Orange Roughies

[raymond]

No "Bear Paws" fitted Snowbird 89/90 that I can recall

[junior]

I cant lay claim to the photos... RNZAF Official

These three were photographed in Bouganville in 1997/98. They were operating there under Operation Belisi peace monitoring. Urgency was placed on the Operation as tension was high between the warring tribes.

The "Orange Roughy" scheme was chosen for 2 important reasons.
1. DFHQ wanted a scheme that the "natives" wouldnt associate with the military so the current colours of the day were ruled out and White couldnt be used because that was 'UN colours" so in keeping it simple it was decided to adopt an already approved scheme and go with the Orange.

2. We had poo-loads of Scarlet Chrome in stock.

I was NCOi/c Hobby paintshop at the time and when the order came out to repaint the aircraft we had to have 2 Hueys painted up, complete with markings, in 72 hours... with the third ready to go by weeks-end.

F/S Lloyd Puriri and I formulated a plan and formed two teams... one team prep'ing and masking ready for the other team to come in at night and paint.
The Paintshop boys (Lloyd, myself, Cpl Euan Bican, LAC Les Stockley and LAC Adrian Smith and a few more seconded from the S&S trade) worked flat out day and night to get the first two Hueys out on time.... and yes... they were "Roughys" alright but we managed to put out a quality product within the given time.

[lesterpk]

Hey Junior, I came across some photos of the Hueys in the paintshop being turned orange in one of my old albums. Looks like to save time we masked out the markings rather than reapply them. Guess I'll have to fire up the scanner.

[junior]

You'd be right, Les..... the big markings were masked out but the smaller ones I think were just "zapped". From memory these Hueys underwent unscheduled strip and repaints when they returned to NZ.

Would love to see the pics if you can manage it.

[lesterpk]

All masked out ready to go.


Freshly painted


Outside for comparision

[Dave Homewood]

Great shots Les. Was that the No. 1 TTS paintshop?

[malcolma]

Hi folk, I am a newbie to the forum. Spotted this thread on the Orange Roughies. I have some pics I can scan and load of 08 (Kiwi 08) down on the ice during the 90/91 Antarctic season if these would be of interest. We had the Roughy crew put us in to our deep field camp and pick us up at the end of season.

I need to scan at work tomorrow then figure out how to post pics

Cheers

Malcolm

[junior]

Welcome malcoma..... we'd love to see the photos here

Dave, its the paintshop situated at 3 Squadron at Hobsonville. The New paintshop at Whenuapai had just opened up and thats where most of the components, wheels, and panels etc got done... all the bigger stuff like the Hueys, busses, trucks, cars, (Base Commanders racing car) were done at Hobsonville.

[Ykato]

Jun 9, 2012 11:45:58 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

Great shots Les. Was that the No. 1 TTS paintshop?

Agree Thanks for sharing

[Dave Homewood]

Welcome Malcolm, yes please do scan and post your photos.

Thanks for confirming that paintshop Junior. I never went over to the No. 3 Squadron hangar paint shop. Am I right in recalling there was also a small paint shop at the General Engineering Flight (GEF) complex on Hobby's wet apron, just near the up road, and in the same building area as the Fabric Bay there? Or am I mis-recalling that entirely?

[E.T.]

I seemed to recall that the year I was down there (93/94 summer season) the Kiwi chopper was in it's regular paint scheme, however one of the American ones was in an orange colour scheme. So I checked and yes - a selection of whirlybirds for your perusal:
kiwionice.150m.com/album/helo.htm

That year while we were there, the Kiwi bird had a chip light while flying out over the sea ice. Too far from anywhere they had to set it down there and then. Several days and one engine change later (in-situ under a pseudo-tent on the sea ice) they flew it out again. Must have been hell lock-wiring that sucker in place!

[malcolma]

As promised some pics of the Orange Roughy down on the ice. These are scans from slides so not great. The very blue sky is due to a polarizing filter on the camera. Also results in darker Roughy colour than pics posted above by Lester? But is actually close to what it looked like wearing glacier glasses all the time. The very dark 5th shot is my ineptitude as camera operator and polarizer.

Antarctica Dec 1990: Stop off at Marble Point for refuel on way out to fieldcamp at Allan Hills. Fellow Geologists in yellows. And Orange Roughy (Kiwi08) and crew.

K047_Kiwi08_marble_point

Orange Roughy and crew at Marble Point. Chap with the white "bunny boots" is US military staffing Marble Point. Always on hand with chocolate brownie for the crew. Note the Footrot Flats characters on door. I think there may have been different ones each year.


