October 12, 2017
Anyone in Kingaroy on Wednesday morning would have heard the roar as a large RAAF plane came in to land at Kingaroy Airport.
On board was a crew of four personnel, including Flight Lieutenant Oliver Kersnovski who was returning to his home town for a brief visit.
Flt Lieut Kersnovski will be the guest speaker at Kingaroy State High School’s annual awards night on Thursday and when his superiors learned about this, they scheduled a training flight for his C-27J Spartan airlifter to bring him back home.
It also provided an opportunity for Kingaroy State High School students and members of the public to inspect the aircraft, the first of its kind to land at Kingaroy Airport.
The C-27Js are still new to the RAAF, with the first being delivered in 2015 and only going into full-time service last year.
They are replacements for the venerable Caribou which were retired out of the air fleet in 2009 – after 45 years’ service – and complement the well-known C-130J Hercules and C-17A Globemaster IIIs.
Flt Lieut Kersnovski said the great advantage of the C-27J was that it could land on airstrips that could not handle a Hercules, something which was particularly important when dealing with humanitarian work or disaster relief.
They can undertake a wide range of missions, carrying either 34 troops, 21 stretcher patients, or 5000kg of cargo.
Cargo and paratroopers can also be dropped from a height of about 1000 feet.
At the moment, the C-27Js are based at Richmond RAAF Base, near Sydney, but they will soon be relocating to Queensland.
The C-27J flew out of Kingaroy on Wednesday afternoon, leaving Flt Lieut Kersnovski behind.
After circling town, it began its journey back to base.
Its next mission is in a few days … somewhere out on the Nullabor Plain.
- Related article: Oliver’s Making A Big Entrance
Just a delight, this aircraft is completely different from the aircraft which this one replaces. Walking in and around the plane brought back some great thoughts. Equally, it was a delight to see the interest displayed by the school children who inspected the aircraft and chatted with the crew. There is nothing preventing any one of those students from becoming a member of the RAAF and Flight Crew of this and other aircraft of the RAAF inventory. The visit was great. Thanks.