Connie Takes to the Skies
'CONNIE' Super Constellation — By benmorgan on February 19, 2010 at 9:50 pmFollowing an extensive 10,000 man hour annual inspection, Connie was rolled out Friday, 19th February, ready for her first flight in 6 months. Departing from HARS home base at Albion Park, NSW, Connie flew two successful sorties – both flawless – with the HARS engineering giving her the all thumbs up.
Connie is now the only flying Super Constellation in the world, a credit to the many dedicated HARS members who contribute to her maintenance and upkeep. With Wings Over Illawarra now just one week away (28th February) HARS members are now hard at work, cleaning and polishing.
Congratulations to the HARS Engineering and Flight Crews on her return to flight – well done!
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4 Comments
Congrats to the entire team and a big thank you for all your efforts to keep the Connie flying. She is a beauty and will always be the most graceful of all airplanes. Since I won’t be able to visit her in person I do hope that you guys will take lots of videos of the girl inside and out and post it here.
Happy Flying and always three green.
Sunny
I get all choocked up when I see The Pictures of your Connie.
I am 70 years old and flew in US navys willy victors (Super Connies0
in Air early Warning Squadron VW11 out of Argenita NEwfoundland In 1959-61. We flew from Argentia to Ladges Airforce base in the
Azores and back again. 16 hour flights with double crews (27)
Filled up with 8500 gallon of aviv gas. 80 percent of our take offs
and landings ground contol . Had a 5500 ft runway. In Argentina
we were fogged in most of the time.Our squadron had 18 planes and
100 Men and Officers. Our plane captains (pilots were Lt Cmdr or
Above. So we were loaded with Brass. I flew as radioman.
Ilove the connies. One of our birds is at Air Force Museum in
Rantoul , Il. It is not flyabble , But a crew has had it repainted
and we had a reunion their of all Navey Squadrons that Flew
750 showed up in 2003
Wonderfull job. I am from Portugal but i’m passionate about all sort of old aircrafts and my dream is to participate in restorations. That dream probably will never be possible so I follow your Restoration Society and your website. Congratulations.
Nuno.
Guys,
I watched over the years all of the labour of love work that you did on restoring CONNIE and getting her back to OZ. I have never seen her fly but have continued to admire the pictures and updates of her on various websites. In 1955 as a 5 yo I flew with my father and sister on a Super Constellation from Ancon in Ecuador to the USA. Over the years (I am now 60 yo) I still fondly recall my flight back in 1955 on what in my mind is the most beautiful and graceful aeroplanes ever to take to the skies. I am now planning a visit down to Albion to hopefully see her once more grace the skies. Well done to all of you. A job well done. What I would give to go up in her once more.