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Post by baronbeeza on Dec 6, 2012 9:01:27 GMT 12
This was the one that we were supposed to be using. I was informed about 12 hours before I went to pick it up that it was no longer available. The burglars had used the trailer to transport a lot of other stuff, including computer, so the owner (seller #1) had no way of contacting me earlier. It was taken in the last Saturday of November. I was on the phone to Baz discussing the change of circumstances literally just hours before his departure from ChCh. (In the Pajero). I was hitchhiking down through the Wairarapa when I got the text about the Pajero. Here we were, - both stranded on the side of the road. No vehicle and no trailer. Things really were off to a flying start. At that stage even the Tomahawk deal had gone cold on me as well. Life could only get better. At 10.30 am Saturday I was with the seller (#2) at a back country service station, near the Rimutakas can you believe. I got a text from Baz to say he was on the boat and about to team up with Johnny. A minute later I was told the trailer had passed the WoF and before the Warrant was written out I had a call to say the Tomahawk deal was settled and back on track. All in the space of a couple of minutes and the mission is back on schedule.....and just 2 hours behind planned timings. How cool is that ? We stayed on time to within plus or minus two hours for the entirety of the remaining journey. ********** Edit and PS. *************** I was hitting Trademe throughout the Thursday night checking out any suitable trailer in the Gisborne, Napier, Manawatu and eventually into the Waiarapa. There was ONE trailer listed for the Gisborne region.. I did think 2 or 3 between Pahiatua and Greytown could be suitable. I was on the phone shortly after 6am, finished breakfast and checked out and on the Intercity out of Hastings for Woodville shortly after 8am. Rather than pickup trailer #1 from Woodville as originally planned I was now confronted with a Woodville-Pahiatua-Carterton-Greytown stretch of road and the next bus in 6 hours time. I needed to find and buy a trailer in that time ( if only to keep in the good books with Baz). I should add that I first saw the replacement trailer as I was getting out of a van that had given me a lift to Carterton. We had just put my bags on the footpath and were saying our farewells when I heard a rattle and banging passing us. " That is it !" I said. The driver was well clued up on the events and knew what was required. We hurriedly tossed the bags back in and gave chase. I was on the phone within seconds and had the 'new purchase' now parked on the roadside just a few hundred metres ahead. Hmmmmm, well you know what they say about first impressions. At least it had a new registration label and just needed a wheel bearing to pass the WoF. Or so I thought. Anyway for the next two hours we were getting the trailer organised and with a bearing change and regrease it was ready for the inspection. Well, if that is possible just after 5pm on a Friday afternoon. The seller did manage to book a Saturday morning inspection so it all worked out well yet again. As you would have worked out, - Saturday was a much better day for all of us. We had finished a roast dinner at Dave's place, behind Gisborne, and were in comfortable beds well before midnight. It had been a marathon one for Baz, he had still been driving through the South Island in the morning... found Johnny in Wellington, picked up me and the trailer in Carterton and then driven all the way through to Gisborne. All this on top of his Friday afternoon and evening escapades. Little wonder he was asleep within minutes.
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Post by baronbeeza on Dec 6, 2012 9:46:36 GMT 12
Why would anyone want a cabin section with some doors you may wonder. Arhhhh..... I see, said the blind man. And yes, there is a trailer renovation in the mix now as well.
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Post by baz62 on Dec 6, 2012 10:06:12 GMT 12
Yes as The Baron has said it went from everything falling apart to everything coming together again. Perhaps there is a guardian angel for mad buggers or one who has a PPL? ;D I think this also shows that Kiwi ingenuity is alive and well! One part of the trip I really enjoyed was being in the car with two other pilots. Kevin had some hair raising stories of his flying and working on aircraft in Africa and his days in the RNZAF. Johnny had some great flying stories and we all shared experiences both scary and fun. I couldn't have asked for better travelling companions! I can only imagine what it would have been like if we thought each other was a dickhead or worse smelly! Saturday morning around 10 we will be unloading the trailer so that the Tomahawk can go on by itself for Kevin to take back to his lair. And will have an Auster wreck sitting forlornly on the hangar floor like a wounded bird. Actually while I'm talking about the hangar, if anyone has a bit of spare storage space I would love to hear from you. As EQC still have to repair my garage floor i can't put anything back into it. I am only supposed to have half the hangar but with the owner overseas he said use it all. Well the chicken is coming home to roost and the owner may need his half back! I can squeeze a lot of my stuff into my side but I have boxes of house stuff that if gone would make life a bit easier.
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Post by suthg on Dec 6, 2012 10:24:01 GMT 12
It certainly was a good looking trailer before it was "taken" and to find another suitable one so quickly and with a fresh WOF was amazing! A great comedy. I hope the Pajero is ok??
