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Post by oj on Mar 12, 2010 22:49:39 GMT 12
The first photo is of the former CT4 assembly line occupied by a population of electrical wiring loom assembly boards. Another view of the loom board area with "toast-rack" of stowed loom-boards on the right. There were 160 separate wiring looms for each aircrfat (some quite small). A closer view of loom assembly: ....and a typical reasonably-sized loom-build: More to come (if anyone is interested). OJ
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Post by oj on Mar 12, 2010 22:38:45 GMT 12
I thought some might be interested in the RNZAF A4K Project Kahu avionics upgrade from a manufacturing angle. All of the electrical wiring looms and several of the electrical system panels & boxes were manufactured at PAC, tested, kitted and dispatched to Woodbourne where Safe Air did the installation to the airframes.
OJ
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Post by oj on Mar 12, 2010 20:49:33 GMT 12
Mixed feelings about this: No 6 I recall in my 1963-65 2TTS course years was full of stored Harvards and Devons.
No 7 I have little fondness for, remembering only the bad parts: 1. Long, slow, boring queues in the silent pay-parade every fortnight and having to "salute the Queen" as you took the envelope from some pimply petty pay-clerk.
2. Assembling there every morning if the weather was wet, to catch buses to 2TTS because we were too valuable to be allowed to march in the rain in case we got the flu.
3. Having to play sport in No. 7 if it was really wet. I was forced into playing basketball against the CET ("Conchies") where a big tall streak of weasels weeze called Lund-Jackson kept knocking me over because he had no sense of fair play. He later went on to become a prominent NZ Rep player. I never liked sports people who were bullyingly serious and selfish.
4. I once got wrongly charged and received a week's jankers for allegedly bad-mouthing a GSI who was getting impatient about loading us on the bus on wet morning at 7 hangar. I took the rap for a Com Air fitter who was too gutless to admit it was him. A weeks jankers on an operational base is not so bad (so they tell me) but on a training base like Wigram it was a hateful experience. That injustice embittered me towards the "system" somewhat.
5. Being forced to play badminton in No 7 on wet sports days (1963) amongst a bunch of prancing NCO's trying to drum up numbers for their dainty little club.
Bah! When's the bonfire?
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Post by oj on Mar 12, 2010 20:07:55 GMT 12
Yes, Pacific Aerospace Corporation circa 1987. Strikemaster servicing line. (The former Fletcher final-assembly line) During those years when we were not manufacturing any aircraft, but did a lot of military contract work: Strikemaster servicing Project Kahu A4K Mod kit manufacturing Iroquois servicing LCACV Rudder manufacture ... and many other military projects at times other than this.
In the photo, the walking mustache is Alf McLaughlin. I believe he is still at PAC?
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Post by oj on Mar 11, 2010 21:55:30 GMT 12
Hurrah, photo success at last. Thanks Baz62 for the help. OJ
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Post by oj on Mar 11, 2010 21:53:34 GMT 12
Photo upload test: OJ
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Post by oj on Feb 26, 2010 20:55:39 GMT 12
I thought I had done this but must have been dreaming. Never mind. Here we go ....
Here goes
What's your name? Owen Jones
Where are you from? Hamilton
How old are you? 64
What is your main interest in aviation? Is it historic? Airlines? Military... Most topics, mainly technical content.
Tell us about your background in aviation. Are you just an enthusiast or have you got more hands on experience? Are you a pilot? Do you have an Air Force Background? Or a civil aviation background? ATC, RNZAF, Civil (LAME Avionics). AESL, NZAIL, Icarus, JAL, PAC ........
Do you belong to any aviation groups, like the NZ Warbirds, RNZAF Association, Royal Aeronautical Society or CAF, etc? RNZAFA, RAeS.
Are you an aircraft modeller? (Scale or R/C) No. Tried some plastic models as a kid but didn't like the octopus glue! What are your favourite aviation books? Aviator Extraordinnaire - (The Sidney Cotton Story) Fire Across the Desert (Official History of the British-Australian Joint Project at Woomera)
What are your favourite aviation films or TV programmes? WW2 Historical. Doco's.
Do you frequent other aviation forums? Rarely.
Have you any comments or suggestions for this forum, to hopefully improve your own personal usage and enjoyment on the forum? I think it is very good the way it is, but I still cannot work out how to load photos. I read all the instructions but still cannot "Get it". I reckon someone should write it again in a clear, unambiguous manner. Or some member volunteer to act as a de-facto photo-loader for me that I can send photos to (without impacting on Dave, who has kindly already loaded some for me previously)
OJ
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Post by oj on Feb 25, 2010 22:05:12 GMT 12
Don't be so dismissive, Chaps.
Waikato companies benefited considerably from the M113 overhaul programme in the 1980's. 1. The engines and transmissions were overhauled by Ross-Todd motors in Cambridge. 2. The idler wheels were re-tired by Paramount Recaps in Cambridge. 3. The communications equipment and looming was overhauled by PAC at Hamilton airport (in the former JAL Electrical Section). 4. The "airframe" was completely stripped down and overhauled by the Ministry of Works at Turangi, who also did the complete re-build and test-driving was done by NZ Army drivers on a test track area in the Turangi foothills.
OJ
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Post by oj on Feb 25, 2010 21:42:10 GMT 12
About four years ago they got one stuck in the Waimakariri or Rakaia river. It went into a hole and got too deep. I coined a limmerick at the time:
When crossing a river by Pinzgauer It pays to belay to a tower Then if you get stuck You can re-trump your luck And back out with a handy right-bower
OJ
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Post by oj on Feb 16, 2010 21:26:05 GMT 12
There was a quite long-running Nomad marketing back page in NZ Wings over several editions, showing the Nomad at NZAIL (the NZ Distributors at the time). The "passengers" disembarking are all NZAIL staff of the day, press-ganged into the occasion. I remember the day but not the date. The photo was taken between the NZAIL and JAL Hangars, with Airport Rd in the background.
