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Post by mumbles on Jan 19, 2008 0:21:29 GMT 12
Not sure if this is the right spot for this, feel free to move it on Dave or Craig.
After a cleanout at my parents place, I have been leafing through a bunch of aviation mags from the 80's.
In the July 1985 Flypast there is a tribute to Stefan Karwowski, a warbird pilot on the european circuit, written by Stephen Grey.
According to the tribute he was from New Zealand, and was killed test flying a newly assembled Pitts Special, being buried in Nelson.
At the time I had never heard of him (even though I was all of 8 years old), but have never really heard a mention of him since either.
Anyone able to offer some background?
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Post by Peter Lewis on Jan 19, 2008 6:31:21 GMT 12
Yes - Stefan and I were in the same class at High School in Whangarei. His father was ex-Polish Air Force, escaped from Poland just in front of Hitler, and then joined the RAF. Came to NZ as a farmer at Manu after the war. Stefan joined the RAF straight from high school on a short-service commission, as you could in those days. I lost touch with him soon after. After his RAF service, I understand that he worked in the middle east as an instructor in some of their air forces. He probably sparked my interest in 'things with wings'.
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Post by aileronroll on Jan 20, 2008 15:30:17 GMT 12
I could be mistaken here but I think the Pitts was owned by Tim Wallis who has asked him to display it over a Boy Scout Camp ?
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jan 21, 2008 13:57:04 GMT 12
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Post by Peter Lewis on Jan 21, 2008 20:36:52 GMT 12
The Pitts was an S-iE, ZK-ECO. Construction started by R C Goding, Hamilton, in the 1970s. Sold (uncompleted?) to Tim Wallis and first flown 1May1983. The crash was near Wanaka on 25Apr85 with a total of 14 airframe hours. The wreckage was apparently sold to E C Roberts, Hamilton, who was building a Pitts S-1S-E. How much of the original ECO was incorporated into ZK-ECO/2 I don't know, but CAA regarded it was a new rather than a rebuilt aircraft. Seen here at Hamilton airport August 1997 (Phillip Treweek photo): ZK-ECO/2 was cancelled as exported in April 2004, and registered as G-CCXK in June 2004 to Peter Bond, Thetford, UK Stefan had a younger brother, Adam, who now lives not far from me and is involved in gliding.
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Post by hardyakka on Jan 24, 2008 3:47:13 GMT 12
Wow! Good to know what happened to Chris Roberts' old Pitts. I lost contact with him when I changed jobs a few years back. Chris took me for my first aerobatic flight (in a C152 - good old EJZ). I was invited to inspect ECO a few times while Chris was (re)building it and he had to redo almost all of it. The tail section was the most recycled bit. Funny thing about the "Mooloo dark" paint scheme. It only happened because the paint supplier reversed the quantities of red and black paint. The original plan was a (traditional) red overall with yellow and black stripes to give the Waikato colours. The paint took so long to arrive that he just swapped the colours rather than wait for the order to be returned and re-supplied.
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