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Here is our very own Australian Bug, based at Rollo’s Airfield near Murray Bridge, SA. It is Jabiru 3300 powered and tops out at close to 200ktas.

Some pics from my visit to the CallAir Museum in 2013. Glen Call was my guide.

I built a 1/4 scale R/C Jungmeister from plans. It spun to the ground on about the fourth flight, moved onto ultralights after that heart break.

It was disappointing that Garry was much maligned by some. He produced a design that is exceptionally strong and with a performance envelope as good as and often better than many plastic fantastics even today and that was 11 years ago. I was at his factory a number of times when people would call in & he would stop and show them around and discuss anything they asked about. When things got very busy he had some young people come in for work experience and in the case of the Sierra that hit the Ferris Wheel there were a few issues of holes being drilled in the wrong place etc. That may have been from inexperienced staff and the bits were not replaced so got picked up by ATSB and blown out of all proportion even though they had nothing to do with the incident. Scapegoats are always needed in public situations and they found one. So Garry lost his Factory licence, his Instructor rating and what was left of his faith in the system. The Ferris wheel aircraft was rebuilt and flew again well. It was eventually sold at a significant discounted price due to the history, nothing else. That incident cost Australia one of its most innovative aircraft designers and manufacturers. Garrys first love was Gliding and he is now in one of the best parts of the world to continue this. I am not sure how the structural failure event has changed anything as I have heard nothing since.

Gary's probably gone into hiding, to avoid this God-bothering idiot, below. I've never seen so much religious rubbish posted on one website. http://www.the-testament-of-truth.com/truth/web/gary1.htm

FIDO Fog Investigation and Dispersal Operation (which was sometimes referred to as "Fog Intense Dispersal Operation" or "Fog, Intense Dispersal Of") was a system used for dispersing fog and pea soup fog (dense smog) from an airfield so that aircraft could land safely. The device was developed for British RAF bomber stations, allowing the landing of aircraft returning from raids over Germany in poor visibility by burning fuel in rows on either side of the runway. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fog_Investigation_and_Dispersal_Operation If you watch the film towards the end when the use of FIDO is shown, you see someone put a tag with the drawing of a dog on it beside the name of an airfield where FIDO was available.

I suspect the Jodel in the third pic is unrelated

I scratch built one of these as a scale control line model with a third line throttle control many years ago. Sadly, it never flew but I still have the now very much worse for wear relic that I can't bring myself to part with. All the numbers and decals were hand painted. It's hardly a competition winner but not bad for a 16 year old. Never thought that one day I'd have a pilot's licence and build a real aircraft.

Unless it's an optical illusion, there seems to be a small hinged door on the port side of the front cockpit visible in the yellow one.

And our very own one at Goolwa, albeit stretched.

As a slight thread drift, I have a huge (6ft long) photo adorning my lounge room wall of Sunderland VH-BRF coming into land on the lagoon at Lord Howe Island back in 1974. These old aircraft had quite interesting history's, and VH-BRF was no exception if anyone is interested reading about it in the attached link. https://aussieairliners.org/shortfb/vh-brf/vhbrf.html

That's terrifying!........deep respect for the test pilot/s........

That's a pretty awesome plane. Van's Aircraft is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. More than 13,000 flying now. Van's total performance is a real thing.

Many years ago I saw 3676 at (I think) Goolwa, SA. It took me a while for the blue painted script name to register:- "Proctalgia" When looking for a plane to build I considered the Rebel, but thought it a tad heavy for RaAus rego.

Nev, Wood and fabric may be old fashioned skills BUT they are materials that are better suited to repair than composites and easier than metal... and potentially more 'green' than the fashionable composites. This coming from a middle aged fart who has built and played in all construction methods and I am trending back towards wood and fabric for my last two aircraft and looking at replacing the composite wing on one of mine with replacement in wood n fabric.

Back to the Sierra: years ago I dropped in to Garry’s Taree factory for some industrial espionage- I was looking for design ideas for my wing flaps. Garry is the sort of energetic, Can-Do bloke this country is running short of. He insisted I go for a fly. His son took me up in a Sierra and impressed me with its stability and speed.

