Flightpath - May 2018

80 |FLIGHTPATH

Scone warbirds return

T

he Bengalla Warbirds over Scone air-

showwasheldonSunday,25March,

in the Upper Hunter Region of New

SouthWales.Hostedbylocalwar-

bird business Vintage Fighter Restora-

tions, it featured one of the most impres-

sive warbird line-ups assembled in quite

sometime.Thehugecrowdwastreatedto

displaysfeaturingaircraftrepresenting

theGreatWareratopresentdayciviland

military aviation. The absolute highlights

were,asexpected,theW.W.IImachines

with a Spitfire, Kittyhawk, Wirraway and

AvengerjoinedbytwoCAC-builtMus-

tangsandapairofHarvards.However,the

aircraft that particularly drew the crowd’s

attention were the Hawker Hurricane and

FW190.Itwasthefirsttimethetwofight-

ershadflowntogetherforapublicdisplay

in Australia. Internationally, such a for-

mationpairingisrarelyseen.Thetwoair-

craftlookedabsolutelyspectacularbut,

sadly, they remained on the ground due to

persistent crosswinds on the Sunday.

Other notable aircraft on show were a

Beech18,DHC-4Caribou,DHC-2Beaver,

L-39Albatros,T-28TrojanandaRAAF

Hawk127whichflewaspiritedsolodis-

play.Theairshoworganisersaretobe

commended for a well-run and organised

airshow.Itiswonderfultoseearegular

Scone airshow back on the calendar.

Dave Soderstrom

TheFW190andHawkerHurricane,seen

hereonapre-showpracticelight,were

the star attractions.[Mark Jessop]

Blue Sky Airways’ DHC-2 Beaver VH-CXS.[Dave Soderstrom]

L-39 Albatros VH-OIT tucks the gear away.[Darren ‘Motty’ Mottram]