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Post by baz62 on Dec 6, 2012 11:22:35 GMT 12
Pajero now has a new turbo. I took the owner out to a Turbo rebuilder (he's way out in Waiapra but is highly thought of regarding his rebuilds) with the broken one and he swapped it for a reconditioned one for $450. Stu (the Pajero owner) just has to bolt it back in place and he's away. Fortunately all the damage was on the exhaust side, if it had been on the inlet side it would have toasted the engine. And the engine had been reconditioned when Stu bought it last year! (But i'd say they hadn't done anything to the turbo. The turbo guy noticed the wastegate was stuck closed so it may have been overboosting for ages and just had enough when I got it!
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Post by baronbeeza on Dec 8, 2012 13:39:32 GMT 12
Getting towards the end of the thread now. Trailer unloaded this morning and then the Tomahawk waved off. Mission accomplished and zero transit damage to either aircraft during the recovery. (Baz did think a bit of fabric may have torn though.. hmm.) Thanks again to Baz, Johnny and Anthony for helping reload this morning and helping out in the return of EYG to the mainland. If you listen out on the airwaves you may even hear it flying about tomorrow
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Dec 8, 2012 15:53:47 GMT 12
A couple of blokes seemed to think they deserved a beer. Two aircraft are probably a great deal closer to returning to the skies as a result also. Did you call into Tui Brewery at Mangatainoka and sample the products of the “Mosquito sponsor” at Wings Over Wairarapa while oogling at & chatting up the Tui Girls? ;D
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Post by baronbeeza on Dec 8, 2012 16:51:00 GMT 12
Are you not affraid of cross pollination with the two fuses like that? Now we did look into all the new mission title possibilities. BRAEYG or EYGBRA did not really do it for us. I have had to cheat and use this site; www.scrabblefinder.com/solver/No 6 letter words that it could find. It did suggest some 5 letter ones... as follows; barge barye gayer yager yerba Hmm, don't they all seem to have aviation references or otherwise apply to Operation BRA ? I can almost imagine a sentence comprised of those words. One possibility for the new registration of VH-HAY is EQU. Wordfinder delivers an answer on this one.... A sailing ship with 3 (or more) masts and worth 17 points in scrabble. Team BRA and it's load.... Barqueing mad ;D
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Post by baronbeeza on Dec 19, 2012 20:12:24 GMT 12
Well we can all stop looking for the missing trailer.
The NZ Police has been talking to me today and they have recovered the trailer, just 6 weeks after it was stolen.
Well done you would think, but no...... we are telling a tale here.
The Police have had the trailer in their compound since late October. Say what, - that is a full month before I went to pick it up !
Perhaps they saved Baz some problems.... what does towing a stolen trailer about the countryside for 1000Km make you. An accomplice or a receiver ?
Anyway we are getting it sorted. The trailer is being returned to it's rightful owners in the Manawatu. Seems the chap I bought it off had a habit of selling things that were not actually his to sell.
Naturally I have an issue with Trademe but as I never took possession of the property there is a provision in their rules there. They are none too keen on getting involved with people selling stolen property and spinning yarns as well. I got the impression the Police wanted to show some interest in the deal also.
So in the end it may have turned out ok. Baz did not deliver me a stolen trailer so we can all sleep soundly at night.
I may still stay awake wondering why the Police never bothered to tell me that they had the trailer in their yard though. My eyes were literally on stalks the entire road trip. Looking for a trailer that was locked up in a Police compound at the time.
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Post by suthg on Dec 19, 2012 20:24:53 GMT 12
<shakes his head> man, this story never ends - but the truth has some humour and true retribution to come me thinks. I am sure you will slowly get your money back Kevin - perhaps assisted by the police. Am glad the constabulary are involved and they will fix that deceiver for good!
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Post by baronbeeza on Dec 19, 2012 20:58:31 GMT 12
It seems he had two Trademe identities.... his alter-ego sold another trailer at the same time. It had been stolen just a week before he listed it in Trademe..... hmmm, perhaps that was not the smartest. Naturally the previous owner was still looking for it after the week and probably could not believe it was for sale so soon. Rather than bid for his own trailer he called in the Police.
The Police noticed the second trailer at the property and did a Trademe search. Sure enough the exact trailer in the same driveway but with a different username. They now had any number of sales to work through and compare it to recent burglaries. 'My' trailer had been stolen a month before it was listed on Trademe.
It is me that is currently out of pocket, hopefully that can be resolved in the coming days.
Needless to say the story I was given about the burglary and the trailer, quad bike and computer getting stolen was missing just a little in the translation.
At least he told me the night before I was due to uplift the trailer, that saved me some inconvenience and stress. Not that getting told that the trailer was missing and having to find a substitute in just a few hours was so tranquil.
The dunger we ended up with did the job admirably though and saw us get home. All good in the end.
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Post by thomarse on Dec 20, 2012 8:23:13 GMT 12
So do you need a trailer collected and looked-after in the Lower North Island BB?
