VH-OJA to ALBION PARK - Discussion and Photo Thread
 

Sunday 8th March

Qantas will retire the VH-OJA - which flew non-stop from London to Sydney in 1989 - after almost 25 years of service and will gift it to the Historical Aviation Restoration Society (HARS) to preserve its place in aviation history.

Aircraft landing: 7.50am
Press conference: 8.30am

Illawarra Regional Airport (Albion Park, Rail, NSW)

Captain Greg Matthews, Senior Training Captain, 747
Captain Bob De La Hunty, President & Chief Pilot, HARS
Captain David Massy-Greene (the now retired Qantas Captain who operated the historic flight from London to Sydney in 1989)

The delivery schedule and timing is weather dependent and Albion Park Airport perimeter roads will be subject to closures on the day.

I assume the plan is a runway 16 landing, with closures at the Princes/Illawarra Hwy intersection and Tongarra Rd at the other end?

Does anyone know where it'll be parked? Having never been there, I'm guessing from a google map that the HARS facility is the one just northeast of the runways intersection? And that OJA will park along to the east of HARS?

The council website has the parking location in the council meetings section.

http://www.shellharbour.nsw.gov.au/f...ary2015web.pdf

Yes, that is HARS. An old pic on Google.

I assume that location won't impact future RPT possibilities (not that they seem likely...).

And does the cafe/restaurant still operate in the "terminal" building. I wonder if OJA will be a fillip for that lease?

Thanks Nigel & Kent. So looks to be going next to the 'terminal' apron then?

As an aside, what's the largest aircraft that can be parked on the 'terminal' apron? Could a Dash 8 still be parked there like when QF was operating to Wollongong?

Q300 is the largest aircraft that has provided an RPT service. The mockup in the application doesn't appear to provide a lot of clearance, but surely that has been considered.

The terminal building burnt down in May 2013 and hasn't been re-built as far as I know. I believe Council is holding onto the funds in case they do decide to re-develop it.

http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/s...own-in-flames/

Cheers Nigel. I haven't visited in a while and may have forgotten about the fire....