Air Queensland.blogspot had the pleasure to attend Old Station Fly-in & Heritage Show 2016 at Old Station Farm near Raglan, Central Queensland on Saturday, May 28 and pleased to inform the event was a huge success.
As always, the Creed family and army of volunteers (air marshals, stall holders, emergency services etc) went above and beyond to ensure the safety and comfort of visitors with a variety of stalls including food, drinks and amenities readily available complimented by displays of heritage machinery, vintage tractor pulling and truck shows while not forget Australia's very own Top Gun, Matt Hall, put on a number of spectacular displays.
After sunset, overnighting aviators and campers were treated to a live band, bonfire and a selection of raffles while a jumping-castle provided amusement for the children.
As part one of a yet to be determined number of posts, we begin taking a closer look at the some of the more prominate aircraft that attended the fly-in and will be followed by an overall review of the event.
An aircraft not sighted in previous years of the Old Station Fly-in was amateur built Fokker DR.1 VH-FXP. Information indicates this magnificent little tri-winged beauty was assembled in the United States in 1978 and powered by an Avco Lycoming O-320-A2B, 4-cylinder engine.
Seemingly becoming a regular at Old Station Fly-in's is Grumman American Aviation Corporation TBM-3E Avenger VH-MML.
Operated by Paul Bennet Airshows, VH-MML was built in 1943 and powered by a Curtiss-Wright Corporation R-2600, 14-cylinder, radial engine.
Of interest, the Grumman TBF Avenger (designated TBM for aircraft assembled by General Motors) was a torpedo bomber developed for the United States Navy (USN) and Marine Corps however was also used by a number of allied naval forces including the Royal Navy (RN), Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) and Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN).
Another Paul Bennet Airshows crowd wowser was Wolf Pitts Pro VH-PVB.
This spectacular little buzz box is a purpose built aerobatic plane and was assembled in the United States in 2008. Providing ample power to allow this Wolf Pitts Pro to perform the way it does is an equally purpose built Textron-Lycoming AEIO-540-EXP, 6-cylinder aerobatic engine.
