30 years of jet Warbirds in NZ, the first - Venom J-1634
Aug 29, 2017 5:34:00 GMT 12
Dave Homewood, mumbles, and 6 more like this
Post by Venomnut on Aug 29, 2017 5:34:00 GMT 12
Having a huge interest in Venoms, I couldn’t let this day go by without recognition.
30 years ago today, on the 29th of August 1987, saw the first flight of a privately owned ex military jet warbird in New Zealand.
The ex-Swiss DH112 FB50 Venom J-1634, was the first of 3 Venoms to carry the ZK-VNM registration.
It had a relatively short time on the air show circuit, just over 4 years, but it led the way for many other jet warbirds to follow.
Many of you will probably know the history of J-1634, or bits of it. For those that don’t and are interested, here’s most of it -
- 150 FB50 and 100 FB54 Venoms were built under licence by F+W and Pilatus in Switzerland for the Swiss air force. J-1634 was one of 24 FB50 Venoms that were configured as FB50R’s in the photo reconnaissance role and it entered service on the 9th of August 1956. In 1969 it was one of 16 FB50R’s that were converted back to stock FB50 configuration after the Swiss introduced their Mirage 3RS’ in to service. John Luff’s currently airworthy J-1630/ZK-VNM(3) was also in this batch.
Here are a couple of photos of J-1634 in service at Ulrichen, Switzerland. Photos with permission from Michel Berard.
DH Venom J-1634 Ulrichen photo via Michel Berard. © Michel Berard. by Jason Mills, on Flickr
Untitled by Jason Mills, on Flickr
- Like all the remaining Venoms in Swiss service it retired in the early 1980’s and was put up for sale by auction. Purchased by Trevor Bland through a U.K agent, Aces High Ltd. On the 27th of February 1985, J-634 flew in formation with J-1614/G-BLIE from Buochs, Switzerland to Stansted in the U.K. It’s understood that J-1634 was never put on the G register. It was dismantled at Stansted and shipped to NZ.
- It arrived here in September 1985 on the ship “Remuera Bay” but due to poor packing in the U.K the Venom sustained damage during shipping. There were several problems during reassembly, one of which being one of the Left wing attachment bolts bound up and required a repair scheme to be applied.
- Almost 2 years after arriving in the country, on the 27th of August 1987, J-1634 now registered as ZK-VNM made its first flight in NZ skies from Whenuapai in the hands of Trevor Bland. The Swiss pointed “Globi” nose had been replaced with a round profile nose. The aircraft had been repainted in the markings of Trevor’s Venom ‘WE434’ ‘Lima’ which he was allocated during his time at Tengah flying leased RAF FB1 Venoms for 14 Squadron RNZAF.
- ZK-VNM(1) was flown and displayed mainly by John Denton, though Trevor did do some displays. John would fly the Venom in a tail chase routine with Trevor flying Mustang ZK-TAF.
YouTube clip of the Venom displaying at Dairy Flat
- Around October 1990 Trevor sold the Venom, it was initially thought a syndicate could be formed to operate it but that quickly settled on the joint ownership between Grant Biel and Rob Booth. At this time the compressed air start mod was done allowing the Venom to be started with either the original cartridge system or a compressed air ground supply (dive tanks). Rob and Grant both flew the Venom, Grant on 2 occasions, 4th of May 1991 and the 7th of July 1991. Rob flew the Venom a few times and was the first GA pilot to fly an ex-military jet in NZ. I spoke to Rob recently about flying the Venom and he said it was nice to fly as long as you kept to the numbers. He preferred flying the Sea Fury though.
Photos via Qwilton Biel,
DH Venom J-1634 Ardmore getting ready Photo via Qwilton Biel ©Qwilton Biel by Jason Mills, on Flickr
DH Venom J-1634 Ardmore lineup Photo via Qwilton Biel ©Qwilton Biel by Jason Mills, on Flickr
DH Venom J-1634 ardmore preflight Photo via Qwilton Biel ©Qwilton Biel by Jason Mills, on Flickr
DH Venom J-1634 Ardmore start Photo via Qwilton Biel ©Qwilton Biel by Jason Mills, on Flickr
DH Venom J-1634 Ardmore postflight Photo via Qwilton Biel ©Qwilton Biel by Jason Mills, on Flickr
- Rob sold his share to Grant around the beginning of November 1991 and about 2 weeks later...
