Drage air world Wangaratta

[stevron]

it is with sadness I report the passing of Joe Drage ,the original owner of Drage air world in Wangaratta.

 

Drage Air world was reportly the largest privately owned aviation museum in the Australia . Though Joe was well into his eighties he still showed keen interest in all things aviation, he also retained large personal collection of aviation memorabilia and a small collection of air craft. R.I.P Joe

 

 

[turboplanner]

I'm sorry to hear of Joe's passing. At one stage I used to travel to Albury four or five times a year on business, and always donated the entrance fee to his museum just outside Wodonga.

 

I found him a quirky character and the museum featured so odd aircraft, but I used to drool over the beautiful Beech Staggerwing, and its amazing performance, and there was always something to get your attention.

 

Then came the time when there was a lot of discussion about how his museum could be saved. Wangaratta had a gravel strip right in the town, with one or two regular aircraft, but suddenly a new airfield was built with a long bitumen runway, and even a terminal to cater for RPT. The Drage collection was placed there in an expanded area, and the number of aircraft were increased. So was the number of collector Holdens, which didn't seem to make much sense, but it was a great place to stop for lunch in the Terminal and have a look around Joe's collection.

 

Then one day I called in and although I was sure I was in the Terminal building, there was no restaurant, and no service, just a collection of women spinning wool, who wanted to sell me their product and the museum was closed.

 

The story I was given, was that the Council had decided the airport was going top become a "Freight Hub for the North East" with the museum space being needed for freight depots.

 

These "Freight Hubs" are BS anywhere but in Australia's capital cities for one reason; they can never generate the tonnage needed to operate, so I knew that wasn't going to work.

 

I never found out the end story, but Australia lost one of it's best aircraft collections.

 

 

[Yenn]

thanks for the history. I went to Wodonga around christmas time and it is not near the town at all. The usual distance which requires a taxi ride to get to anywhere, so unless you are a hundred miles away and really must go to the town it is better to drive. Towns with an airstrip close by must benefit from the drop in visitors, another way they can benefit is if they can run a mini bus to pick up visitors. Emu Park has arranged to pick me and friends up and drop us back later, that means we get to spend a bit of money there. Biggenden has its strip near enough for me to go for the hundred dollar coffee at "The Coffee Possy"

 

There must be many others, but in most places the strip is too far away to be of use. If I need to go to Rocky, it is just not worth flying, but is 1.5 hours drive each way.

 

 

[red750]

Deniliquin is 3.94km to the centre of town. (White line connecting black circles.)

 

 

 

[facthunter]

Wangaratta. About 150 kms from Wodonga, and Albury is the airport for Wodonga.

 

. Wang airport is hardly ever very busy but if you want a ride in Kittyhawk or an early Ryan It can be arranged. The council didn't appear to do the right thing by DRAGE. (They rarely do for some reason) It's a good sealed long strip with fuelling facilities. The hangar is now used for all manner of restoring/rebuilding planes most of which are very interesting, rare and exotic, so all is not lost. Joe had a lot of good stuff and I know not where it went. He also rode an early American Excelsior motorcycle and would have owned others I had not seen. Museums don't make money often, and sometimes stuff deteriorates fast because some of it gets lifted and they don't know how to look after it. Nev

 

 

[turboplanner]

it is with sadness I report the passing of Joe Drage ,the original owner of Drage air world in Wangaratta.Drage Air world was reportly the largest privately owned aviation museum in the Australia . Though Joe was well into his eighties he still showed keen interest in all things aviation, he also retained large personal collection of aviation memorabilia and a small collection of air craft. R.I.P Joe

Is Cherokee BUN still flying from Albury.

 

 

[Methusala]

Drage airworld became a facility for restoration of historic and vintage a/c. Saw some fascinating stuff including a scavenged P38 - Lightning.

 

 

[Yenn]

My mistake. When I said Wodonga I meant Wangaratta.