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Post by baronbeeza on Dec 20, 2012 9:23:31 GMT 12
No, at the moment I am out of pocket. The trailer I thought I had bought to do the aircraft recovery was never actually mine. The Trademe seller I bought it from was never the rightful owner and the Police removed it from his property a full month before I was supposed to pick it up. The problem I had was that I was blissfully unaware of all this until the eve of Baz's departure from ChCh. I only found out the trailer was missing the night before I was going to catch the 8am bus down to Woodville to pick it up. Hence all the drama we had earlier on the thread about the wheels starting to fall off the bus. Naturally the seller did not tell me the Police had confiscated the trailer, - instead I was told it had been taken in a burglary just days before.
It would appear that two trailers have been returned to their legal owners, receiving charges may have been laid, the only thing left now is for me to be refunded for my Trademe 'purchase'.
We were only ever so lucky our Plan B concocted at about 9pm on the Thursday night worked out so well. That was for Baz and Johnny to continue as planned and for me to procure a replacement trailer somewhere along the Wellington-Gisborne route before Saturday night at the latest. It was while having my 7am breakfast that I realised that I had to do an immediate 'Buy-Now' on the Carterton dunger. My bus / hitchhike down from Hastings would have been wasted if I had arrived in Carterton later in the day to discover it had been sold from under me.
It was very much a snap purchase but necessary in order for us to complete the task in hand. Baz had been advised of the state of play before he left ChCh but he still ended up leaving ChCh and blowing the Turbo before I had even seen the trailer.
At about 1.30pm on the Friday afternoon we were both having issues. Stranded, and standing on the side of the road. He was just South of Cheviot in the SI and I was dodging showers standing on the southern outskirts of Pahiatua.
It was probably at about that time that we realised that things could only get better. I had plenty to reflect on while waiting for my next lift.
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Post by baz62 on Dec 20, 2012 11:54:41 GMT 12
Man it just gets better doesn't it?? man what a thieving b'stard this bloke was! he must have been having kittens when you were coming to get it and the fuzz had taken it!! Hope you get your money back pronto Kev!
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Post by baz62 on Jan 31, 2013 11:57:43 GMT 12
Just a small update: I now have BRA registered again and she is currently in the Historic register (along with my BBZ) so for now her identity(and history) is secure and the rego can't be taken. Perhaps one day someone can breath life back into the poor old thing, there is , for instance, a J5F fuselage frame available which would be a good starting point.
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Post by ngatimozart on Jan 31, 2013 12:36:07 GMT 12
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Post by baronbeeza on Jan 31, 2013 13:34:52 GMT 12
Just a small update: I now have BRA registered again and she is currently in the Historic register (along with my BBZ) so for now her identity(and history) is secure and the rego can't be taken. Perhaps one day someone can breath life back into the poor old thing, there is , for instance, a J5F fuselage frame available which would be a good starting point. So we do have progress. Well done. Readers here will recall that we brought a couple of aircraft back from the North Island. I have been busy on the first rebuild project as well. Here is my effort to date. Slapping the topcoat on out in the summer heat. This is the very same trailer that features a couple of pages earlier in the thread. I am amazed at how well it has responded to a few coats of paint...
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Post by suthg on Jan 31, 2013 18:16:53 GMT 12
A great Dulux overhaul... I saw the photo in the Auster thread and it has come a long way in the rebuild. Very impressed with the reshaping and making it more ideal for further transport opportunities with poorly cared for aircraft, or those that have been half brought back to life but need a relocation and new owner... It looks like it may have some future tasks coming up soon...
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Post by raymond on Jan 31, 2013 18:40:33 GMT 12
It looks like it may have some future tasks coming up soon... It could do a trip to the north.... Looks great and nothing like the original!!
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Post by baronbeeza on Jan 31, 2013 20:07:21 GMT 12
I have managed to incorporate some design changes with my envisaged uses of the trailer. The winch pole can also double as the mount point for a stirrup to support an aircraft tail. If you look at how the Tomahawk fuse was sitting you will see what I have in mind. The deck extension, at the rear is over a metre long and is a 100mm drop beavertail arrangement. The front gate is 700mm high and folds down to give a 800mm forward deck extension. We persevered with a piece of 6x2 sitting on top of ply (sitting on top of the spare wheel) for the BRA retrieval. I have welded some sheaths along each side that can accommodate a length of 1 inch water pipe. The resultant stanchion will be strong enough to hold wings etc vertically. The brakes have been gone right through and can now be used. Previously the coupling shaft was bent and used to jam the brakes on.... well at least the one pad that was still working. All lights will be LED and I have reworked the jockey wheel into something that is now easy to operate. The guards are 2mm thick and are strong enough to be incorporated as a structural member. As for the colour, - well I wanted something distinctive and that would standout. Hopefully it will deter the criminal element and make easy to describe and recognise. Dizzy Lizzy is the paint name. The matt black was Phoenix Metalfix that neutralises rust. I then brushed on Carboguard 504 and the topcoat is Altex E-line 379. Any left over paint is compatible with the Altex 3094 aircraft primer I use. A Flouro Green aircraft anyone ?? I must have moved at least 5 aircraft in the past year or so and the trailer has been thought through with all of them in mind.
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