The Vintage Aviator 2011-2012

[Poohbah]

A few announcements for the new season.

New Aircraft
Usually resident at the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre the Airco DH.5 joins the flying collection at Hood Aerodrome, Masterton. This aircraft is on static display during weekends and will participate in the WWI afternoon air shows throughout the summer season.

Hangar Hours
This year the hangar opens early to accommodate Rugby World Cup visitors. For weekend tours or general aircraft spotting, visit us at Hood Aerodrome, Masterton, weekends from September 3rd 2011 to April end 2012.

2011 WWI Air Shows
Remembrance Day - November 12th 2011 1.00pm - 6.00pm Commemorating the signing of the Armistice and the end to the Great War.
Gates Open 1.00pm
Vintage Vehicle Rides 2.00pm - 3.30pm
Air Show begins 3.30pm - 6.00pm

2012 WWI Air Shows
Joyeux Noel Evening Air Show 21st Jan 2012 3.00pm - 8.00pm
Commemorating ANZAC 28th April 2012 12.00pm - 5.00pm

Come visit us on Facebook www.facebook.com/pages/The-Vintage-Aviator-Collection/130953866975871
and also follow us on Twitter twitter.com/#!/TVAL_AIRSHOWS

These will be kept up to date with Air Show weather information concerning ( hopefully not ) cancellations of our flying events.
Closer to air show times we will also list the official practice weekends for anyone who can't make the actual air show,so they can at least come and watch the aircraft fly and talk to the pilots.

[kiwithrottlejockey]

War survivor takes to skies

By NATHAN CROMBIE - Wairarapa Times-Age | Tuesday, 25 October 2011


CUTTING EDGE: Vintage Aviator Museum production
manager Gene De Marco with a reproduction Fokker
DVIII at Hood Aerodrome. It is the latest WWI
aircraft to join the museum's world-class collection
and the first of its kind operating in New Zealand.
— Photo: LYNDA FERINGA/Wairarapa Times-Age.

A FOKKER DVIII — or Flying Razor — will be soon slicing through Wairarapa skies as the first replica in New Zealand of a once feared and cutting-edge World War I fighter aircraft.

The high-winged monoplane is the only operational aircraft of its kind in New Zealand — boasting a radial engine capable of 120hp — and is the latest addition to the world-class collection at the Vintage Aviator Museum at Hood Aerodrome in Masterton, says Gene De Marco, production manager and chief test pilot.

The DVIII carries the distinction of scoring the last combat victory of World War I, Mr De Marco said. It would be unveiled at a vintage aircraft show at Masterton airfield on November 12.

"It was an unusual aircraft in its day because of its single cantilevered wing and it was effective even though it came into the war very late."

The Flying Razor, as the plane came to be known from its stripped-down mono-wing silhouette, entered combat during the final months of 1918 and was reputed to be the fastest fighter plane in Germany.

The aircraft departed from conventional World War I flight engineering with its cantilevered all-wood wing that dispensed with struts and bracing and boasted a pair of synchronised Spandau LMG 08 machine guns mounted ahead of the cockpit, and a high power-to-weight ratio radial engine.

Although the radial engine fell from general aeronautical favour, Mr De Marco said, the wing design was a reference point for flight engineers for decades to come and can be traced to some models of Cessna aircraft still flying today.

There was only a single original Fokker DVIII in the world, housed at the Caproni Museum of Flight in Italy, and a couple of other replicas that are, however, not powered by radial engines, he said.

The engine was built in Wellington and the airframe and finishing — complete with German lozenge pattern fabric — was engineered in Masterton.

The original Oberursel engine had been thoroughly flight tested by the museum "for some time now", Mr De Marco said, and was a German copy of the French Le Rhone rotary that is capable of reaching altitudes of more than 6000 metres.

He said the Flying Razor was a remarkable acquisition for the museum and a testament to the skill of its engineers, who also construct reproduction aircraft for international clients, the latest being a Albatros DVa built for the Kermit Weeks Fantasy of Flight Museum in Florida.

Another reproduction aircraft was now undergoing flight testing ahead of its addition to the Vintage Aviator collection, Mr De Marco said, but it would stay under wraps until its appraisal is complete.

www.times-age.co.nz/news/war-survivor-takes-to-skies/1149250

[kiwithrottlejockey]

Dumb reporter....that is clearly a ROTARY engine powering that aeroplane, not a RADIAL engine as stated in the news article.

You can clearly see in the photograph that it is a rotary engine.

I bet Gene De Marco told the reporter it is a rotary engine too, but the silly reporter obviously didn't listen!

[FlyingKiwi]

To be fair, a lot of people (even within aviation unfortunately!) aren't fully aware of the difference between a radial and a rotary. I got asked by a student a while ago how an engine as big as that in a Harvard could possibly rotate.

[Bruce]

C'mon everyone knows that a rotary is what the Boy racers have in their RX-7s - and this isn't anywhere near as anti-social!

[shane]

Hi guys I have a quick question is this Fokker DVIII replica a different aircraft altogether than the one owned by the Chariots of fire fighter collection or is it the same aircraft.
I'm trying to figuare out if there are 2 Fokker DVIII's in NZ or just 1. It was mentioned a wee while ago that the Chariots of fire collection had imported 1 built by Paul Musso.

[Brett]

Hi Shane,

I'm fairly sure the D.VIII is a new-build out of the FTS factory.

