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Post by johnnyfalcon on Apr 12, 2021 20:59:23 GMT 12
Great info guys! So, in case I missed it, what was NZ2422's eventual fate?
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Post by agalbraith on Apr 13, 2021 7:11:07 GMT 12
Great info guys! So, in case I missed it, what was NZ2422's eventual fate? Welllll that's the 60 thousand dollar question mate. It was the Mustang I was most interested to find too. My gut feeling is that from what I have seen she ended up as parts. But all the fuse panels that I saw that went to the UK in a separate shipment to Philip Warner (which became '06') now flying in the US. I never saw any remains of serial numbers of NZ2422. In fact all the side panels that had chequers painted on the side had rectangular 'punch holes' like we have seen on so many others. I have tried to see if I could get those skins back for historical reasons and was told yes, but have had nothing go any further. Whether Philip still has them or they went with the rest of the project to Bob Baker...I must phone him up.
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Post by baz62 on Apr 13, 2021 11:35:04 GMT 12
Regarding the burnt Spitfire replica. I seem to recall NZ Wings having a news piece where Peter was going to put a RR Kestral up front......
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Post by steamfan on Dec 18, 2021 17:24:07 GMT 12
I just had a phone call from Don Subritzky. He used to visit Pete Coleman regularly and they were good mates. He said that Pete worked for the power board and as part of his job he had to regularly spend a week at a time at some substation in the hills near Motueka. While he was there he would take the opportunity to go visit lots of the orchardists who'd bought Mustang parts from ANSA, and he would buy up these old bits and take them home to Blenheim. This is how he got a lot of extra spares, buying them from the orchardists, he says. Now Don reckons that the two Mustangs in the photos above are probably the same aircraft. He theorises this because he says Pete was fascinated by the squadron markings and he used to apparently take the aft fuselage off his complete aircraft and fit other sections he had to it. Anthony says there were carefully de-riveted fuselage sections, so maybe this is possible? It seems implausible but Don is sure it happened, and Pete Coleman was certainly the type who might attempt that given other stories about his innovation. Dave Lochead reckons he saw a Spitfire Mk. V once at Pete's place, but we have never really worked that out. The best theory was it might have been a replica. Could the wing chop have been for this perhaps? Don also said that the Mk. Vc Spitfire that was seen at Pete's was genuine. He knows because it was his. He loaned the RNZAF his Spitfire Vc when they were making the moulds for the fibreglass examples, he says, and it went to Woodbourne. When they were finished with it they did not immediately return the aircraft and it was actually stored at Pete Coleman's place for some while till Don got it back. Pete was using it as a guide to get the contours from so he could cut his Mustang wing to look like a Spitfire.
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Post by steamfan on Dec 18, 2021 17:36:51 GMT 12
Pete told me had been sent a lot of spitfire parts from England but they never reached NZ. I don't remember what he said they were packed in or how they were sent. [thats a long time ago]. I have still got photo's of his Ja loco at his house, it was blocked just above the line so he could fire it up, turn the wheels and blow the whistle. Pete worked at the waihope power station.
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Post by steamfan on Dec 18, 2021 18:24:50 GMT 12
Great info guys! So, in case I missed it, what was NZ2422's eventual fate?
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Post by steamfan on Dec 18, 2021 18:33:07 GMT 12
Another funny story. A shearer mate of mine Bobby Lambert told me he was shearing in a shed in Blenheim when there was an allmighty roar and sheep whent all directions. When he asked what the noise was he was told don't worry its only Pete Coleman starting up his mustang. It must have been parked in the padock somewhere near the shed. ooroo
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Post by McFly on Dec 19, 2021 10:20:59 GMT 12
Didn't Pete chop a pair of mustang wings up to make them look spitfireish? Dave Lochead reckons he saw a Spitfire Mk. V once at Pete's place, but we have never really worked that out. The best theory was it might have been a replica. Could the wing chop have been for this perhaps? Don also said that the Mk. Vc Spitfire that was seen at Pete's was genuine. He knows because it was his. He loaned the RNZAF his Spitfire Vc when they were making the moulds for the fibreglass examples, he says, and it went to Woodbourne. When they were finished with it they did not immediately return the aircraft and it was actually stored at Pete Coleman's place for some while till Don got it back. Pete was using it as a guide to get the contours from so he could cut his Mustang wing to look like a Spitfire.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Dec 19, 2021 12:27:39 GMT 12
Yes that is correct of course. But the Museum also did make a part fuselage-part wing replica of a highback Spitfire which used to be in their Battle of Britain display, and that could well have been moulded from the Mk. Vc.
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Post by McFly on Dec 19, 2021 14:25:34 GMT 12
Yes that is correct of course. But the Museum also did make a part fuselage-part wing replica of a highback Spitfire which used to be in their Battle of Britain display, and that could well have been moulded from the Mk. Vc. This one.. (Thought it was wood ply/veneer over a wooden frame..?)
(Johnny Checketts in the cockpit with Bill McIndoe looking on)
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Post by Dave Homewood on Dec 19, 2021 14:27:56 GMT 12
I am not sure as I have never studied its construction. You're probably right. Mine was just a theory.
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Post by davidd on Dec 21, 2021 9:13:52 GMT 12
That is Sally Saunderson in last photo, worked for Museum for many years, in administration (Accounts). Just building up her flying hours. She was still with Museum in 2010. Have a fair idea that Spitfire cockpit was the Museum's simulator version (there was also a Skyhawk simulator, perhaps both still in service?)
David D
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Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 12, 2023 8:27:13 GMT 12
NZ2427 is back! And looking better than ever, despite the larger canopy which has been added during the TF-51 conversion. Photos from the Ultimate Warbird Flights Facebook page. Restored by Richard Grace's team at Sywell.
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Post by ZacYates on Aug 14, 2023 19:12:52 GMT 12
They look to have done a fantastic job, I was very pleased to see those pics! Bravo to all involved and fingers crossed for a smooth test programme.
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Post by ZacYates on Aug 18, 2023 14:24:18 GMT 12
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Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 18, 2023 14:37:56 GMT 12
Interesting find Zac.
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Post by madmax on Aug 19, 2023 15:17:43 GMT 12
I became acquainted with Tony Chaytor during the nineteen seventies he was a somewhat eccentric individual who hitchhiked around the country to fly-ins, usually AACA affairs as he was predominantly interested in homebuilt aircraft and had a dismantled, or parts thereof, Druine Turbulent. I recall him hitching south from Te Kowhai presumably heading for Marlborough, with a damaged Turbulent wing, all 22feet of it, on his back. He came from a Marlborough farming family and I read years ago where his grandfather or father had sown seed on property using a hot air balloon early last century
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Post by Peter Lewis on Aug 19, 2023 22:27:05 GMT 12
I also have Chaytor down as part-owner of the Taylor Monoplane ZK-EDZ 1986-93.
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Post by madmax on Aug 19, 2023 22:32:16 GMT 12
Yes, I had an idea he had an involvement with a Taylor mono too
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Post by ZacYates on Aug 20, 2023 21:14:01 GMT 12
The big thing for me about "Pete had two Mustangs" is: if that was the case, why are there no photos of them together?
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