Ted Harvie Picture

[Bruce]

Hi everyone, Today I obtained a copy of the 1975 book " Civil Aviation in New Zealand - an illustrated History" by David Rendel. I have only managed a skim through it so far, but it looks like a little goldmine of information. For example here is a Picture of E F (Ted) Harvie and DH Moth ZK-ABP (this was the machine he made his 1933 North cape - Bluff record flight in) The name on the side of the fuselage reads "Western Federated Flying Club".

What interests me is the location - which I suspect is the original Cambridge airfield. In the background there is a white post and rail fence with at least two raised sections,and several white signposts as are common by jumps on racecourses. In the print in the book, a row of hills are visible behind the trees to the right of the picture. Although difficult to tell, the proportions and shape is consistent with the hills around Roto-o-rangi, or Te Miro which lie behind the town of cambridge. The trees themselves appear to be elms, in my opinion the elms which run alongside Taylor St, by the present trotting club (the location of the airfield).
Daves investigations into the airfield suggest that it was located inside a racetrack much larger than the current trotting track. This photo appears to be in such a location. The book offers no clues, but I reckon this could be a very rare photo of the long - forgotten Cambridge Airfield....

[Dave Homewood]

That's a nice photo, thanks for sharing it Bruce.

That certainly does look like a race track, but i cannot be certain that it's Cambridge's aerodrome without some more conclusive evidence. It has to be remembered that many town's aerodromes in the early 1930's were the same deal, the centre of racetracks.

Also I have not yet found any evidence that Ted ever brought the Moth ZK-ABP up from new Plymouth, where it was based, to Cambridge. My early information about it coming here was based on 70-year old memories, and I'm now sure they pertained to his Avro Avian, which did indeed visit Cambridge on a few occasions.

Having said this, I have not found any evidence that the Moth DID'NT come here. And The area that you surmise to be Taylor Street would match the photo, as the whole street, and those perpendicular (Vogel, Hall, Grey and Victoria) were largely undeveloped for that block or so south of Taylor. They were farms, with the odd smattering of old houses, unlike today.

This is a bad scan of a bad photocopy of a portion of an aerial photo of the Cambridge racecourse area from a POSTWAR photo done by White's Aviation. I am intending someday to track down a proper print and gain permission to put it onto the site. It shows at least that even postwar the farms remained. However if you look at Taylor Street's trees in the photo and even today, I think they are closer together than seen in your shot.

So, I just don't know, sadly.

I have marked a red X where I think, if it were to be Cambridge, was probably the general area that Ted and his plane are seen

[Bruce]

I agree its not conclusive, it does have the "feel" of the right area, but without any details of the photo, we cant tell - It is still an interesting picture of a great NZ aviator.

[Dave Homewood]

Absolutely

[kiwichappers]

Now then Bruce,
I am beginning a to build a model of ZK-ABP as flown by Ted Harvie on his Cape Reinga to Bluff on the flight of 12 July and would like to copy your photo above for reference. Would that be OK?

regards
Francis

[Peter Lewis]

A good pic, but be aware the Rendel's book is chock full of errors ( and those parts that aren't are generally a crib of AHSNZ).
Double check any 'factual' material from that book before you use it.

[shorty]

I'd second those comments, there are some fairly dodgy photo captions too.