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Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 10, 2005 21:10:05 GMT 12
If there was one aircraft that no longer flies in New Zealand but used to serve in the RNZAF (at home and abroad) that you'd love to see operated as a Warbird on the regular airshow scene, what would it be?
Canberra? Skyhawk? Strikemaster? TBF-1c Avenger? Douglas Dauntless? Lockheed Ventura? Hawker Tempest? Andover?
Whatever you want. You can have a few picks too.
I personally would love to see a flying Lockheed Hudson bomber. They were the first modern aircraft capable of defending NZ from attack, and the first into the combat zone in the Pacific. Also operated by many RNZAF airmen in Europe too.
I'd also LOVE to see a flying Vildebeest or Vincent, and a Dauntless and another Avenger. They'd be my picks.
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Post by turboNZ on Mar 10, 2005 21:14:17 GMT 12
Me, it's a Tempest...
What else flies on a Napier Sabre (apart from a Typhoon of course !)
Probably rarer than all of these other aircraft listed as well.
TNZ
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Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 10, 2005 21:22:33 GMT 12
Shall we save up and buy Kermit Weeks's genuine 486 (NZ) Sqn Tempest then?
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Post by turboNZ on Mar 10, 2005 21:26:52 GMT 12
Even if we did, I doubt we could keep the Sabre running on all 24 !!!! TNZ
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Post by Bruce on Mar 11, 2005 20:02:20 GMT 12
What about Kermit Week's other genuine Kiwi Warbird - A Mark 5 Sunderland? Its really exciting, it wasnt that long ago when if you asked the same question you would get "Corsair, P40, Bristol Fighter, Vampire or Catalina" and it would be "in your dreams mate..." Lets keep dreaming!
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Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 11, 2005 23:26:28 GMT 12
OK, we'll get the Sundy, and fill the belly with the disassembled Tempest when he's not looking. ;D
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Post by turboNZ on Mar 12, 2005 10:03:09 GMT 12
Sunderland would be great but let's not have a display like that one at the opening of Wellington Airport in the 60's where the pilot scaped the belly along the runway...... TNZ
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Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 12, 2005 13:11:06 GMT 12
A bloke here in Cambridge was the navigator on board that! He said had it not been for the skill of the pilot they'd have crashed on landing back in the water. The hole made was massive he said.
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Post by turboNZ on Mar 13, 2005 1:16:48 GMT 12
A bloke here in Cambridge was the navigator on board that! He said had it not been for the skill of the pilot they'd have crashed on landing back in the water. The hole made was massive he said. Yeah that's all very well, but why did he fly THAT low along the runway in the first place ? mmmm,.... I guess the same reason the Vulcan crew tried to land too short of the runway and bent the gear.... (Sad to note that Vulcan and crew were lost 3 days after that ) TNZ
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Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 13, 2005 2:44:37 GMT 12
Since you live in Wellington I'm sure you're aware that there's a little problem there with wind, and downdraughts at the airport. It is one of the world's most dangerous international airports!! The Sunderland was undoubtedly sucked onto the runway by the wind.
Also, funny you mention the crew dying from the Vulcan. Where did you read that because I too have read it, and when I mentioned it on FlyPast a while back I was disproved. They all returned to the UK and the aircraft survived several more years they reckoned!
