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Post by madmax on Feb 18, 2017 23:18:07 GMT 12
Haha, yep me thinks you have hit the nail on the head there Peter!
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Post by madmax on Feb 18, 2017 17:07:22 GMT 12
... and still people continue to call it "Gods own"!
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Post by madmax on Feb 12, 2017 12:24:25 GMT 12
I have Sydney friends vising NZ at the moment. Pictures they send back show them well rugged-up against the Kiwi summer
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Post by madmax on Feb 6, 2017 11:05:47 GMT 12
For anyone who is interested the address given in the Flea article for Don Cope, Co-ordinator, Flying Flea Sqdn is 1778A Papaiti Rd, RD 14 Wanganui. However as this article was published more than 22 years ago he may no longer be there or even alive.
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Post by madmax on Feb 6, 2017 10:46:20 GMT 12
Hi Peter, Yes that appears so. The last that was heard of the pre-war Coromandel Flea is when a young chap picked up the damaged craft and its Bristol Cherub motor in the late fifties.
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Post by madmax on Feb 5, 2017 11:56:57 GMT 12
Hi Guys, Back in Sept 2015 I commented about a Flying Flea at Coromandel which I'd read about in an Aussie mag many years ago and promised to look up the article when I returned there. Well I've located the article which was published in December 1994 and written by a Kiwi, Don Cope, Co-ordinator, Flying Flea Sqdn. It details a modified HM 14 nearing completion by Vincent Kilsby at Coromandel. Pictures show the fuselage and rudder to be identical to the HM 14 however the wings have parallel chord. The aircraft looked complete except for covering and was powered by a twin cylinder two stroke Rotax engine.
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Post by madmax on Jan 25, 2017 22:47:59 GMT 12
Hi Dave, Yes, you are probably correct. The images I have were most likely taken a month before Wellington's official opening as the over-run area of Runway 34 is still void of grass in my pic which points to the airport having only recently been completed
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Post by madmax on Jan 25, 2017 11:13:28 GMT 12
I have a colour transparency of an Argus lining up on runway 18 at Wellington and have always thought it was taken at Wellingtons opening pageant. I may be wrong in my assumption.
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Post by madmax on Jan 25, 2017 8:46:25 GMT 12
Perhaps it was the aircraft which attended the Wellington International Airport opening in October 1959. Due to the restricted apron area at Wellington many of the visiting military aircraft were based at Ohakea and Christchurch during their NZ visit
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Post by madmax on Dec 30, 2016 9:00:50 GMT 12
Hi Peter, Re the Magister BBA crash at Harewood on 1/6/56 it could not have been too serious as it was alive and well just a few years later. I photographed it in the CAA hangar at Wellington in 1960 or 61 when it was owned by Bruce Bonner who was an NAC engineer. It was painted blue and white at the time.
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Post by madmax on Nov 7, 2016 23:24:29 GMT 12
Ok thanks Peter. It must have been almost 50 years ago that I was towing at Masterton. The Gliding Club was then a division of the Wairarapa and Ruahine Aero Club. I remember John as a very likable jovial chap. Don't recall the names of many others who were gliding there at that time except Jack someone, an English chap, who was gliding club president and a Dave Goodrick who we tow-pilots nicknamed "down wind Dave" as he had a knack of catching lift and usually released from the tow=plane as it turned downwind at about 500 feet
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Post by madmax on Nov 7, 2016 19:11:02 GMT 12
Is this the John Shuttleworth who flew gliders at Masterton in the 1970s? If so I used to tow him aloft behind Piper PA18/150 ZK-BNP
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Post by madmax on Sept 3, 2016 18:43:34 GMT 12
I was on Rongotai airport the day the first Friendship ZK-BXA arrived and took a couple of Kadachrome slides of it which I still have in my collection. Must have been 1960
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Post by madmax on Aug 21, 2016 16:58:34 GMT 12
The empennage of the first five YA-1 Cropmasters were wooden units from original CA-6 Wackett trainers however the Australian DCA banned them when it was discovered that agricultural chemicals were affecting the glued joints. The metal "stabilator" fitted to later Cropmasters were copied from the Piper Comanche, however while their dimensions were identical to those of the Comanche their construction was much simplified. I'm unsure it the fin and rudder were Comanche copies.
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Post by madmax on Jul 19, 2016 23:05:52 GMT 12
Thanks for that, planewriting
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Post by madmax on Jul 19, 2016 19:14:27 GMT 12
Anyone know the current whereabouts/status of Pawnee ZK-BWS? Last I heard it was with Rotorua GC but I'm told its moved on from there.
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Post by madmax on Jul 18, 2016 11:31:04 GMT 12
Hi kiwiduster 1 , I have several relatively close-up b&w images of the spray-gear on ZK-ANL when it arrived at Bridge Pa in August 1989 for restoration. If you're interested I can copy them for you
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Post by madmax on Jul 18, 2016 11:11:29 GMT 12
Hi Clee80V, As a young lad in the 1950's I had a job cleaning Wellington Aero Club aircraft after school on Rongotai aerodrome, Wellington New Zealand. I was also a keen photographer and never went to the aerodrome without my camera. I photographed Ranchwagon ZK-BRJ there in December 1956 when it visited to have a radio installed at Aviation Radio and I still have the photograph to this day.
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Post by madmax on Jun 17, 2016 19:36:59 GMT 12
Oh, no. How many poor suckers stung this time!
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Post by madmax on Jun 17, 2016 19:31:19 GMT 12
ZK-BTR is at the owners home at Kelvin Grove Palmerston North and in many pieces. The owner is in his 80s so work on rebuilding it is very slow. Last saw BJR in 2003 painted as NZ1425
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