Historical Aircraft Restoration Society Inc

WINGS OVER ILLAWARRA 2012 A HUGE SUCCESS

John Martin — Tue, 08 May 2012 09:38:35 +0000

Wings Over Illawarra held on Sunday 6th May 2012 at Illawarra Regional Airport was attended by a huge crowd and was presented by Shellharbour Council, and supported by HARS, the SAAA and the Illawarra Light Rail Museum. We proudly acknowledge our sponsors who included the Shell company of Australia, QBE Insurance Ltd, Westonprint, Microsolve, Destination NSW, Shellharbour Tourism, 96.5 Wave FM, Prime 7 television, the Illawarra Mercury Newspaper, Rotary Clubs district 9750 and McDonalds Illawarra Restaurants. Wings featured the HARS collection, aircraft from the Royal Australian Air Force including the Roulettes, and performances by helicopters of the Royal Australian Navy together with the Australian Army Red Berets, together with many rare warbirds warbirds including Mustang, Kittyhawk, Vampire and two Wirraways including the Temora Aviation Museum’s example plus their Hudson and F8 Meteor. Also on display were working farm engines and vintage cars and motorcycles from many clubs, historic military vehicles and also vintage buses providing a transport loop. Wings was preceded by a Saturday fly-in of DeHavilland historic types and a 200 seat Saturday night dinner “Swing Into Wings” with music by the Belmore Basin Jazz Band and each table hosted by a pilot or Wings Committee member. Wings Over Illawarra 2012 is supporting Greenacres Disability Services as the selected beneficiary of the Airshow.

HARS CATALINA PERFORMS LANDINGS ON LAKE ILLAWARRA THURSDAY 3 MAY

John Martin — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 04:58:37 +0000

During the lead up to Wings Over Illawarra , the HARS Catalina performed spectacular touch and go water landings on Lake Illawarra on Thursday 3rd May. Large and appreciative crowds of people watched the landings from the Lake foreshores and the event featured on WIN news the same night.

HARS FLYPASTS AT ANZAC DAY MARCHES

John Martin — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 23:59:48 +0000

Aircraft from the HARS fleet performed flypasts at ANZAC day marches in Shellharbour, Kiama Wollongong and the main march in Sydney this year. The three aircraft which displayed in line astern formation at the Sydney march were our “Black Cat” Catalina VH PBZ, ex WW2 RAAF C47 Dakota VH EAF and ex RAAF Caribou A4-210 VH VBA . For the Illawarra flypasts they were joined by VH EAG Connie which in an earlier life was operated by the USAF.

Our photo taken from the left rear blister of Catalina VH PBZ shows C47 Dakota VH EAF and Caribou 210 VH VBA over Sydney during the event.

CONNIE ROUND TRIP OVERFLIES LORD HOWE ISLAND

John Martin — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 01:51:19 +0000

On Saturday 14 April our Super Constellation, Connie, completed a round trip members flight from Wollongong to overfly Lord Howe Island and return. The trip took 5 1/2 hours there and back including 1/2 hour around the Island and Balls Pyramid. Our photo by HARS member Dick Simpson shows Connie preparing for take off on the day at our Illawarra Regional Airport base.

CONNIE AT MERIMBULA CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS

John Martin — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 06:04:48 +0000

Our Lockheed Super Constellation airliner, Connie, flew to the NSW South Coast restort town of Merimbula on Saturday 7th April as part of the town’s Centenary Celebrations. Connie was open to the public both on Saturday, and again on Sunday 8th, and returned to Albion Park on the Sunday afternoon.