|
Post by dakman on Dec 30, 2009 8:25:42 GMT 12
As most will know we started to receive the first canberra aircraft in late 1959 In nov 1960 nz6101 was lost in a crash near Christchurch In march 1961 nz 6104 made a wheels up landing at Ohakea it was not badly damaged after a patch up it flewto Woodbourne for full repairs The pilot was flt lt D Crooks was is special about this flight was no canopy Maybe a world first ?? Maybe there are photos of this aircraft around
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Dec 30, 2009 9:16:22 GMT 12
Golly, flying in a Canberra with no canopy cannot have been too pleasant.
|
|
|
Post by phil82 on Dec 30, 2009 11:56:29 GMT 12
As most will know we started to receive the first canberra aircraft in late 1959 In nov 1960 nz6101 was lost in a crash near Christchurch In march 1961 nz 6104 made a wheels up landing at Ohakea it was not badly damaged after a patch up it flewto Woodbourne for full repairs The pilot was flt lt D Crooks was is special about this flight was no canopy Maybe a world first ?? Maybe there are photos of this aircraft around At the risk of being a tad pedantic, NZ6101 wasn't "lost in a crash near Christchurch" but was damaged beyond repair in an accident AT Christchurch Airport.
|
|
|
Post by beagle on Dec 30, 2009 12:54:26 GMT 12
what was the accident ??
|
|
|
Post by phil82 on Dec 30, 2009 14:51:59 GMT 12
That aircraft was practicing single-engined approaches, and anyone who has ever spent any time around Canberras will tell you they were tricky at low level on one engine. The aircraft in this instance lost height and belly-landed, causing some damage to the main spar and other areas, and it was written off. The fuselage was used for fire training at Ohakea for a while until finally removed for scrap. I don't know anything about any Canberra belly-landing at Ohakea, [Shorty?] but we lost one of the RAF Loan Canberras, a B2, in Malaya, and another B12 off China Rock in Singapore. The sea around China Rock can be very flat at times, and with the constant haze it can be hard to define the horizon, and the Canberra hit the water.
|
|
|
Post by skyhawkdon on Dec 30, 2009 18:27:19 GMT 12
Why would you deliberately fly a Canberra without a canopy? Why couldn't the canopy be fitted? Sounds hard to believe. Without a canopy there is a risk of inadvertent ejection caused by the wind blast pulling the upper ejection handle. The wind noise would also make communication difficult.
In the Skyhawk days the only time one was flown without a canopy was after an inadvertent canopy jettison in flight (NZ6212, Jan 86 near Ohakea and NZ6252, 5 Feb 1997 in the circuit at Nowra) and it was a case of land immediately.
|
|
|
Post by denysjones on Dec 30, 2009 18:36:32 GMT 12
Phil,
I believe that 01 ended up on the firedump at Wigram not Ohakea as there was a chunk of cylindrical fuse there along with the two harvard frames in the late 60's early 70's
It would seem unlikely that the wreck was taken all the way back to Ohakea perhaps Shorty can confirm?
|
|
|
Post by shorty on Dec 30, 2009 18:44:07 GMT 12
I posted some shots of the fuselage sections fo '01 on the Wigram fire dump (along with Harvards 1014 and 1046 and Devon 1830) that I took April/May 67. They are somewhere in my "stash thread"
|
|
|
Post by camtech on Dec 30, 2009 18:47:43 GMT 12
The incident of NZ6104 being flown from Ohakea to Woodbourne is definitely fact. I have somewhere a photo of the aircraft before it left Ohakea, with Flt Lt Crooks in the pilot seat with no canopy. The canopy was jettisoned before the landing was made, and because he had experienced flying without a canopy, Crooks was the logical choice to fly the aircraft down for repair. I'll see if I can find the photo later tonight.
|
|
|
Post by skyhawkdon on Dec 30, 2009 18:56:34 GMT 12
My apologies for doubting the story. Obviously some Engineering officer did their homework on it before signing it off in the F700!
|
|
|
Post by phil82 on Dec 30, 2009 20:37:25 GMT 12
Phil, I believe that 01 ended up on the firedump at Wigram not Ohakea as there was a chunk of cylindrical fuse there along with the two harvard frames in the late 60's early 70's It would seem unlikely that the wreck was taken all the way back to Ohakea perhaps Shorty can confirm? There was a large section of the fuselage at Ohakea in 1963, possibly the nose section [memory!]. It may well have gone to Wigram later, but it was definitely there at one stage.
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Dec 30, 2009 20:45:08 GMT 12
Just out of curiosity, how would they have transported a Canberra fuselage from base to base back then, pre-Hercules days. Would a Canberra fuselage fit on a Queen Mary trailer? Did they split in half like some other jets?
|
|
|
Post by shorty on Dec 30, 2009 20:49:46 GMT 12
They split both sides of the wing, the rear had to be done to extract number 3 tank which was mounted above the wing. and the front to get numbers 1 and 2 tanks out.
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Dec 30, 2009 20:56:30 GMT 12
Thanks Shorty. Someone should write a book on the Canberra days before the history of that era is lost.
|
|
|
Post by mumbles on Dec 30, 2009 22:32:05 GMT 12
My apologies for doubting the story. Obviously some Engineering officer did their homework on it before signing it off in the F700! At least one early Canberra was test flown by the manufacturer without the canopy. Dad has the book, I can't remember which one, but there is a picture of the pilot in situ. The ejector seat head box is wrapped in tape for protection from wind, as well as bits of the pilots face to guard against frostbite.
|
|
|
Post by angelsonefive on Dec 31, 2009 7:16:47 GMT 12
Golly, flying in a Canberra with no canopy cannot have been too pleasant. I have a very vague recollection of a newspaper article at the time. The flight was conducted at a relatively low speed and altitude for a Canberra. A picture accompanying the article showed the pilot wearing a balaclava or, maybe, a ski mask under his bone-dome helmet. I could be wrong. It is getting to be a long time ago.
|
|
|
Post by skyhawkdon on Dec 31, 2009 8:55:15 GMT 12
Thanks Shorty. Someone should write a book on the Canberra days before the history of that era is lost. I agree Dave - there must be some great stories out there of all those deployments and exercises. There is an excellent photgraphic record of their RNZAF service at: canopus.thedice.net/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=233&g2_page=16Including some photos of the wheels up landing (they look like RNZAF Official photos)
|
|
|
Post by phil82 on Dec 31, 2009 9:01:24 GMT 12
Phil, I believe that 01 ended up on the firedump at Wigram not Ohakea as there was a chunk of cylindrical fuse there along with the two harvard frames in the late 60's early 70's It would seem unlikely that the wreck was taken all the way back to Ohakea perhaps Shorty can confirm? Why unlikely? All the trained Canberra people were at OH, along with all the tools necessary to remove whatever could be saved: engines etc.
|
|
|
Post by shorty on Dec 31, 2009 10:11:59 GMT 12
With Depot Level servicing being done at 1RD all the necessary skills, tooling and spares would be there also.
|
|
|
Post by phil82 on Dec 31, 2009 10:34:13 GMT 12
With Depot Level servicing being done at 1RD all the necessary skills, tooling and spares would be there also. True, but the point was , I think, that it wasn't necessarily the logical thing to take it to ,say, Wigram. As it happens, I've spoken to a couple of people this morning who are fairly certain it came back to Ohakea in component bits!
|
|