]

Wing Walk - the 1st question I asked, unfortuantely they have plans to do them but only early days yet.
F111 - also had one of these in the hanger, that's one big aircraft.
Conny is normally there but was away getting a new paint job. Had a replica "Sothern Cross" that they were restoring.

Other aircraft they had there - Catalina, DC3, Grumman Tracker & others. They were all packed in together so not a good opportunity to get some decent pics.

Yes, that's a problem with Aircraft museums. Same at the Bull Creek RAAFA Museum adjacent to where my Dad lives...