RAAF B707's sold to Omega Air

[Peter Agatsiotis]

June Aviation Letter has reported that the 3 remaining B707's at RAAF Richmond were sold to Omega Air Inc on 7th April.
New registrations have been allocated as follows:

A20-623 to N623RH
A20-624 to N624RH
A20-629 to N629RH

As they have been in storage for some time they will need to be made airworthy (even if only for the ferry flight) so we will have to wait and see who carries this work out, and when.

36 Sqn who looked after and operated the B707's are now based in Amberley taking care of the C-17's so not sure how this exercise will be carried out (if they are involved).

I was at Richmond on the 6th June and the 3 a/c were still parked near the Control Tower.

[Shayne G]

Wow that is great news! The day they depart, I'm so gonna be there to see them! Hopefully when the day comes, someone in the know will let us know in advance when the good old classics leave

[damien b]

33 SQN actually maintained and operated the 707's, not 36 SQN (they flew the C-130H). Most of them disbursed to other units when the 707's stopped flying and I doubt any personal in the RAAF would be current and authorised to work on the 707 so any work would need to be done by contractors (Omega Air maybe since they brought them).

[Peter Agatsiotis]

My mistake Damien ( I was looking at the current sit.) and as I worked at RIC for 4 years I should have remembered as I met technical guys/gals from all squadrons whilst there. The 33 Sqn guys were always trying to scrounge parts from all over the world to keep the 4 we had flying.

[damien b]

I had a chance to work on them when i was with 486SQN and they maintained the 707's in the 90's but i chose to stay with the C-130's instead - the aircraft certainly pushed the technical skills of many in the later years trying to keep the 707's serviceable and airworthy.

[Danny Rizk]

Looking forward to the departure date!!!

[Peter Agatsiotis]

Good stuff Damien, nice aircraft and whenever they actually flew most of the sqn was out to have a looksy.

I worked in main stores receiving and would prepare all the parts that came in from various suppliers for inspection.
As a spotter I was always interested to see where the 707 parts came from and usually the paperwork would show which a/c the parts came from (usually from a scrap yard in the US with a list of all the parts they removed from that aircraft).
Surprising how many of the a/c I had actually logged many years ago. Good to see they were still useful after retirement.

I very nearly damaged the elevator of one of them when I was backing out of the hangar after delivering a large crate as I hadn't lowered the forklift mast enough and 'missed it by that much!!'

[damien b]

Well you wouldn't have been the first to damage a aircraft with a vehicle if you had hit. I know of several instances that resulted in aircraft being grounded due to vehicle impacts, one for around 12 months.

[Ken D]

For all you 707 fans out there, just let you know that Omega now have tech's working on getting the A/C servicable. Even heard them on the tower freq (irish accent) on Sunday doing tests, so looks like they are working 7 days a week to get them ready. If i hear info re depature dates and times will post here.

[Ken D]

Also you guys might know about this site:

http://www.707.adastron.com/default.htm

If you like 707's have a look, there is some great history about Aussy 707's and what happened to them.