- On the 17th of November 1991 the Venom was scheduled to display over the Auckland harbour with Mustang ZK-TAF. In a streamed take off Trevor got airborne first in the Mustang with John Denton in the Venom as #2.
The Venom failed to get airborne from runway 25 at Ardmore, overran and went through the perimeter fence, across Airfield Road just in front of a passing car, through a freshly ploughed field, through a line of trees stopping short of another row of trees. John was uninjured but the Venom had suffered severe damage to the leading edges of the wings and a large hole had been punched in the left side of the cockpit. The aircraft was recovered back to Grant's hangar assessed and written off. It was stripped of its components, dismantled and stored.
An unfortunate end to ‘our’ first jet warbird but at least there were no injuries. As far as I’m aware the damaged pod is with John Luff in Wanganui and the damaged wings and one boom are with Pioneer Aero at Ardmore.
Here are some photos I took of the pod, in Grant's hangar around 2005, not sure of the exact date.
J-1634 pod Ardmore circa 2005 by Jason Mills, on Flickr
J-1634 pod Ardmore circa 2005 by Jason Mills, on Flickr
J-1634 pod Ardmore circa 2005 by Jason Mills, on Flickr
The wings at Pioneer Aero, Ardmore in June 2017
DH Venom J-1634 Damaged wings by Jason Mills, on Flickr
DH Venom J-1634 Damaged wings by Jason Mills, on Flickr
We’ve been very fortunate to have another 2 examples of the DH112 Venom fly here, J-1799 as ZK-VNM2 and J-1630 as ZK-VNM3.
There are only 4 examples currently airworthy worldwide. 2x in the U.K (both have just been sold to an American operator) 1x in the U.S.A and 1x in NZ.
In the following years we’ve been very lucky to have such jet types flying here as,
DH115 Vampires
Cessna A37B Dragonfly
Mig 15
Fouga Magister
Soko Galeb
Hawker Hunter
Strikemasters
L29’s and L39’s
Quite impressive for a country of our size I think.
So after 30 years of jet warbird operations, what will the future bring?
Hopefully Classic Flyers in Tauranga can return their Aermacchi to the air.
Maybe a Skyhawk?? You never know.
Thanks to Qwilton Biel, Rob Booth, Michel Berard, John Denton and Bill Rolfe for information on
J-1634.
If any forumites have photos of J-1634 in their stash they’d like to share, please do!
Jason.
30 years ago today, on the 29th of August 1987, saw the first flight of a privately owned ex military jet warbird in New Zealand.
The ex-Swiss DH112 FB50 Venom J-1634, was the first of 3 Venoms to carry the ZK-VNM registration.
It had a relatively short time on the air show circuit, just over 4 years, but it led the way for many other jet warbirds to follow.
Many of you will probably know the history of J-1634, or bits of it. For those that don’t and are interested, here’s most of it -
- 150 FB50 and 100 FB54 Venoms were built under licence by F+W and Pilatus in Switzerland for the Swiss air force. J-1634 was one of 24 FB50 Venoms that were configured as FB50R’s in the photo reconnaissance role and it entered service on the 9th of August 1956. In 1969 it was one of 16 FB50R’s that were converted back to stock FB50 configuration after the Swiss introduced their Mirage 3RS’ in to service. John Luff’s currently airworthy J-1630/ZK-VNM(3) was also in this batch.
Here are a couple of photos of J-1634 in service at Ulrichen, Switzerland. Photos with permission from Michel Berard.
DH Venom J-1634 Ulrichen photo via Michel Berard. © Michel Berard. by Jason Mills, on FlickrUntitled by Jason Mills, on Flickr- Like all the remaining Venoms in Swiss service it retired in the early 1980’s and was put up for sale by auction. Purchased by Trevor Bland through a U.K agent, Aces High Ltd. On the 27th of February 1985, J-634 flew in formation with J-1614/G-BLIE from Buochs, Switzerland to Stansted in the U.K. It’s understood that J-1634 was never put on the G register. It was dismantled at Stansted and shipped to NZ.
- It arrived here in September 1985 on the ship “Remuera Bay” but due to poor packing in the U.K the Venom sustained damage during shipping. There were several problems during reassembly, one of which being one of the Left wing attachment bolts bound up and required a repair scheme to be applied.
