South Australian Aviation Museum

I went from one geeky hobby to another today, swapping the trains for planes. While this museum is mainly focussed on military aircraft (which isn’t generally my vibe), I was still excited to visit. One of the volunteers greeted me and took me into the main hangar, and explained which planes you can climb aboard. He then left me to my own devices.

The two hangars were jam-packed from floor to ceiling with various different military and government-use planes. The Fokker Friendship (operated by CSIRO) was probably my favourite plane there. Sure, it was missing a wing to get it to fit, but still a cool-looking plane. There were a few other smaller planes that I got to sit in the cockpit of, bringing out my inner avgeek.

Even the military planes caught my attention. There was enough information to get the gist of what the planes were used for without it being information overload - which I liked. There was even half of a BAE-146 cabin. This was one of the first planes I flew on between Melbourne and Canberra many years ago. Such a strange feeling sitting in these old seats and comparing them to what we get for seats nowadays.

After taking an embarrassing number of selfies with a giant smile, and even more of each plane there, my hour was up (self-imposed). I’m glad I found this little museum area of Port Adelaide - who said Adelaide was boring? If you’re a geek, head out to Port Adelaide.Read more