Just can't get any quiet around here.

The buggers are doing it to me again.
Fiddly lathe job making up an oversize firing pin for a 1912 SHT. 22, fiddly and fine cuts, lots of measuring and the odd bit of swearing..............

There must be an Airshow on soon, or the boys are just bored, but the sky is being torn apart by Kittyhawks, Mustangs, Spitfires and anything else that can make me drop what I'm doing and reach for the bino's.

Even spotted a new looking twin engined job.........Boston or Beaufighter? will have a look later, jeez I wish I was Forty years younger, always was a sucker for the sound of a screaming Merlin or Packard, just don't get much work done though.Attachment 50222Attachment 50223
A few of Pay's collection from the Warbirds Museum.
.....................and I still haven't finished that firing pin.

Lucky you muffer. They all seem to look the same to me but they do sound good. Them spitfires must be the ones they found in Burma!

Did they ever recover any more of the Mustangs that were parked up at Maralingra. There were a load of Pommy RE's working there while I was in Oz, closing down the bomb sites and they uncovered lots of planes and armour

I'm envious. All I ever hear or see around here these days are modern metal.

Any chance the twin you spotted was the NZ-based Mosquito? Merlin-powered?

Me, I'm all about the round engines. I'd rather listen to a Sea Fury than a Spit (sexy as Spitfires are).

Luckey indeed. I get jazzed just watching the videos on youtube. The sound of these planes is music. Lovely music.

No Rangerover, I'd recognise a Mosquito straight away, recovered the remnants of one when I wore a green suit.
Not just the fancy ones here, theres a couple of Harvards, Winjeels, Oscar, a few jets from the Viete era, plus some other odds and sods.
Back before Col Paye was Killed, the Airshows were absolutely phenominal.
They bring back memories of my father carting me around the big shows when I was a kid.

Let us know what the strange bird is once you've identified it muffett. I'm keen to hear.

As for airshows., I sure miss the days when the aircraft flew on the deck, and the viewing was up close to the runway. Nothing like watching, and hearing, a Vulcan do a slow curving pass with bay doors open across show centre at what seemed like 50 feet. Also enjoyed the show where the announcer directed everyone's attention out across the field, so that the CF-101 Voodoo could come bolting overhead from behind at a huge rate of knots - silently, it seemed, until he lit the afterburners right overhead.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by muffett.2008

Not just the fancy ones here, theres a couple of Harvards, Winjeels, Oscar...

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An Oscar ain't fancy???!!! It may be the only Ki-43 flying.

Hi JM, have you cleaned all the plane bits out of your shed yet?
I watched that Oscar turn up on a flatbed, sit out in the weather for years before it finally got a start on.
I guess with Col back in those days priorities kept changing, I remember when his son pancaked his recently rebuilt Kittyhawk, things were turmoil in the hangers for awhile.
I ran a Tech Support Squadron then, organised a couple of detuned Merlin (meteor) engines out of Centurion tanks for him, it was a good training exercise and good PR at the same time.

The unknown turned out to be a Hudson,Attachment 50592
from the Temora Museum.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by muffett.2008

Hi JM, have you cleaned all the plane bits out of your shed yet?

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No. Not much progress there recently. Always a drama elsewhere.

The Wanaka Spitfire came back to roost to Australia apparently it was part of the RAAF in its career any ideas where it is now stationed, I tried to see it at Wanaka some years ago but they had sold it back to Aus and only had the Hurri there.

I finally caught up with a spit over there and was lucky enough for my then 9 y/o boy to get a sit in the cockpit but warned him not to touch the landing gear handle, the chap there also stated they had 2 brand new complete Merlins stored, said you would have no trouble selling those.
The last Spit I saw for sale I think went for $2 Million

Hudsons....... I worked with an old lady, Agnes, now well retired who came grew up as a teenage girl around the Solway Firth in Cumberland. They used to watch the Hudsons flying out to cover the Atlantic, around the northern tip of Northern Ireland and Eire (before Churchill told them that we WOULD be flying across it, in a corridor designated by him..... and shoot one down if you dare.....). So many of them used to struggle back short of fuel and ditch in the Solway Firth that they called it Hudson Bay. Her dad was a fisherman/lobsterman(?) and they used special tractors that could go for miles out into the bay without sinking in the mud. They would go out to rescue the crews and try to salvage what they coulkd before the planes eventually sank into the sands. They occasionally come to the surface after the storms.

Have I digressed enough yet..........

My next door neighbor used to fly Hudson's out of that very area for sub patrol...he's now 102 and still tells me about it when I get the chance to chat with him about it. He got a DFC for sinking a sub...

Got the answer to it all, it seems this year is the Centenary of Military Aircraft in OZ, so they are putting on a bit of a show.

...............and that firing pin job finally got finished, tried it out today, never missed a beat.
Attachment 50788Attachment 50789

Another safe queen back in action.