Lost Airfields - Fairhall then and now

[pjw4118]

Dave asked me to look for it a year or two back so here is the file so far.
Google Earth people can locate it on Woodbournes Southern boundary 41.31.21.87S, 173.51.27.64E. Theres plenty of other interesting bits to zoom onto around this area.
The Fairhall strip ran SW from the gum trees where grass and grapes grow today.
The B+W pictures show when 16 Squadron were based there as defence for Wellington. A local tells me the site was selected as it gave the Kittyhawks 15 minutes from scramble to arrive over Wellington at operational height.
Woodbourne was the 'decoy' airfield!
Post War, Oxfords were scrapped there. One hangar and some artifacts remain but it is all private property today.
The B+W photos are courtesy of the J Walsh collection.
Any other details would be welcome.



1. Early 1942 Ten hangars await cladding, two in the centre next to the cobb shed are finished. The strip being rolled lower left. Woodbourne at the top of the picture.



2. A closer view with three P40s lower left with the strip running to the left of them.



3. P40's at the ready with more being towed through the trees in the background.



4. 16 Squadron coded NZ1016 with unclad hangar behind.



5. At readiness, the cobb hut exists today.



6. Todays cobb hut airstrip to the right.



7. The airstrip today still showing the brown rolled area.



8. The surviving hangar, one of two in the centre of picture 1.



9. Relics still survive around the servicing area.



10. 16 Squadron P40 along the Malborough coastline.



11. The garden ornament we all wish for.



12. The famous autographed door inside a cupboard of the main house that served as the officers mess.



13. The camp bakehouse and mess hall foundations behind the strip in the trees.



14. Post war scrapping of oxfords.



15. Off for recycling, some of which remains today.



16. Woodbourne from Fairhall

[alanw]

Peter

That is really fascinating!!!

Thanks for posting.

Pardon my ignorance on this, how exactly
does Fairhall fit into the grand scheme of
things? I see that P 40's were at ready
to defend Wellington, What was the association
With Woodbourne? Was it counted as a separate
base?
Was it an active base post WWII?

Sorry for the twenty questions, but I quite enjoy
old airfield Archaeology

Regards

Alan

[shorty]

John Walsh called to see me a couple of years ago regarding some photos I have of their Oxfords. What he told me was that when Jack Gould bought all the Oxfords from Woodbourne that had to be removed from the airfield within a certain time.
Gould made an arrangement with the Walshes that he would shift them on to their property adjacent to Woodbourne until he disposed of them and in lieu of rent he gave them two Oxfords. One of these was thought to be NZ 1271. Photos of the remains of the two (taken in 1968) I posted in my "stash" thread.
BTW Gould paid £10 each for the Oxfords and sold them for £32.10s each (after draining the remaining fuel from them)
The Harvard wasn't mentioned. Do we have a serial for that?

[Dave Homewood]

Fairhall was considered a Satellite Station, just like Omaka, to Woodbourne but it ran fairly independently. I believe No. 16 Squadron did use Woodbourne's runway sometimes, and I guess some maintenance may have been done there too (?) but with its own hangars, cookhouse, Mess, accomodation, etc, it seems fairly self sufficient, doesn't it? Did the airmen (groundcrew) live in huts at Fairhall or march over form Woody Valley every morning?

Coincidentally I received a load of photos, some the same and some not, of Fairhall this very week from John Saunders (Hvd1041). So I have gotten a double dose of Fairhall this week. I did not realise at first that Fairhall had its own grass strip, I assumed form the top photo that John also sent through that the taxiways seen there perhaps lead to Woodbourne's airfield and they only used that.

There's some interesting names carved into that door. Guy Newton (who lives in Aussie) and John Arkwright are two I recognise. Also the late Mort Vanderpump.

At the 2007 Omaka airshow, I recall the commentators Graham Orphan and Jim Hopkins talking about a story of a No. 16 Squadron pilot having to bale out of his P-40, but his chute didn't open as there was not time and he landed in a pile of thistles or something similar, and remarkably he survived. They mentioned this on all three days. I asked Graham later, in 2008 I think, if he had the details of this but he couldn't recall it at all, and thought it must have been Jim's story. He gave me Jim's email so I sent off a query but Jim never replied. So I am now none the wiser, but I'm sure Jim named the pilot and more details during the airshow. he had been told by a member of the squadron that weekend about it I believe. Does anyone know more?

Of course after No. 16 Squadron went north to Whenuapai, No. 18 Squadron formed at Fairhall on the same aircraft and with the same codes I believe, so some of the photos may be 18 Sqn rather than 16 Sqn.