Garry was (is?) a member of this forum, and his profile spells his name with 2 R's - Garry.

The A-12 Oxcart was built for the CIA as a single seater and could fly 10,000 feet higher than the SR-71, had a top speed of Mach 3.35 (SR-71 3.2), but a shorter range. Its first flight was April 26 1962 and it was retired 1968 following a catfight with USAF who wanted the glory (the SR-71 flew from 1966 - 1999). The CIA flew the Oxcarts out of Area 51 on Groom Lake. The book Area 51 by Annie Jacobsen describes the early days of the Oxcart reconnaisance of Russia. The aircraft skins were made of Titanium and after a flight remained so hot that several mechanics were badly burned when they started working on them too soon. The Russians used to overfly Area 51 and the mechanics would sit an Oxcart out on the apron and use gas heaters to heat the skin so it would be giving an infra red heat signal when the Russians arrived. The aircraft were retired when the CIA were able to put photographic equipment into satellites and take the same pictures from orbit in the comfort of their offices. This photo of Groome Lake, Nevada shows the long runways across the lake. To the right of the solid line is another, longer runway which curves around to the right giving the pilot a lot more length. Groom Lake is a satellite field of Nellis Air Force Base. I flew a Cherokee over Nellis AFB in 1979 on the way to the Grand Canyon. Groom Lake is not far away, but I didn't know about it then. Will have to go back some time.

The best looking military jet of its time.

The Bantam was designed and built by Max Clear who had his own airfield at Te Kowhai near Hamiltion in NZ. Max was an amazing aviator and I lived not far away and used to watch him doing very good aerobatics in the Pitts he built in the 70s from my veranda on warm Summer evenings. At the peak of production his company Micro Aviation was shipping quite a few to South Africa each month & he had various people helping to build them. I got to fly a few and they were delightful. All of the Bantams I flew were 2 stroke Rotax powered. Sadly Max died of cancer in 2011 and his family were not interested in the business or aviation. The business sold but at the time in 2012 the airfield did not. There were 6 hangars there at the time. Total production before Max's death was 354 Bantams. The airfield was eventually sold to a private consortium and they hold flying events and country fairs etc there. I flew the C172 and Archer in many times & there was always a great welcome, cup of tea & a yarn.

But Nev that was in the days when an air ticket cost a year’s pay.

There is a photo of the fuselage of the first one received in 2004 on the Avspecs website & it is almost unrecognisable. I imagine they just removed all the fittings & completely built a brand new airframe & wings. The photos they have of the new wings and fuselage show impeccable workmanship which is reflected in the videos of the finished product. There is another Mossie that has recently been found in a shed in Mapua near Nelson. The old bloke, John Smith died 6 months ago and he was an avid collector of old military aircraft. He had a P51, Tiger Moth, Vampire, 2 x P40s as well as multiple bits of many different aircraft. The Mossie looks in pretty good nick & is going to be restored and displayed at Omaka as far as I know. It looks like it would easily be able to be restored to flying condition though. Details are HERE

Most of the Coachwood was sourced in North Queensland by forester Ian Gillison, who worked for the Commonwealth Foresty Bureau in Mackay. His sons now live in Yungaburra and near Albury. Many wooden propellors used in WW2 planes were made of North Queensland rainforest timbers. The Venables sawmill in Cairns handled a lot of the timber. My father flew Mosquitoes in 85 Squadron and mostly in night fighters. Also late in the war dropped propaganda pamphlets over France and Italy to demoralise German troops. Very high casualty rate, of the 70 guys he started with only six were left at the end of the war.

