The Uiver Memorial Community Trust wants to hear from people keen to help restore the DC-2 aircraft that commemorates the Uiver's 1934 emergency landing.

Volunteers already work on the plane on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

But but the board behind the project wishes to increase their number.

Board member Pieter Mol said the team was making good progress, but the restoration had become more complicated than originally thought.

"It's proving more difficult to not only source some of the materials and the parts that we need, but also manufacturing those," he said.

Many of the aircraft's components were badly corroded and, with so few DC-2s left worldwide, replacement parts were rare.

"We're looking for people with woodworking skills to make moulds so we can manufacture some of the parts that we can no longer buy or acquire elsewhere," Mr Mol said.

"Because there are just no parts available for an aircraft this age.

"Anything that we need we have to make and that's a bit of a skill set that requires both people that can work well with metal but also people that can work with wood that can make the moulds that the sheet metal can be formed around."

The trust board was now considering a consultant's recommendations about where to display the restored DC-2.

While not wanting to discuss details of the report yet, the board was heartened the consultant thought the Uiver project, remembering how Albury residents helped rescue the Dutch airliner, a worthwhile one.

"It's a story that resonates, even today, through the decades as being something very special, very spectacular," Mr Mol said.

"We are now at a stage where we have a clear idea of what it is that we need, and we need the skill sets to be able to achieve that."

To help contact Smartair on (02) 6021 2929. An Uiver 85th anniversary fundraising dinner will be in October.

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