QAM Open Cockpit Day
The Queensland Air Museum has a wide range of planes and really interesting displays.
One weekend a year they have their open cockpit day. It's a chance to clamber aboard an old DC-3 airliner and other aircraft like the Westland Wessex copter, but the best bit is you can get in the cockpits of some of jets and one of the Spitfires. Was my second visit to the museum and my first open cockpit day.
I jumped in one of the Hawker Hunter jets and the Spitfire (the later Vc model). The Hunter's cockpit was absolutely tiny, really wrapping itself around you with toggle switches and gauges absolutely everywhere. I'm sitting with my shoulders hunched up because it just felt so small.
The Spitfire by comparision felt roomy with lots of dials, wheels and levers. It was fantastic had the feel of a vintage radio set.
But it's got me stuffed how Douglas Bader got in and out of the thing though - difficult enough with two working legs! I had the family in tow so didn't have the chance to get into the Canberra, Meteor or Sea Venom or the other jet fighters that were available.
You couldn't get into my two favourite planes at the museum, the Fairey Gannet and the Sabre. I don't think they have their pits. The Gannet was a very large carrier plane for anti-submarine warfare with big contra-rotating double four-bladed propellers.The bomb bay could carry two torpedoes and the aircraft was used with the HMAS Melbourne. It is a very big, ugly but interesting aircraft, that I'm glad I've had the chance to see. To see just how much work the museum did to restore the plane, check out the pre-restoration picture on this page.
The Sabre at the museum isn't gleaming, but it's still cool, sort of like a '57 Chevy but with a big jet engine and guns. [I've since read on the Australian Aviation Artists Site that this particular aircraft crashed twice before being blown up as target practice, so no wonder it's not shiny!]
There was also a display by the ADF with a Navy Seahawk on display out the back. I threw my reluctant son into the cockpit of the Seahawk just so I could stay and have a play. We were a little dissappointed to learn from the very helpful Navy aviator that the dangerous looking red trigger on the stick didn't actually unleash a torrent of hot metal death, but was in fact the push to talk switch for the radio. We pushed it several times anyway. I resisted the urge to hum Ride Of The Valkyries.
The Seahawk had a bloody huge glareshield that seemed to obscure a lot of the view out the front and seemed to be very unhelpful if you were planning to land on a pitching deck of a frigate. I was told this was because the cockpit displays were older versions that didn't handle the glare well at all.
There were also three Navy Squirrel copters from 723 Squadron, two of which did a pretty cool aerial display.
The State Government is planning on developing the land the museum is on (bastards!!) and there's no clear future for the museum, I'm hoping that is some time off and we get the opportunity to to it again next year.
One weekend a year they have their open cockpit day. It's a chance to clamber aboard an old DC-3 airliner and other aircraft like the Westland Wessex copter, but the best bit is you can get in the cockpits of some of jets and one of the Spitfires. Was my second visit to the museum and my first open cockpit day.
I jumped in one of the Hawker Hunter jets and the Spitfire (the later Vc model). The Hunter's cockpit was absolutely tiny, really wrapping itself around you with toggle switches and gauges absolutely everywhere. I'm sitting with my shoulders hunched up because it just felt so small.
The Spitfire by comparision felt roomy with lots of dials, wheels and levers. It was fantastic had the feel of a vintage radio set.
But it's got me stuffed how Douglas Bader got in and out of the thing though - difficult enough with two working legs! I had the family in tow so didn't have the chance to get into the Canberra, Meteor or Sea Venom or the other jet fighters that were available.
You couldn't get into my two favourite planes at the museum, the Fairey Gannet and the Sabre. I don't think they have their pits. The Gannet was a very large carrier plane for anti-submarine warfare with big contra-rotating double four-bladed propellers.The bomb bay could carry two torpedoes and the aircraft was used with the HMAS Melbourne. It is a very big, ugly but interesting aircraft, that I'm glad I've had the chance to see. To see just how much work the museum did to restore the plane, check out the pre-restoration picture on this page.
The Sabre at the museum isn't gleaming, but it's still cool, sort of like a '57 Chevy but with a big jet engine and guns. [I've since read on the Australian Aviation Artists Site that this particular aircraft crashed twice before being blown up as target practice, so no wonder it's not shiny!]
There was also a display by the ADF with a Navy Seahawk on display out the back. I threw my reluctant son into the cockpit of the Seahawk just so I could stay and have a play. We were a little dissappointed to learn from the very helpful Navy aviator that the dangerous looking red trigger on the stick didn't actually unleash a torrent of hot metal death, but was in fact the push to talk switch for the radio. We pushed it several times anyway. I resisted the urge to hum Ride Of The Valkyries.
The Seahawk had a bloody huge glareshield that seemed to obscure a lot of the view out the front and seemed to be very unhelpful if you were planning to land on a pitching deck of a frigate. I was told this was because the cockpit displays were older versions that didn't handle the glare well at all.
There were also three Navy Squirrel copters from 723 Squadron, two of which did a pretty cool aerial display.
The State Government is planning on developing the land the museum is on (bastards!!) and there's no clear future for the museum, I'm hoping that is some time off and we get the opportunity to to it again next year.
posted by Thommo at
10:12 AM
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