 

 

[tillmanr]

Wangaratta. About 150 kms from Wodonga, and Albury is the airport for Wodonga.. Wang airport is hardly ever very busy but if you want a ride in Kittyhawk or an early Ryan It can be arranged. The council didn't appear to do the right thing by DRAGE. (They rarely do for some reason) It's a good sealed long strip with fuelling facilities. The hangar is now used for all manner of restoring/rebuilding planes most of which are very interesting, rare and exotic, so all is not lost. Joe had a lot of good stuff and I know not where it went. He also rode an early American Excelsior motorcycle and would have owned others I had not seen. Museums don't make money often, and sometimes stuff deteriorates fast because some of it gets lifted and they don't know how to look after it. Nev

Wangaratta is about 30 miles from Albury/Wadonga

 

 

[facthunter]

I think it's a bit more than that but my figure is perhaps a bit high. The aerodromes on the north side of Albury. and the Wang one is south of the town.. 80 kms looks about it. Just checked it by the road distance Nev

 

 

[tillmanr]

I think it's a bit more than that but my figure is perhaps a bit high. The aerodromes on the north side of Albury. and the Wang one is south of the town.. 80 kms looks about it. Just checked it by the road distance Nev

I will split you the difference, 38 miles by Ozrunways on WAC. I drove pass Wang today and great conditions. One a/c doing circuits. Happy flying

 

 

[red750]

Direct point to point 68.37km (42.48 miles)

 

Via Hume Freeway gate to gate 85.05 km (52.58 miles) - Google Earth

 

 

 

 

[Frankus1aust]

I vaguely recall he had an assortment of aircraft and stuff at a property between Wangaratta and Wodonga back in the 70's. A great guy and know a lot about aircraft. He had a gyro plane there as well. Great guy and a real pity about the mess up with the collection. There is talk in Wangaratta about a grant to upgrade the airport for the local tourist market. Might be all talk and I don't know if it is part of a greater regional development plan. Here is a short feature on TV back in the 80's

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHBaYm8RTQY

 

 

[facthunter]

I have flown the blue and yellow Gypsy Moth VH ULM shown there.. I doubt it ever had any association with Smithy or Charles Ulm. It was part of a series of registrations. ULV is another. Nev

 

 

[gibby]

I'm sorry to hear of Joe's passing. At one stage I used to travel to Albury four or five times a year on business, and always donated the entrance fee to his museum just outside Wodonga.I found him a quirky character and the museum featured so odd aircraft, but I used to drool over the beautiful Beech Staggerwing, and its amazing performance, and there was always something to get your attention.

Then came the time when there was a lot of discussion about how his museum could be saved. Wangaratta had a gravel strip right in the town, with one or two regular aircraft, but suddenly a new airfield was built with a long bitumen runway, and even a terminal to cater for RPT. The Drage collection was placed there in an expanded area, and the number of aircraft were increased. So was the number of collector Holdens, which didn't seem to make much sense, but it was a great place to stop for lunch in the Terminal and have a look around Joe's collection.

 

Then one day I called in and although I was sure I was in the Terminal building, there was no restaurant, and no service, just a collection of women spinning wool, who wanted to sell me their product and the museum was closed.

 

The story I was given, was that the Council had decided the airport was going top become a "Freight Hub for the North East" with the museum space being needed for freight depots.

 

These "Freight Hubs" are BS anywhere but in Australia's capital cities for one reason; they can never generate the tonnage needed to operate, so I knew that wasn't going to work.

 

I never found out the end story, but Australia lost one of it's best aircraft collections.

It all started to fall apart when Delux Coachlines went belly up, they used the terminal as a transport hub so there was a constant stream of people visiting which in turn had the restaurant busy. This all came to a stop and visitation to the airworld museum dropped and the councillors at the time decided to sell the collection. Not much happened there for quite a few years then Precision Aerospace (the late Murray Griffiths) leased the hanger from the council and did mostly warbird restorations, after Murray died Doug Hamilton purchased the hanger from council and took over Precision Aerospace, he now restores all sorts of old birds but mainly P40 Kittyhawks. Doug has started to do adventure rides in the P40 or Harvard and has plans to set up a small museum to showcase his collection and the process of rebuilding warbirds.

 

There was talk of a certain flying school that trains mostly Asian pilots coming to Wangaratta last year and the council was looking for Government funding for airport improvements to lure there business but that's all gone quiet.

 

 

[winsor68]

So what happened to all the aircraft??? Where are they now?