Thanks
Ops for highlighting our fundraising drive for our hangar complex to house the HARS collection.
Jim was kind enough to give us space and correctly portay the Connie as our flagship. She is, however, one of some 22 aircraft we intend to house in the 3-hangar & admin centre at Illawarra Regional Airport.
Relative merit of aircraft in the collection is a worthy subject for debate, and your view has been put before, albeit perhaps not quite so publicly. In a country which so rightly supports the underdog, the restoration of the Connie and recovery to Oz is a worthy part of Aussie triumph over adversity. The Government must think so as it saw fit to award HARS President an OAM for leading the effort [and not only the Connie!]
The wider community in the Illawarra Region are highly supportive of our efforts, for which we are grateful. We're also grateful for the man hours supplied to keep these aircraft flying. The fact that in a lot of cases these hours are supplied by highly-skilled retirees in a voluntary organisation doesn't deserve the denigration you would appear to heap upon their efforts.
We would welcome your support in formulation and furtherance of our business plan by welcoming you to membership. This would also give you access to our financial information which might readily disclose the economics of operating these aircraft. You might like to balance this with other operators and their relative success or failure.
Like the Aussie cricketers, we're out there plugging away to put runs on the board. Please help by getting on board !
G'day
