Desert Flower
3rd Jun 2010, 23:03
Decommissioned flying doctor plane gets new home
By Kristy Sexton-McGrath
Posted Tue Jun 1, 2010 8:00am AEST
Map: Mareeba 4880 An old Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) plane that has been without a home for six months will be moved from Cairns to Mareeba in far north Queensland this weekend.
The Queen Air plane, as well as other equipment, was part of a display at the old RFDS office in Cairns up until six months ago.
The office was moved to the Cairns airport.
The aircraft will now be moved to the Mareeba Warbirds complex.
Mike Spaulding from the warbirds complex says it will move the plane and memorabilia by road up the Kuranda Range on Sunday morning to its new home at the complex.
"The RFDS is part of our heritage and our history in the north here - not only for the Cairns and Tablelands are but in particular for people in outback areas. It was the difference between life and death," he said.
Mr Spaulding says the plane will be moved on the back of a truck in the early hours of the morning.
"We've taken off the outer wings of the aeroplane and it'll sit on a low loader. We're going to set out at dawn on Sunday morning, obviously at that time of the day there's not so much traffic on the Kuranda range. A couple of hours later, we should be there at Mareeba Airport," he said.
Hmmm - the outer wings huh? ;)
DF.
By Kristy Sexton-McGrath
Posted Tue Jun 1, 2010 8:00am AEST
Map: Mareeba 4880 An old Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) plane that has been without a home for six months will be moved from Cairns to Mareeba in far north Queensland this weekend.
The Queen Air plane, as well as other equipment, was part of a display at the old RFDS office in Cairns up until six months ago.
The office was moved to the Cairns airport.
The aircraft will now be moved to the Mareeba Warbirds complex.
Mike Spaulding from the warbirds complex says it will move the plane and memorabilia by road up the Kuranda Range on Sunday morning to its new home at the complex.
"The RFDS is part of our heritage and our history in the north here - not only for the Cairns and Tablelands are but in particular for people in outback areas. It was the difference between life and death," he said.
Mr Spaulding says the plane will be moved on the back of a truck in the early hours of the morning.
"We've taken off the outer wings of the aeroplane and it'll sit on a low loader. We're going to set out at dawn on Sunday morning, obviously at that time of the day there's not so much traffic on the Kuranda range. A couple of hours later, we should be there at Mareeba Airport," he said.
Hmmm - the outer wings huh? ;)
DF.