[shamus]

I remember visiting Fairhall and John Walsh in the 1980s with Don Subritzky and Keith McDonald who flew P40s from this airfield. Keith was able to tell us and John Walsh some of the stories about the Walsh house, used as the officers mess. On one occasion one of the pilots who had drank too much beer, rode his motorcycle up the stairs to the top floor. He only got half way up and lost his balance and fell sideways knocking the bannister off and falling with the motorcycle to the , floor, luckily not injuring himself.

[harvard1041]

Hi

Fairhall is indeed and interesting place and John Walsh has a great sense of local history. The farmhouse is the oldest European building in the valley I believe.

John is always interested in any wartime photos of the farm - wonder if our members have any we could share ?

He is currently restoring a Brockhouse fuel tanker.

Here's a couple more photos.

Rgds
Hvd1041

[Dave Homewood]

"Early 1942 Ten hangars await cladding"

There are actually eleven unclad hangars in the first photo, plus the clad ones. Did they all get clad in the end? Years ago someone posted some ground level photos of Fairhall's unclad hangars here on the forum I think. I have seen some 'somewhere' and I guess it was here.

I just noticed the names on the door have 17th F above them, I never realised No. 17 Squadron also spent time at Fairhall, as well as 16 and 18 Sqn's.

[pjw4118]

Good Spotting Dave.
John is a very interesting historian and collector. Amongst his treasures is NZ906 he is rebuilding, the tanker, a barn full of tractors and boxes of oxfords parts.
He has no records about the instructional airframe pictured below.
The concrete foundation of the camp are quite extensive suggesting ground staff also occupied the site.
Google Earthers can also spot the 'CIA' house midway between Fairhall and the Argosy fuselage to the East on Woodbournes boundary. Then of course theres the satillite domes up he next valley.

[ZacYates]

Hang on - are there TWO Harvards at Fairhall? Is only the silver one being restored? Who belongs to the yellow one?

[lumpy]

Last time I was there ( 20 years ago plus ,or so ) , John was keen on one day restoring one of the Oxford engines ( there was more than one ) . Does anyone know if he still has the Allison ? He said it looked much better than it really was ( and it did look good ) , but seemingly it was missing a lot of " internals " .I recall him asking me what I thought it was when he first pulled the cover off , then having a wee chuckle when I answered " Merlin " . ( It was a long time ago ) !

[Dave Homewood]

Note the No. 16 Squadron Harvard NZ995 OX-B that John posted a photo of is the same Harvard that later became the Air Training Corp travelling display Harvard as detailed in the Harvard Pile thread here under the title of Air Trianing: Instruction Unit:

rnzaf.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=Postwar&action=display&thread=9218&page=20

[shorty]

Jan 18, 2011 19:39:08 GMT 12 ZacYates said:

Hang on - are there TWO Harvards at Fairhall? Is only the silver one being restored? Who belongs to the yellow one?

There is three Harvards visible INSTNZ 138 is NZ 1102 whose history according to ADF serials is -Previously KF410. From RAF. Shipped to New Zealand on "Empire Castle" in September 1944 and assembled at Hobsonville. BOC 10 October 1944. Converted to INST138 at TTS Hobsonville 19 January 1950. Sold by tender from Hobsonville in August 1965 in unairworthy condition and used in childrens playground at Morrinsville. Purchased by R. Jowitt mid 1985 and stored at Ardmore. To Southair Aviation, Timaru. Sold by receivers of Southair to unknown buyer. Swapped with RNZAF Museum in exchange for parts to return NZ1040 to airworthy condition. In storage at RNZAF Museum during 1990s. Presently stored at Ardmore with Greg Ryan.
That doesn't tie up with the current siyuation.

There is another fuselage portion (and cowl) stored on top of the
crates in that photo which maybe NZ 906
from ADF serials
Issued to NZ under Empire Air Training Scheme. Shipped to New Zealand on "Wairuna" in March 1941 and assembled at Hobsonville. BOC 14 March 1941. To No.1 SFTS Wigram. To No.2 SFTS, Woodbourne by March 1944. Declared surplus on SR416/58 and sold by GSB tender number 7078 to Bennett Aviation Ltd., Te Kuiti for forty five pounds. Forward fuselage stored at Dunsandel, South Island with P. Burns. Now onsold to J. Walsh and stored at Blenheim
But then again a photo was posted on this site of what was supposedly NZ 906 front fuselage loaded on a railways La wagon at Lyttleton on it's way yo Te Kuiti.

