Deals on Wheels #466

Sitting outside
Bankstown airport,
Clein’s K200 looks
almost small compared
to the big Mirage
T
here are a couple of really good
reasons why I don’t get out to do many
oversize shoots these days. Number
one, because photographing them
requires a special sort of skill set. Moving
objects, at night, in poorly lit areas, yeah
it’s tough. When you do jag some good
shots it’s worth it, but there’s always a lot
of shots just not sharp enough, or a little
too dark. It is a real challenge. That’s not
the main reason though.
The main reason is that you have to be
up really, really early! Or sometimes really,
really late. However, when you find out a
classic fighter jet is going to be doing a lowlevel
pass through the streets of Sydney, well
you just can’t pass that up.
Boy am I glad I sacrificed my much-needed
beauty sleep earlier this year and stayed up
for this shoot though. Nearly 12 months of
planning and preparation had gone into
this and, finally, the Clein Group’s Kenworth
K200 left Bankstown Airport with a huge
piece of RAAF history in tow – a 1968
Dassault Mirage III Jet Fighter.
Lucky for me the first folk I ran into while
we awaited the 9pm departure time for
the Mirage were the delightful John and
Anne Parker. John and Anne run Warbirds
Online and are heavily invested in a lot of
major airplane restoration projects. Along
with the Hunter Fighter Collection board
they played an integral part in this major
restoration and relocation project.
Once the mighty Mirage is restored it
will spend the next 10 years on display
at the soon-to-be-opened Scone Warbird
Attraction, obviously in Scone. When the
museum is completed and opens at the
end of 2021 there will be around 16 historic
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