Aichim Engels built 3 D.VIII fuselages. S/N 002 and S/M 003 were built for TVAL and were freighted to NZ in 2007 (probably complete with wings built by Koloman Mayrhofer?). www.worldwar1aeroplanesinc.org/forums/showthread.php?t=315&page=11

If this aircraft is one of them then TVAL have completed the fit-out, assembly, covering etc and installed an engine. FTS will have been a sub-contractor that supplied the fueslage and some fittings.

Aichim's own D.VIII (S/N 001) was rolled out in September 2010 as a complete but currently non-flying aircraft (it did not have the Oberursel fitted). It is still undergoing certification.

The TVAL aircraft will be the first of Aichim's Razors to fly.

I am interested in the engine that TVAL are using. Is it one of their new-build Oberursels, or an original? The newspaper article indicates both...?

So there are not 2 x D.VIII's in NZ. There are at least 3.

I wonder if the secret project is ZK-SBT?

Cheers,

Brett

[shane]

Thanks Brett. Wow 3 now that would be a pretty cool sight.

[kiwithrottlejockey]

Oct 27, 2011 5:52:53 GMT 12 shane said:

Thanks Brett. Wow 3 now that would be a pretty cool sight.

Keep your fingers crossed....it might happen sometime, perhaps at Classic Fighters if they take the two TVAL examples across Cook Strait one Easter weekend.

After all, if you go back ten or more years, would you have believed we'd see seven Fokker Triplanes in the air at once? Or three SE.5A fighters? Sometimes when I head out to the mini-airshows at Hood, I almost have to pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming when I see the aeroplane line-up along the fenceline.

My brother was over from Brisbane last year and I took him to the Anzac airshow. As soon as we drove in the gave, he took one look at the line of aeroplanes and his jaw dropped, and he said to me, "is this for real?"

Let's hope the weather behaves itself in just over two weeks time for the Remembrance Day airshow so I can get my fix of WWI aviation spectacular. I'm working early-shift that weekend, but that's okay....I will be driving a passenger train over to Wellington early in the morning, then driving the 9:55am service back to Masterton, arriving there at 11:30am. By the time I put the train away in the yard and sort out the paperwork, I'll be at Hood by about 12:30pm, or shortly afterwards, so won't miss anything.

[ZacYates]

ZK-SBT? *stifles vomit*I'm no great fan of the Snipe, but I suppose it would be interesting to see with the Camel and any other Sopwith types TVAL may have.

[Brett]

The Snipe might not be my first choice either, but if I already had Sopwith's Camel, Triplane and 1½ Strutter and I needed something to counter the growing Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte then a Snipe would be high on my list.

I guess practical considerations such as a having a source of construction information and a suitable engine being available would influence these decisions.

Cheers,

Brett

[Poohbah]

3 Fokkers doing their thing.

www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=210143672390223&set=a.161213817283209.40641.130953866975871&type=1&theater

Paul

[Dave Homewood]

Very cool!!

[corsair67]

While the Snipe may not be everyone's favourite, I think that people would be very lucky indeed if someone was interested enough to invest their time and money to bring an aircraft like this back to life for aviation fans in New Zealand.

Until about three years ago, I did not know anything about the Sopwith Snipe until Yak2 took me to meet a friend of his in Melbourne who is building a replica Snipe in his garage; and after seeing what he was building I came to have a real appreciation for this type of aircraft.

I never thought I would ever live to see an SE-5a flying in New Zealand, but now I can go to Masterton on any of their flying days and see three on display.

Maybe Kiwis are becoming a little spoilt for choice as far new aircraft types are concerned: let us not forget that 26 years ago many of us became excited when a P-51D Mustang was imported into this country - and look at what we can see now.

[Gavin Conroy]

Well said Craig.

[Dave Homewood]

Hear hear. Any historical aircraft that is added to the NZ flying register is great news. Even those that we personally may not be interested in or don't find appealling.

A lot of the WWI types that are now flying in NZ I had never even heard of before, till TVAL began building or buying them and have presented them to the public. I'm grateful for their wonderful efforts in building up this collection of stunning historic aeroplanes, and I look forward to the Snipe and anything else that comes along. I think the Snipe looks pretty cool. I would also be very pleased if someday they add a Sopwith Dolphin to the Sopwith fleet, as one of the men from Cambridge who flew and died in the Great War was a Dolphin pilot, Allan Veale. I'd love to see one.

I still get really excited by the Mustang now by the way, and most other historic aeroplanes (excluding Austers of course, till Anthony gets his finished).

[ZacYates]

Please don't get me wrong guys, although I don't like the type I'm still amazed I get the chance to see and hear one in action in a fortnight. Bravo to the TVAL team.

[Dave Homewood]

Weather permiting.

[kiwithrottlejockey]

Nov 1, 2011 19:49:47 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

Weather permiting.

Don't tempt the weather gods, Dave!


Yeah, I know the weather does sometimes (often) chuck a spanner in the works, but when it all comes together, those TVAL mini-airshows can be sheer magic. Such as the Anzac airshow last year.


And I live in hope that one day I will head out to Hood and discover that the latest TVAL reproductions will be a couple of (or three) Gotha bombers. Now wouldn't that be absolutely mind-blowing?

[Dave Homewood]

It would indeed. How many hangars does TVAL have for their ever growing collection? Have they had to build more lately?

At least for you Bruce it's on your doorstep. It's a day's travel away from here and so the weather risk seems too much. At least with Ardmore you know it will be raining when you head up there, as the weather there is constant change so you're never disappointed.

When are they going to get those Lancasters flying, that's what i want to know.