Ceratopetalum apetalum, the coachwood, scented satinwood or tarwood, is a medium-sized hardwood tree, straight-growing with smooth, fragrant, greyish bark. It is native to eastern Australia in the central and northern coastal rainforests of New South Wales and southern Queensland, where is often found on poorer quality soils in gullies and creeks and often occurs in almost pure stands. Its timber is light and easily worked. It is used for flooring, furniture and cabinetwork, interior fittings, turnery, gun stocks, wood carving, veneers as well as spars and masts for boats. Courtroom number three of The High Court of Australia is beautifully and completely furnished with coachwood timber. The Genus Ceratopetalum includes C. gummiferum, the New South Wales Christmas bush. (I love that bloody tree.)

always an imposter mingles Red - a bit like this likely lot

Very Nice. Nev

Very much built for a purpose. Nev

For those who have forgotten their Latin, Agricola means "peasant". In the fifties, a lot more people would remember their Latin, so it might not be such an endearing name for an aircraft.

Yes agree, but the gopro footage will earn you kazzilions of dollars and likes on youtube... these are modern times, nobody cares about slip skid AoA, they just want to see brown pants action! So you cannot make the wool too long lest it be seen in the camera view and detach viewer fake news brain cell.

Having nothing much in front of you for a pitch reference makes this sort of thing more difficult to fly than a more normal design. A breezy has a similar problem. Nev

Known as 'Earl's-type forks', I think.

The Junkers Jumo 205D opposed-piston engines were a work of art. The lower crankshaft ran 11° behind the upper crankshaft, so the exhaust ports opened and closed first, allowing proper exhaust scavenging and therefore good fuel economy, along with a clean exhaust. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junkers_Jumo_205

You would have to really need an amphibian to buy one. There was one at Gawler a few years ago, having flown from WA. It sounded strange in the air. This is because there is a big separation of airflow just where the fuse contracts to make way for the pusher prop. The sound of the prop is different when travelling through the shaded zone and the unshaded zone. The result is poor performance and high fuel consumption. I learned about pushers from this... but I have to agree its a good-looking plane.

Here is a screen print of the Wiki page: As you can see, there are a number of variants, as indicated in the text above the photos. all-aero.com lists specs for 6, with different wingspan and area for most, so it depends which model you are referring to. The input form for these profiles only has provision for one set of specs.

All radials don't like revs without manifold pressure. Operated properly the bearing loads are minimal and power balances out centrifugal force.. The four row engine was very complex and I'm sure would have many prohibited RPM ranges. The twin row with 3 power recovery turbines had the best specific fuel consumption figures of any Piston engine of the time. Nev

Jeez, you could grow tomatoes in that greenhouse.

Thanks for that. All very sad that the development of both aircraft stopped due to crashes. The Concorde had a very narrow centre aisle that had me catching hips as I walked to the front of the aircraft. Access to the cockpit was prevented by a barrier but was able to see the most vast array of instruments I have ever seen for the flight engineer. I dont recall any where near such an array in the TUV.

My sincere apologies, gentlemen. No idea how that happened (wearing the wrong glasses probably). Over 1300 profiles and never had a screw-up like that before. All corrected now.

She's a beauty for sure, but MTOW is fairly low at 472.5kg. If it takes 70L of fuel that's around 50kg, leaves only 125kg for pilot, passenger and luggage. Not sure I can fit passenger and luggage in 25kg!

There's a great story below, on the F.13 Junker replica built by Rimowa, the luxury luggage manufacturer. The Rimowa company CEO is a dedicated aviator, and the company aircraft is a Embraer Phenom jet, which the CEO flies himself. The replica aircraft was built from photographic scans of a museum example, and as many of the few original plans they could find. It has been repowered with a 450HP P&W radial, a serious power upgrade over the original 310HP engine. The cockpit is spartan, to say the least, but modern instrumentation brings it up to speed. https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/rimowa-f13

They pop up anywhere. There are lists on sites like Pilotmix, mostly LSA types, some from Wiki lists, such as List_of_military_aircraft_of_the_United_States, often find them while looking for something else. Surprising what pops up when you put an odd enquiry into a search engine. Sometimes you watch a Youtube video, and the playlist down the side, or at the end of a video will throw up something rare or unique.