It was apparently a seperate Vulcan that came here for an exercise at a different time that crashed en route home. I'd like to confirm this because I have read or seen on TV the Rongotai incident crew were killed
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Post by turboNZ on Mar 13, 2005 11:03:26 GMT 12
Oh okay it was a downdraught...oops I humbly retract my With the Vulcan it was on a documentary I have on vid-tape which incidentally showed the Sunderland cruising down the runway on it's belly. I'll have to get it out and have another look but I do firmly remember them saying that the same Vulcan crashed 3 days later. Perhaps the documentary was wrong. Cheers TNZ
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Post by Bruce on Mar 13, 2005 13:31:43 GMT 12
The documentary is most definitely wrong. The Vulcan landed back at Ohakea and slewed off the runway. It took several weeks to recover the aircraft, requiring laying steel mesh planking for heavy cranes, and an assortment of bulldozers to get it back on the runway. I had some newsclippings of it in a scrapbook that someone gave me a number of years ago, however I cant find it now .... Duh. aparently it took another 3 or 4 months to complete repairs to the undercarriage and ruptured fuel tanks before the aircraft flew back to the UK - with RNZAF Roundels! The aircraft that crashed was on a round the world flight and had passed through Ohakea a few days previously, which confused the media at the time (This Myth gets repeated often enough to become "fact"). It makes good sense as the damage to the Vulcan was extensive, there was absolutely no way it could have been repaired and Back in the UK 3 days afterwards. Vulcans had comparitively limited range which meant stopping in Australia, Malasia (Butterworth) Ceylon, Cyprus etc, and there were very strict rules about the number of legs that could be flown in a Day. Back to the subject of the Thread - What about a Mosquito (Maybe in a few years...)
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Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 13, 2005 13:43:33 GMT 12
Ooh yes, a Mossie is a real possibility but it will be a few years away. I visited Glyn Powell's restoration workshop a few weeks back, and he is just beginning to get ready to lay up Jerry Yagen's Mossie fuselage. The first test-shot that is going to Canada was still in his workshop then (Feb 14).
After Yagen's. he said he has to do one for Kermit Weeks, another for And Aussie guy, another for a Canadian, and then his own. So by the time Glyn's is up and running the world population might be quite good. I don't know if the Aussie and Canadian ones are static or flyers. Kermit's and Jerry's will fly.
IOn fact Yagen's Mosquito remains are at Ardmore and it will be assembled there, so we will hopefully see the first flyer take off from Ardmore. Should be cool.
Re the Vulcan - I sawa photo of that one with Kiwi roundels the other day, I'm sure ity was taken at Rongotai and wore the roundels during that airshow! Of course the caption in the book may have been wrong.
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Post by Bruce on Mar 13, 2005 17:06:01 GMT 12
A Vulcan with Kiwi Roundels would have to be after 1970, before then the roundels had a silver fern, such as painted on the "Rongotai" Vulcan. Another vulcan did visit in the 1970s and was "claimed" overnight by the RNZAF and wore Kiwi roundels back to the U.K. I think that one was camoflaged though.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 13, 2005 17:42:11 GMT 12
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Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 13, 2005 17:51:06 GMT 12
And one in colour here www.avrovulcan.org.uk/other_photographers/498_ohakea_1.htmThe one I saw very recently was I'm sure in the nuclear white scheme, and the Kiwis in the roundels were really large. I have been racking my brains as to where i saw it. Maybe an old Wings magazine? It was about a month ago. In fact, it might not have been taken in NZ now that I think about it, it may have been a British airshow. I simply cannot recall fully.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 14, 2005 6:00:44 GMT 12
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Post by turboNZ on Mar 14, 2005 22:05:07 GMT 12
I wonder what a flying Vincent/Vildebeest would look like flying?
Is there a chance this will ever happen?
TNZ
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Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 14, 2005 23:51:27 GMT 12
It would look even more gorgeous than it does on the ground. One of my all time favourites. So many great stories attached, so many great pilots involved. And NZ's main defence in the beginning of the war till 1941. The Subritzky Vincent is amazing but will be static, as is the Wigram Vildebeest. However I think someday we might just see another flying. I hope. Did you know prewar the Hobsonville Vildebeest crews formed a three-ship display team that even looped in formation - imagine it. I'd pay money to seethet - even if it was a good CGI movie!!
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Post by Bruce on Mar 15, 2005 7:22:52 GMT 12
Perhaps someone could demostrate the "walk through the Propeller" trick - It is supposed to have been done with these machines!
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