- Almost 2 years after arriving in the country, on the 27th of August 1987, J-1634 now registered as ZK-VNM made its first flight in NZ skies from Whenuapai in the hands of Trevor Bland. The Swiss pointed “Globi” nose had been replaced with a round profile nose. The aircraft had been repainted in the markings of Trevor’s Venom ‘WE434’ ‘Lima’ which he was allocated during his time at Tengah flying leased RAF FB1 Venoms for 14 Squadron RNZAF.
- ZK-VNM(1) was flown and displayed mainly by John Denton, though Trevor did do some displays. John would fly the Venom in a tail chase routine with Trevor flying Mustang ZK-TAF.
YouTube clip of the Venom displaying at Dairy Flat
- Around October 1990 Trevor sold the Venom, it was initially thought a syndicate could be formed to operate it but that quickly settled on the joint ownership between Grant Biel and Rob Booth. At this time the compressed air start mod was done allowing the Venom to be started with either the original cartridge system or a compressed air ground supply (dive tanks). Rob and Grant both flew the Venom, Grant on 2 occasions, 4th of May 1991 and the 7th of July 1991. Rob flew the Venom a few times and was the first GA pilot to fly an ex-military jet in NZ. I spoke to Rob recently about flying the Venom and he said it was nice to fly as long as you kept to the numbers. He preferred flying the Sea Fury though.
Photos via Qwilton Biel,
DH Venom J-1634 Ardmore getting ready Photo via Qwilton Biel ©Qwilton Biel by Jason Mills, on FlickrDH Venom J-1634 Ardmore lineup Photo via Qwilton Biel ©Qwilton Biel by Jason Mills, on FlickrDH Venom J-1634 ardmore preflight Photo via Qwilton Biel ©Qwilton Biel by Jason Mills, on FlickrDH Venom J-1634 Ardmore start Photo via Qwilton Biel ©Qwilton Biel by Jason Mills, on FlickrDH Venom J-1634 Ardmore postflight Photo via Qwilton Biel ©Qwilton Biel by Jason Mills, on Flickr- Rob sold his share to Grant around the beginning of November 1991 and about 2 weeks later...
- On the 17th of November 1991 the Venom was scheduled to display over the Auckland harbour with Mustang ZK-TAF. In a streamed take off Trevor got airborne first in the Mustang with John Denton in the Venom as #2.
The Venom failed to get airborne from runway 25 at Ardmore, overran and went through the perimeter fence, across Airfield Road just in front of a passing car, through a freshly ploughed field, through a line of trees stopping short of another row of trees. John was uninjured but the Venom had suffered severe damage to the leading edges of the wings and a large hole had been punched in the left side of the cockpit. The aircraft was recovered back to Grant's hangar assessed and written off. It was stripped of its components, dismantled and stored.
An unfortunate end to ‘our’ first jet warbird but at least there were no injuries. As far as I’m aware the damaged pod is with John Luff in Wanganui and the damaged wings and one boom are with Pioneer Aero at Ardmore.
Here are some photos I took of the pod, in Grant's hangar around 2005, not sure of the exact date.
J-1634 pod Ardmore circa 2005 by Jason Mills, on FlickrJ-1634 pod Ardmore circa 2005 by Jason Mills, on FlickrJ-1634 pod Ardmore circa 2005 by Jason Mills, on FlickrThe wings at Pioneer Aero, Ardmore in June 2017
DH Venom J-1634 Damaged wings by Jason Mills, on FlickrDH Venom J-1634 Damaged wings by Jason Mills, on FlickrWe’ve been very fortunate to have another 2 examples of the DH112 Venom fly here, J-1799 as ZK-VNM2 and J-1630 as ZK-VNM3.
There are only 4 examples currently airworthy worldwide. 2x in the U.K (both have just been sold to an American operator) 1x in the U.S.A and 1x in NZ.
In the following years we’ve been very lucky to have such jet types flying here as,
DH115 Vampires
Cessna A37B Dragonfly
Mig 15
Fouga Magister
Soko Galeb
Hawker Hunter
Strikemasters
L29’s and L39’s
Quite impressive for a country of our size I think.
So after 30 years of jet warbird operations, what will the future bring?
Hopefully Classic Flyers in Tauranga can return their Aermacchi to the air.
Maybe a Skyhawk?? You never know.
Thanks to Qwilton Biel, Rob Booth, Michel Berard, John Denton and Bill Rolfe for information on
J-1634.
If any forumites have photos of J-1634 in their stash they’d like to share, please do!
Jason.
