RNZAF DC-6's, F-27's, 727's - questions

[ray]

Hi folks,
Ray ,a new member here, from across the way in Melbourne. I have just been alterted to your site by my good buddies at "Aussie Modeler" (and, on having a brief look at this site, a fine reccommendation it was too!!!).
My model theme/area-of-interest is that of "Government and Military operated Airliners" and, this being the case, I am currently researching the RNZAF aircraft that fall into this catergory. I was wondering if anyone could help me with the following:
- good colour references of the DC-6 fleet.
- what are the "bulges" under the DC-6 forward fueslage??
-Did NZ3631 have a dedicated/permanant VIP interior or was it a "changable" cabin config.
-good colour references of the F-27 fleet.
-Did the F-27 have a VIP cabin config
-How many differant variations of the 727
"light blue" scheme was there?? (I have noted at least two)
I would also be most interested in talking to anyone who worked on / flew these aircraft (eg- Techos,
Flight Stewards, Pilots, Loadys etc ).
Be most grateful for any assiatance offered.
Regards for now.
Ray

[corsair67]

Ray, are these any help?

[RNZAF 727]

Hay Corsair67,
Great shots but OOOOOuch!!!!, what the hell happened. Bet the SENGO at 40SQN at the time, would have been REAL impressed!!!
Shots very helpful, thanks for quick response.
Reagrds
Ray

[corsair67]

Bruce (another forum regular) knows more about this, and I'll quote him below:

"This will be the machine that had a prop overspeed out of Changi in Singapore. the prop fell off on the landing roll and did the damge shown. The back end of the DC-6 was then removed and flown somewhere (USA?) in the back of a Shorts Belfast, before being refitted and the aircraft re-entering service. That is quite a bit of damage, would have taken some serious engineering to fix up."

Regarding the Friendships, I don't recall them being set up as VIP aircraft per se, but they did have seating for a few people onboard (20-ish?). I remember them flying out of Wigram on SAR missions, or mercy dashes to places like the Chatham Islands to pick up sick or injured people. Prem. babies seemed to be the order of the day at one stage.

[Dave Homewood]

Welcome to the forum Ray

What a neat topic to choose to model. Don't forget the RNZAF also operated the TEAL Short Empire Flying Boats on operations in 1940-41, another for the list. I interviewed a navigator from some of those flights last week.

As far as I'm aware the Friendships never had a VIP kit. They were not used for transportation as such, only training (at least when I was associated with them). That back half of the fuselage did had regular airliner seats, but I think these were only used when taking groundcrew, etc, to other airfields for exercises.

I did once get roped into help install the Prime Minister's kit into the Boeing 727 for Sir Jeffery Palmer. I was amazed at the lavishness and expense. The table had just been restored and had cost $10,000 I was told! This thing had sofas, a bed, drinks cabinet, special blue carpet...
And the PM says the Air Force is a waste of money.

-good colour references of the F-27 fleet.

I have the entire F27 paint scheme plans pulled from a rubbish bin when NATTS closed at Wigram. It's rolled up in a tube somewhere, but I cannot lay my hands on it. It has every detail you'd need for a model on it.

[corsair67]

Ray, there are some good photos of the RNZAF Friendship colour scheme at -

apma.org.au/reference/aircraft/fokkerf27/rnzaf/fokker27rnzaf.html

[Dave Homewood]

Are you also interested in the RNZAF's Cessna 421C Golden Eagles? This was taken with a disposable camera in 1989 so sorry for the poor quality



Here's a poor photo I took in 1989 of the two 727's in the older, nicer scheme


And an equally poor photo of the latter scheme on NZ7271

[corsair67]

Dave, I have to agree with you on that: the original scheme on the B727s looks much nicer. The blue colour in the later scheme looks too washed out.

Gee, I still remember how exciting it was when the RNZAF got the B727s, and how much I was looking forward to seeing one in Christchurch.

[Dave Homewood]

I flew several times in the Boeings from Harewood to Auckland and back. I loved them. They always seemed to o up like a rocket on take off.

An enduring memory for me however is the smell inside the Friendships. I can still smell it now. Every time I walked into one, if even to just do maintenance on something, it took me back to when I was 9 years old and had my first ever flight, to Norfolk Island. Such a lovely, comforting, exciting and pungent aroma. Other airliners have a similar smell, but the Friendly is the one for me.

