Despite recent economic woes, the Warbird scene in Australia has continued along mostly unaffected, according to Warbird owner and Restorer Judy Pay. Today, James Carter and myself traveled down to Judy’s base at Tyabb, the Old Aeroplane Company, and interviewed her on camera for our documentary, tentatively entitled “Broken Wings”. She gave us some amazing insight into her life’s work which has culminated in some pretty amazing stories, legendary flying experiences and some even more amazing aircraft sitting in her hanger. One of which is the recently completed Curtiss P-40F “Warhawk” Kittyhawk. It’s the only airworthy example of it’s kind in the world today and can only be described as a magnificent restoration success.

Getting away at the crack of dawn, James and I drove about an hour from Melbourne or so to Tyabb. Meeting up with aircraft mechanic Andrew Harvey, we were taken around the Old Aeroplane Companies Hanger for a quick survey. The interior was stuffed full of the most amazing aircraft. Among the list of fully restored aircraft were two Harvard trainers, a Tiger Moth, a CAC built Mustang, a north American T-28 Trojan, and the Curtiss P-40F Kittyhawk. Several other aircraft were in various stages of restoration. The most notable was a German WWII fiesler Storch (Stork) which was back to it’s bare skeletal state. Locating a suitable spot in front of the P-40F, we set up some track and dolly and an EX1 camera. Additional footage was shot on a 5DMKII which will be used as overlays later in the edit stage. It’s been a while since we have been able to film content for the documentary but it’s amazing how quickly everything comes back to mind. Judy’s recount of the P40′s recovery/restoration process, her opinions on the “buried” Spitfire Aircraft in Queensland and general look into the business of Warbirds was fascinating. James and I would like to thank Judy Pay and her Crew for making themselves available to the documentary. They welcomed us with open arms.

Both James and myself can’t wait to share it with you. Already, we have edited some of the footage into an existing sequence of our 40 minute edit and it really ads to the story. If you would like to learn more about “Broken Wings” please visit our official website at www.brokenwings.com.au or follow @spitfiresearch on twitter. Hopefully we will be traveling back down to Tyabb to film aerial footage of the P-40 flying. Until then …