January 31 
Back in December last year an aircraft visiting Archerfield was "wheel clamped" by the airport owner/operator for apparent non-payment of airport fees

At the time of publication this aircraft still remains impounded and to the way of thinking at the News Desk there leaves little doubt that as there has been some time involved since the fence went up - about 6 weeks - the 'legal eagles' are now involved

 January 25 
Ireland's 'no-frills' airline Ryanair - who began operations in the Irish Republic back in 1985 as a non-government sponsored enterprise - has placed the largest single firm order for a Boeing passenger aircraft ever made

The pioneering low air fare airline is to acquire up to 150 new Boeing 737 800 series aircraft over the next 8 years

It's all smiles at the Boeing factory to-day

 January 25
About 40 years ago there was this OZ based P-51D Mustang that tried to have a Rolls Royce Dart turbine engine installed to replace the Merlin - a popular conversion at the time

The OZ conversion failed to gain approval here and after spending a number of years groundbound at Canberra in the '70's, the aircraft finally ended up at Caboolture airport where it has been faithfully restored to it's original "piston powered" condition

The aircraft is now flying again

 January 24 
A Qantas Boeing 737 jet on a charter with 124 passengers on board was forced to make an emergency landing at the Curtin RAAF base in West OZ

Media reports indicate the captain was forced to shut down one of the engines of the B737 twin-jet en-route from Argyle to Perth and emergency procedures were activated at the military base to accommodate the unexpected visitor


A right hand tyre blew out on the emergency landing