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!!!

[Jaryd stock]

I was there on Monday to see the weekly C-17 arrival aswell I parked around the back of the airport I noticed they had been moved since last time i was there, still in same area but lined up in a row and there was some movement but I was to far away to make out what was going on....and pete if your interested the C-17 serial number was 80056 it came from Pago pago and was based at elmendorf in Alaska.

[Peter Agatsiotis]

Cheers Jaryd, yep it left just as I was leaving home (9.30 ish). I parked on the main drag and couldn't see all 3 707's from there.

[Ken D]

Hi guys,

Been all quite this last week or so. I'm sure they will doing power runs on the western apron before departing, so that will be very noticeable for all us locals. Don't worry guys there are a lot of old 707 guys watching this very closely and will report he with any updates so we can all give them a good sent off.

Just hope the USA budget crisis hasn't effected Omega's funding!

Regards

Ken

[Jethro H]

I did read sometime ago on a US business that contractal companies such OARS did have some concerns over further defence budgets in the USA as they rely dependant on the US Defense. OARS I gathered only had a contract with USN. What do they currently operate? I know they only had a couple 707s and a DC10.