Allan Hills field camp. Orange Roughy on second trip bringing out an "Apple". Very slow flight out for them.


Orange Roughy with the grannysmith.


The Apple has landed: Had to be "caught" with an insulated copper gaff with cable to ground. The static build up in the dry Antarctic air is phenomenal.








The Roughy heading back to Scot base/Mactown.


The Roughy came out again bout 8 weeks later to pull us out. With two visits from VXE-6 212's- one a jolly for some H53 drivers and the other dropping off some visiting Geos. The Kiwis on the ice from Scot base were always happy to see the Roughy and crew. Fantastic professionals to fly with.

Malcolm

[ErrolC]

Great stuff, thanks!

Can anyone remember which Footrot Flats characters were used?

[Tony]

Dog

[malcolma]

For the Roughy shots above from the 90/91 season the art work was Wal in NZARP yellows with Dog and Jess (I think) sitting on some snow.

I would be keen to hear from the guys that worked in the paintshop, when was the door art actually done and who by? Back in NZ or was it done down on The Ice? I have heard a tale that in the mid 90's one of the geologists from then DSIR now GNS (where I work) got asked to paint some Footrot flats art work on the door of one of the VXE-6 212's. Which he did on condition they sent him a door from one of the 212's. Which apparently he recieved later in the year when they transitioned back to the states.

Crop of scan showing close up of Footrot Flats cartoon. Sorry a bit fuzzy.


And bad spleling on my part. Should be Scott Base.

[Dave Homewood]

Super photos Malcolm. That is interesting about the different Footrot Flats artwork that year. Bloody superb. I love the way the painters have even off-centred the No. 3 Squadron Badge to fit the artwork in.

It definitely looks like Jess with Wal and Dog.

[corsair67]

Wow, what a great selection of images - thanks for sharing.

Orange Roughies + Footrot Flat characters = good idea for decal sheet?

The USN must have thought NZ was mad operating single-engined choppers down there!

[malcolma]

Thanks, glad the pics are of interest.
Probably the only useful RNZAF images I have to contribute to the forum. I have been looking at posts on the site for awhile and enjoying the interesting info,comments and insights that come up.

Corsair67: yes it would be intersting to see if more (if any) of the different footrot flats art work could be identified and translated to a decal sheet. From a post I discovered from back in 2007 a template sheet for how the Orange Roughy was painted up in 85 suggests just Dog on the door. My son has ordered up the RNZAF UH-1H orange decal sheet from Oz (come to think of it still waiting). He is keen to paint a UH-1H model he got from the Ohakea Airshow up as the Orange Roughy from 90/91 season.

I was down in 89/90 but didn't see the Orange Roughy at all. We only had VXE-6 helos come out for our resupplies that year and we skidoo-sledge from Scott Base to our fieldcamp up on the polar plateau. Although when I did the Tekapo survival course there were a group of air and ground crew on that who were going down with the Roughy. They just about drink as much as geologists. They tried to scare us silly when doing our helo orientation flights and we tired to scare them silly up on Mt Stevenson for the snow training and over-nighter.

[junior]

Jun 12, 2012 14:03:40 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

Welcome Malcolm, yes please do scan and post your photos.

Thanks for confirming that paintshop Junior. I never went over to the No. 3 Squadron hangar paint shop. Am I right in recalling there was also a small paint shop at the General Engineering Flight (GEF) complex on Hobby's wet apron, just near the up road, and in the same building area as the Fabric Bay there? Or am I mis-recalling that entirely?

Right again Dave.... Cpl Lim Hock Kee (Limbo) ran the shop there for quite some time til it was shut down as a paint shop and used only for very quick touch ups on components, varnishing wood pieces from the chippie shop or stripping small components using tergostrip.... then when an auditor came around and discovered that the waste sump emptied straight into the upper harbour (complete with all the poisonous tergostrip), the shop was shut for good.

[E.T.]

Yeah, nice pics - I love the first one with the huge shadow in the foreground. It also looks like the bladders at Marble Point were fuller than when I visited that petrol station away from home - the sea was still frozen and the refuel ship hadn't been in there at that stage (Nov).

Jun 12, 2012 23:16:11 GMT 12 corsair67 said:

The USN must have thought NZ was mad operating single-engined choppers down there!

Sure 'nuff!!! I was told that at mid season the Kiwi's and VXE6 guys traded crews and one of our guys transferred to them and one of them to fly ours. The first thing the Yanks had to do was learn how to auto-rotate as they don't get taught it since majority of their whirlybirds are twin engined! I was told they hated the experience!