and then there is the yellow one outside. Again according to ADF serials this may be NZ 946
Issued to NZ under Empire Air Training Scheme. Shipped to New Zealand on "Waiotapu" in May 1941 and assembled at Hobsonville. BOC 05 July 1941. To No.1 SFTS Wigram. Converted to INST144 with No. 3 TAF at Wigram 31 August 1950. Sold by GSB tender 262/55 to Horrell Company, Ashburton for twenty five pounds. Presented to Jaycees for use in playground at Methven in 1967. Fuselage stored at Blenheim with J. Walsh and other components with E. Billman, Auckland

Any other guesses?

[pjw4118]

Shorty you are spot on. I rang John Walsh last night and he confirmed
NZ906 being restored. Its in a shipping container hence no photo
NZ946 is the yellow one
INST138/NZ1102 is in the shed, John seems to think it is a IIB from Canada.
The Oxford frames and bins of parts are from various aircraft

[hairy]

Jan 20, 2011 15:15:28 GMT 12 pjw4118 said:

INST138/NZ1102 is in the shed, John seems to think it is a IIB from Canada.

That's because it is. ;D

The last 3 Harvards received by the RNZAF (NZ1100-1102) were Canadian MK.IIBs.

[oj]

This is fascinating stuff, this Fairhall.

When I was at BES in 1962 I did many orbits of Woodbourne and surrounding farms during "harriers" running for sports days and weekends, and some purely recreational walking.

At no stage did I encounter this site. I must have been blind!

I am also disappointed that while we were taught "Air Force History" in class (i think by the late Reg Mason (prominent aviation artist) at no time did anyone f9ill us n on Fairhall or make any attempt to show us the site.

I now feel retrospectively bitter about that!

Anybody else experience that?

[Dave Homewood]

I still feel bitter about the cross country runs!

And yes, I had no idea about the existence of Fairhall over the back fence till I got to Wigram. I also only had the vaguest notion of Omaka, someone mentioned there was a civil aerodrome and I simply thought "Cessnas, boring" and never went there in all the time i lived at Woodbourne. I regret that bitterly now as it's a great place. Mind you there probably only was Cessnas there in 1989 anyway, which would have been boring after the fast pace of Woody Valley with its Fokkers and Whistling Wheelbarrows every hour, and the occasional Skyhawk and Golden Eagle.

[camtech]

Ditto - I was at ACS in 1965, also had Reg as an instructor, although I can't recall who taught air force history.
I feel it was disappointing to have missed out on a lot of the details of the local air force history, as well as the greater picture. IIRC we were only taught the major facts, and then only a broad brush.

Also missed out on hearing from Wing Commander L A R Hill (nicknamed Rosemary) about his exploits. The Air Force Museum has his logbook and I perused it back in about 1986-7. Although his first logbook wasn't there, his career as a navigator started with 40 Sqdn, flying Daks. He crewed the first 40 Sqdn dak, NZ3505 to Emirau, ferried NZ3525 from San Diego to NZ, flew escort for Corsairs, and then went to the UK flying with 24 Sqdn, and later to the US before returning home. He was at FTS, then 41 and 42 Sqdns. He was one of the navigators on the Air Race Hastings, also on several Royal Flights while at 42.

His stories would have been fascinating to us youngsters - remember we joined only 20 years after the war, so many of the names mentioned in the forum were still serving at that time.

[shorty]

I had Reg as out Tech Drawing Instructor on our basic course at 1 TTS in mid 67. After a short while that phase was dropped yet it still counted as a credit for Tade Cert. Go figure.

[Dave Homewood]

We had a Technical Drawing phase in Basic Engineering course at 4TTS in 1989. It was tutored by an Education Officer who had previously been aircrew (AEOp from memory) on No. 5 Squadron Orions. He used to tell a few great stories, and one I recall was about his mate that he'd trained with who went to the RAF and ended up flying Harriers in the Falklands. The same chap, who's name escapes me right now, taught us Metallurgy and I think he took some courses for Mathematics too. Having been in the 'real world' of the Air Force he knew a bit and was socialable, unlike other education officers I had at the same time and later who all seemed to be ex-school teachers who were given a commission and were a bit hopeless, or in one case a bit officious.

[oj]

I agree about the Education Officers being a mixed bag, several were dull & boring, I guess those that came from formal "educationalist" backgrounds.
The good ones that held your attention had engineering or operational experiences to relate and anecdotal examples to illustrat their teachings.