One of the greatest workhorses of all time, and in the Vietnam War they were of immense value. They're still just as great today, and they are still operating. When we were running the Land Clearing Team, clearing the J, the Chinooks brought us our diesel fuel daily in bladders, because it was impossible to access our Area of Operations with any road tankers. The photo below is our daily delivery. The smoke grenade is SOP, once radio contact was made with the chopper crew, the sapper on the ground would call, "throwing (XXXXXX colour) smoke NOW" - and the chopper crew would respond with smoke colour ID. This technique prevented VC and NVA chopper ambush, as happened with earlier, deficient procedures, when just a smoke grenade was thrown. The VC and NVA didn't take long to wake up early, that throwing a smoke grenade when American choppers were about, was a great way to have your target come right into close range of your RPG's and MG's.

I look at the wheel spats on that thing and wonder.... why?

Garry was not good at documentation but he is a gifted (self taught) aeronautical engineer. His build manual was virtually unintelligible but he was always there to provide answers and advice on the phone. He'd had plans professionally drawn so that is what I used. The kit was mostly lots of aluminium extrusions, rolls of sheet, a few fibreglass bits straight out of the mould & nuts, bolts, rivets etc. He relocated back to his home town Blenheim in NZ & has a hangar at Omaka aerodrome. He had a major structural failure in the motor glider he built at around 11,000 feet & 1 wing folded over the canopy trapping him and his 11 year old niece and jamming the throttle to full power. I believe it was at idle at the time of the incident. He was unable to reach the handle of the ballistic parachute and the aircraft descended nose up at full power on to a scree slope where it eventually stopped and they both escaped without injury.

One of the first projects that Henry Millicer worked on after his arrival in Australia. 1952 saw his submission of the Airtourer design to the competition run by the UK Royal Aero Club to promote a replacement for the Tiger Moth. Quite a contrast, work on the Jindivik by day and design the Airtourer in his spare time!!

The pictured Tomtit based at Old Warden was for a few years during the 1940's owned by Alex Henshaw, who used it as a general runabout. In his autobiography "Sigh for a Merlin" there is a chapter "Requiem for a Tomtit". Its connection with Alex ended abruptly, when after a long day flight testing Spitfires produced at Castle Bromwich he was going to sneak home just beating last light. Unfortunately a new Spitfire had been placed on the grass which was his commonly used take off path. The ensuing Tomtit versus Spitfire collision did a fair amount of damage to both aircraft and pilot. Great to see one still airworthy, and even better having the Henshaw connection, and sharing the Old Warden base with the Mew Gull XF.

They were a little more efficient than that - 1170L of fuel in three tanks in the fuselage. Also they were race engines - required high octane fuel and when given crap fuel blew pistons very easily. And even when not blowing pistons the engines were regularly blowing oil pipes and having other issues ... and then there were the two position variable props and the issues with them ... and the undercarriage that regularly refused to retract. At least the under carriage problem was better than refusing to extend 😉 I have always been fond of the last of the DH88's - named Boomerang - that had a nice silver and blue paint scheme - the original 3 whilst stunning in their all over green/red/black with silver/while/gold stripe were not to my eye as nice as the overall silver with tapering blue on nose/engines. I've seen Grovenors House fly at old warden and from a pilots perspective it looks is scary at takeoff and touchdown - there is no visibility directly ahead, the three point attitude is at the stall (15deg), the highly tapered wings are happy to drop at the stall and it all happens at over 85nts minimum.

You might also say an aluminium plane is made from white clay or a locomotive out of red brown rocks.. Nev

These are quite a nice handling aircraft, apparently. I have a friend in California who owns one. John H. Martin is his name, he ran a big private waste/recycling operation out of Bakersfield. He gifted the business, and apparently, the Broussard as well, to his son Jeff - who is showing Juan Browne around the Broussard, below - and Juan is quite impressed with it. It's the French equivalent of a Beaver. The Martins modified their R-985 in the Broussard with fuel injection, which helps the fuel economy a bit - if "economy" is something you could ever use in the same sentence, as "P&W R-985!