Classic Flyers Museum today

[Dave Homewood]

Bruce mentioned to me the other day he was going to Tauranga Airport today for some flying practice, so I tagged along with him and while he was aloft I took a look around the excellent Classic Flyers Musuem there.

Here are some photos:



A visitor from Ardmore, or new resident?




The Stearman was going up and down all day taking rides




Mirror Formation


Achtung, Spitfire!

[Dave Homewood]

This por Iroquois has seen better days, does anyone know the story behind it?

[Dave Homewood]

Inside the M113


Inside the Hunter






This is a rather impressive 1/72 scale model of an RNZAF WWII Pacific base, with C-47, Hudsons, Corsairs, P-40's, Dauntless and a Boomerang









A nice 1/48th Catalina model






Sorry the subject matter is scattered about, these are in the order they were taken as I wandered around over several hours...

[Dave Homewood]

I have to go do something so will post some more tomorrow or whenever I get a chance...

[flyjoe180]

Geat photos Dave, thanks Impresive collection eh, and well presented I thought too. This is what Warbirds should have done 10 years ago.

[DragonflyDH90]

Who owns the Pitts Special in the picks Dave (not the one hanging, the one on the ground), whats the rego?

[vs]

Looks very interesting. I had a look on their web page and sub scribed to their information updates and seem to be getting the quite often. They seem very pro active. Catalina must be quite a daunting task!

Hunter looks as though it would take a bit of getting used to where all the controls are!

[fletcherfu24]

They have a great cafe too.........

Good to see they have done up ZK-AVJ into its original Ag-Tiger livery from its James Aviation days at Rotorua.

[kiwi]

I understand that the Mustang is in Tauranga for a month or so . The sucess of this outfit , in my view is down to genuine passion for aviation that the people who run it have .

[Dave Homewood]

Ryan, I am not sure who owns the white Pitts, but I think it was available for rides.

The Catalina hull will indeed be a big job, but when you see the miracles they've worked with the Heron you know it's in very capable hands...

[Dave Homewood]

More from yesterday













The prop off a real aeroplane, Vickers Vildebeest

[Dave Homewood]

The cafe' there has superb tucker, and lots of nice large models, including these beautiful ones of an RNZAF Corsair and P-51D (which is real metal!)






Inside the Sabre

[Dave Homewood]

Look what else I spied on the aerodrome, a Bede BD5! It was doing an engine run and sounded just like a glow-plug model!


The M*A*S*H Sioux was busy too


Around half of the Andy moreland collection, formerly at his Tauwhare Museum near Cambridge, is now on display at Classic Flyers. Here are a couple of shots




These turrest were from Andy's collection

[Dave Homewood]

The last of the photos...







I never realised till having a close look at the Heron what an odd nose undercarriage arrangement it has.




Can anyone identify this propellor? For the sake of scale, the white notice is A4 sized paper










Inside the Heron, lovely eh!










And Bruce on landing at the end of his flying...

[flyjoe180]

Thanks for those pics Dave, they have added quite a few display items, including the fabulous overhead models in the cafe, since I last visited. The models on that Hunter wing makes me wonder if the Hunter has adopted some kiddies. "Can we go flying now dad?".

Bruce, nice parking dude

[skyhawkdon]

Great photos Dave - thanks so much for sharing them. As one who is unlikely to get to Tauranga in the foreseeable future it is great to be able to see the progress of the museum. What a great collection. Given that they have a M113 on display (I thought they had all been chopped up bar a few kept for the Army Museum??) I wonder how hard it would be for them to get a Skyhawk in due course? Lets hope they have already written to CAS asking for one "on loan" until they are sold At least they can offer indoor storage which is more than the RNZAF can! ;D

[Kereru]

Fantastic photos there Dave and there have been changes since my last visit a short time ago.
The Cafe / bar was a great venue for an hour or so after the last Tauranga Show while we waited for the traffic to go. Anyone going next year we can all meet there after the show if not before?

The work they have done on that Heron is remarkable. Compare my photo taken at North Shore on 5th June 2005 with Dave's photos taken recently.



Does anyone know what happened to the other fuselage in the back ground?

Colin

[turboNZ]

Awesome pics Dave, thanks for sharing.

I'm going to make a point of heading up there for a looksie myself.

What gets me is that the Heron is quite a large aircraft for only holding 8 or so passengers !!

[Bruce]

The Heron holds about 14 pax in standard config, essentially the equivilent of a Bandeirante. However each seat gets a huge window so its probably even nicer than a bandit!

[Dave Homewood]

skyhawkdon said:

Given that they have a M113 on display (I thought they had all been chopped up bar a few kept for the Army Museum??)

The M113 belongs to the Waiouru Museum and is on loan, just like the one that MoTaT now has. The Army still owns them, but the public are getting to see them around the country which is great. Motat's one still drives so I assume the Classic Flyers one does too.

The seats in the Heron looked really comfy too for their era. I'd imagine that they'd be much quieter and less rattly than a Bandit to fly in too.