[kiwichappers]

Ray,
In the early seventies as an Industrial design student at the Wellington [University] School of Design I remember students in the year ahead of me working with Civil Aviation Department to develop a console/suite for calibration flights. This was to tailored fit into a RNZAF Friendship and the group working on the project made a mock up [probably using Dexion angle and cardboard as a first move] and flew on a number of calibration flights between Wellington and Christchurch to trial the unit.

I do not know if the design progressed beyond this point. The students who flew on the trials regaled us afterwards with details of some very exciting flying by the calibration crew. After embellishing the Friendships aerobatic performance week on week for some time one sensed the Friendship must have been secretly stressed for near aerobatic performance. ah the folly of innocent youth.

regards
Kiwichappers

[steve]

F27 Friendship was and still is a neat aircraft...and memories from childhood days stay with you I suppose for life....Whenuapai as a shared military /civil airport does it for me and my first overseas trip in a TEAL Electra (1962) was so very exciting with everyone in their sunday best....i think Qantas offered flights there (norfolk) in DC4s?? Were the friendships a NAC overseas flight?

[phil82]

Ah, sweet nostalgia, the wonderful DC6. When I left the RAF for the RNZAF, I flew out to New Zealand in one of those DC6s, and it took three weeks! It was 42 years ago this week. The three aircraft were inherited by the RNZAF from the then TEAL, when the latter bought the Electra, and were fitted for trans-tasman ops only, so they didn't have long legs. We went from Mildenhall in the UK, to Lajes Field in the Azores, then Bermuda, South Carolina, Oklahoma City, Las Vegas, then Travis Air Force Base just outside San Francisco where we got stuck for ten days! The reason being; we needed a tail-wind to guarantee or arrival at our next stop, Hickham. As it was, we had to refuel on a coral strip with nothing on it but a fuel supply, Canton Island, or Kanton. Then it was Hickham, Nadi, and eventually, Whenuapai. There was another connection between the , by now Air New Zealand Electra, and the three DC6s. When the Hercs arrived, the DC 6s were parked in the open at Whenuapai when that ANZ Elektra crashed after a very heavy landing, and it was heading in a direct line for the parked aircraft, but fortunately didn't make it! I think the DC6s ended up as water bombers in Canada, though one was reputedly parked for many years at an airfield in South America. A lovely bird to fly in though, light years away from the Hastings!

[Dave Homewood]

Steve, my flight to Norfolk, at Easter 1980, was Air New Zealand. Mum and Dad had previously gone on the very last NAC flight there in 1978 (I think, or maybe 77). On the way back we were booked on QANTAS but found we were actually flying on a subsidiary airline, EastWest, which was also a F27, and a great airline. Not sure if EastWest still exists.

Colin, I never knew an Electra had crashed at Whenuapai. I had assumes the crash was at Mangere. Thanks for that story. Of the DC-6's, NZ3631 went in June 1968 to Air Laos, and later went to the Indonesian charter airline Penas Aerial Survey who crashed it in Feb 72. NZ3632 and '33 left the RNZAF much earlier in April 1964, and did indeed become waterbombers in the USA, after serving first with Pacific Western Airlines in Canada and another charter company in California.

[phil82]

27th March 1965, ANZ Electra on crew training, made a very heavy landing at Whenuapia. The aircraft was a write-off, and was replaced with one purchased from Qantas. The Electra was quite a noisy aircraft incidentally, from a passenger persepective, especially if you were sitting in line with the props.

You're a mine of information!

[phil82]

Wasn't the calibration F27 a civilian registered aircraft owned and operated by Civil Aviation and based at Paraparaumu?

[Dave Homewood]

The Calibration F27 was civil, but still comes under the term of "Government and Military Operated Airliners" as would their earlier C-47's which had a neat colour scheme or two too.

[corsair67]

Isn't she beautiful?

[steve]

My grandmother took a holiday in Fiji in 1961 and she was sure that she flew on a RNZAF DC6 with airforce flight staff etc...I often wondered why the airforce would take paying customers?? any ideas?

[corsair67]

Maybe there was a Strike on at the time?

[mumbles]

I've got a vivid memory of that Calibration Flight F27 thundering down the Hutt Valley at not higher than 500ft during a school lunch break in 1987. Certainly a lot lower than the ANZ F-27's regularly seen overhead.
It was based in Paraparaumu, they built a hangar for it in 1985 which it can't have used for more than a few years before they got rid of it.
Anyone got dates and fate of that aircraft?