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Post by camtech on Oct 31, 2014 21:42:03 GMT 12
I must say Dave, I never found sand in any Andover I worked on, but I believe there were some examples found during depot servicing.
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Post by baronbeeza on Oct 31, 2014 22:12:37 GMT 12
I have seen sand, and lots of it, taken out of an aircraft at Wigram. I am pretty sure it didn't come from any desert though. More on topic though I know of a Pilot Officer at Ohakea that lost seniority in 1980 after returning with sand behind the nav light. It was a bit of a private joke though as even with the 3 months loss he was still not Junior Bograt, - missed by about 3 weeks from memory. He reckoned it wasn't all bad.
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Post by Deane B on Oct 31, 2014 23:08:14 GMT 12
According to adf.serials the two Devons at No. 2TTS were both sold to a P. Hindin, but remain in storage with the RNZAF Museum. Alson it accounts for the other two not seen in the photos that used to be at 4TTS. One is now just a nose section, the other is a tailless aircraft. Was there a nasty accident on the marshalling training day? :-) I worked at the school from 1998 to 2005. When I arrived the Devons were NZ 1805, 1806, 1813, 1819, 1820 and 1822. There had been another (ex 2TTS?) but it was gifted to nelson ATC a few years prior to my arrival. 5 Devons were hangared and 1820 sat outside. 1820 had been with Wigram museum, but had a large window cut along the RH side of the fuse. 1820 was also the Devon that had a wheels up incident in Wellington. The pilot put wheels up whilst taxiing after suffering a brake failure, to avoid collision with an Andover, suffering structural damage to the RH wing. So it was pretty run down and deteriorated and ended up being sold to a group in Ardmore who took it away for spares. The remaining aircraft were in very good condition, with engines regularly run. Any corrosion (extremely rare) or other problems were rectified "by the book". NZ1905 was recently sold and has been made restored to airworthy status by JEM aviation. Unsure if it has flown yet. The Blunty's were 65, 66, 75 and 76. The former still had 8-10 % fatigue life on the wings and from memory either 75 or 76 had new wings or at least a fair bit of fatigue life remaining. Once again they were in excellent condition, having been stored inside for there retired lives. As per the photos two were in original schemes, one fully in the new camo, and one half and half. No aircraft were repainted over the period I was there. I can tell you the story behind the UH-1H and 727, but that's for another day
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Post by Deane B on Oct 31, 2014 23:16:24 GMT 12
The GTW Devons and Strikemasters should all be sold to the private sector or given to museums (more likely as none of the Blunties will ever fly again because of the wing fatigue problems - not sure about the Devons airworthiness status though). The Skyhawks should be used as instructional airframes. When they retire the Hueys in a few years some of them could join the A-4's as instructional airframes. In both cases there are plenty of spares already in the supply system (already paid for) and all the support equipment, publications and system training courses are already in place. Seems pretty logical and common sense to me... they should have been using the A-4's for the last 5 years instead of paying Safe Air to "maintain" them. I guess that is why I'm not in the mob any more - too much logic and common sense for them! I put a proposal forward to do just that. The Skyhawks were a political issue and although using them for training was seen as a logical idea, it was a definite no-go. Later at a dining in I did mention it to the CAF and his words were, if we had tried to do it, we'd both be looking for new jobs! The Hueys were a bit limiting from a training proposition, but still proposed. But their retirement was a long way in the future anyway.
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Post by baz62 on Nov 1, 2014 7:07:39 GMT 12
There had been another (ex 2TTS?) but it was gifted to nelson ATC a few years prior to my arrival. ) This was NZ1804 which ended up with aeromedia for a while and is currently in storage at Ashburton as a spares source for airworthy NZ1828 based there.
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Post by scrooge on Nov 1, 2014 8:17:07 GMT 12
[/quote]1820 had been with Wigram museum, but had a large window cut along the RH side of the fuse. 1820 was also the Devon that had a wheels up incident in Wellington. The pilot put wheels up whilst taxiing after suffering a brake failure, to avoid collision with an Andover, suffering structural damage to the RH wing. So it was pretty run down and deteriorated and ended up being sold to a group in Ardmore who took it away for spares.[/quote]
1820 actually ended up at North Shore with Devon 21 Syndicate, bought as a lot for the engines. We onsold the fuselage to aeromedia a couple of years ago. The story we were told was the 'brake failure' was due to not having turned the air on, being pneumatic that's a bit of an issue, and the aircraft it was about to ram was a new Herc.
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Post by baronbeeza on Nov 1, 2014 9:03:58 GMT 12
I remember the Devon 'wheels-up' at Wellington, - if only in talking to the pilot and Squadron mates in the days following. Steve Cairns (Rupert) and Ross Nyberg were onboard and the joke was how they surprised everyone with their speed of exit from the cockpit. I would think the incident occurred about mid 1980.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Nov 1, 2014 14:28:54 GMT 12
The brake failure on NZ1820 occurred on Friday the 28th of March 1980. It was an Andover that it was heading towards, and stopped 23 metres from the Andover, and 16 metres from a power cart when the wheeled were pulled up. The Devon suffered Category 4 damage.
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Post by scrooge on Nov 1, 2014 16:15:32 GMT 12
Always interesting to see or hear different versions of the same event, I was always told it was a Herc and usually that it nearly made contact (i.e. within feet not metres).
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Post by McFly on Nov 3, 2014 11:53:24 GMT 12
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Post by Dave Homewood on Nov 3, 2014 13:02:07 GMT 12
It doesn't really look that badly damaged. I guess they could have repaired it had the fleet of Devons not been on its way out of service?
Is Category 4 damage bad or not so bad?
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Post by camtech on Nov 3, 2014 16:39:07 GMT 12
Cat 4 - major repair. Cat 5 is write off, so I guess the expense and time didn't stack up, considering the fleet numbers and tasks.
Also looks can be deceiving - compare to car. Many are written off because of apparent minor damage, but the cost to straighten, rejig and re-align can be very significant.
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Post by trimotor on Nov 3, 2014 17:22:26 GMT 12
Bit oof semi-related thread-creep..
It would have been an interesting time, experience-wise. As a new co-pilot on the Andover, some of the captains had been co-pilots on the Andover by single-pilot IFR captains on the Devon at the same time - the irony being that on the Andover they could only do VIP trips (e.g. PM of the day) in the right seat, but if it was a Devon VIP task they were in the left on their own!
Sqn CO at the time was ex-freighters and had been on the initial Andover course (or very early on, having delivered one of the aircraft). He helped me (as a brand new Andover copilot) move (under tow) a visiting Freighter at WP, during which he told stories about Freighter brakes...incidentally, I was impressed by the 'Bristol' logo cast into the rudder pedals...
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