HARS is now planning for what will be its biggest series of open days this Friday to Sunday, which will be the first chance for the public to get up close and personal with VH-OJA. Sunday will also mark the official handover of the aircraft, which is being gifted to HARS by Qantas.

Mr De La Hunty said a significant amount of work still needed to be done to decommission the aircraft known as the City of Canberra.

He said a "100-day plan" was being developed that would be carefully rolled out once signed off by the HARS committee and Qantas officials.

"It is very important to look after this gift ... it is not going anywhere in the short term or long term," Mr De La Hunty said.

Nerves surrounding the landing had given way to relief, he said.

With a lot of dangerous equipment still to be removed, it may be at least a month until the public is given full access to the aircraft. However, there remains a slight chance part of the aircraft could be accessed at some stage this weekend.

"People will be able to walk around and underneath the plane, but beyond that everything is in the interest of safety at the moment," Mr De La Hunty said.

Thousands of people lined vantage points across the Illawarra early on Sunday morning to welcome the plane to Albion Park Rail.

"We were overwhelmed by community support," Mr De La Hunty said.

He said HARS "haven't had time" to make up T-shirts to celebrate the plane's arrival, unlike some enterprising neighbours like NSW Air.

The training division, which is under the umbrella of the Bendigo Bank Aerial Patrol, had 100 shirts made to mark the arrival of the VH-OJA on Sunday. The shirts quickly sold out.

NSW Air's Cheryl Barnes said another 150 had been ordered with all proceeds going to the Aerial Patrol's summer operations.

The T-shirts cost $25 each and can be ordered by phoning 4256 1001.