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Post by oj on Feb 4, 2010 21:07:19 GMT 12
Guys, You must go to some of this stuff: There is a wealth of excellent reading and photos in Wikepedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carvair Particularly in the External Links at the bottom of the page. You will see, for example the complete history of ZK-NWA, now a crashed wreck on an Alaskan mining airstrip. I worked on Carvairs extensively at JAL and did substantial electrical system modifications to upgrade the aircraft for the Hawaiian client. OJ
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Post by oj on Jan 28, 2010 22:25:40 GMT 12
Now I am getting perplexed because the Taupo Heritage extract above says SPANZ built the airfield "about 1962". If that were true, maybe the Army just upgraded it in 1963 for Reflex 2? This is doing my head in! Until Bruce's query, I had no reason to disbelieve what we were told when we were deployed to Reflex 2 from Ohakea (that the Army built the strip from scratch). What does the SPANZ history book (Richard Waugh) say about it?
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Post by oj on Jan 28, 2010 21:58:42 GMT 12
Here's an item from a Central Taupo Heritage Report dated March 2009: Air transpor t The first Taupo Airfield called Tauhara Aerodrome was buil t at Tauhara in 1929. In the 1930s it was utilised by Wilson and Horton for the delivery of the NZ Herald. As at 2000, this was still used by the Taupo Gliding Club. In about 1962 a small airline, South Pacific Airlines of NZ got a licence to fly in and out of Taupo. Spanz buil t a temporary airstrip at Lochinver Station, near Rangi taiki. In 1964 two storms devastated the airstrip w hich was then clos ed by the Government. By then the Taupo Borough Council had decided to build an ai rport. The Rangitaiki airstrip was replaced by the new airport at Wharewaka, the present Taupo Airport site, in mid 1965. 197 SPANZ ceased operations from 1966, and service from Taupo was taken over by the National Airways Corporation (NAC), later Air New Zealand. 198 With the development of the new ai rport at Wharewaka Point, the Aero Club moved and established a permanent hangar there. The old airfield was designated Centennial Park, reduced to one runway, and the remaining area was developed into a horse-racing track and motorcar circuit's. (end of insert) The bit about SPANZ building the airfield at Lochinver is not strictly correct. It was certainly re-graded and re-commissioned if you like at that time, but no bugger has given any credit to the NZ Army Engineers who built the original! This is a poor show by the consultants who wrote the report. You can read it on page 38 of the report: www.taupodc.govt.nz/Documents/Projects/Commercial%20Industrial%20Structure%20Plan/Reports/Town%20Centre%20Heritage%20Report.pdf
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Post by oj on Jan 28, 2010 21:16:22 GMT 12
OK, I stopped at the present Rangitaiki pub on Tuesday (the one that was there in 1963 burned down about 1983). The two staff on duty had no knowledge of the building of the airfield or the big Reflex 2 exercise. They produced a couple of scrap-books of historical stuff that was cut and pasted from newspapers and reprints over the years up to the present day, but niether of them had anything about the construction of the airfield. The locals there today just know it as part of Lochinvar (sheep)Station. There was one undated cutting that confirmed the airfield was granted a commercial licence for use briefly before the opening of the new Taupo Airport, so that confirms Bruce's statement about SPANZ use at the time. No doubt a visit to the local Taupo newspaper of the day (1963) would yield some detail, as at the time it was quite exciting for the locals. This was a big exercise with several hundred personnel under canvas. On the last Saturday of the exercise, there was an open-day and flying display which the public lined the highway to watch from (it being the only slightly elevated viewing position). That was also the day the Hastings landed, and took-off again. The wake vortices picked up the fine pumice dust and everything was obscured for a while then! If there was any Taupo member who could pop in to the offices of the local rag and check their archives we might all learn some more ..........? Operation of the Vampires caused a lot of jet-blast rutting of the compacted pumice surface so the strip was being groomed frequently by the Army graders and rollers. Whenever the sumpies did ground-runs on the side of the strip, the jet efflux caused deep cratering of the ground and the plume of dust created was huge (like a battleship smoke-screen, but white and more effective). OJ
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Post by oj on Jan 25, 2010 22:16:29 GMT 12
Sorry, I don't know anything about that Bruce. I am very thin on SPANZ information (though I know an LAME who worked for them years ago). I don't know where he is to contact him nowadays. OJ
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Post by oj on Jan 25, 2010 20:23:45 GMT 12
Surely someone else was there? Phil82, had you got to Ohakea by then? I am driving from Hamilton to Napier tomorrow. I am going to stop at Rangitaiki and savour a moment for posterity. Perhaps it's too boring a subject for many readers, but I found it very interesting how the Army engineers built a one-mile runway out of compacted pumice and the Vampires operated from it successfully (they hitherto being regarded as paved-runway-only capable). Never mind. I have tried to plant a seed ..... OJ
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Post by oj on Jan 18, 2010 21:38:08 GMT 12
Actually at the back of Aero Engine Services Ltd just outside the Airtourer assembly hangar. OJ
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Post by oj on Jan 18, 2010 21:25:05 GMT 12
Ah, Josephine! When I first started work with Aero Engine Services Ltd in 1967, I parked my motorbike and ate my lunch under her wings on many a hot sunny day. I was also guilty of poaching a few parts for use on the new AESL engine test truck that was under completion at the time. I just want to remind readers here that the location is more correctly AESL than PAC, as back then, even the NZAIL hangar had not been contemplated and the office block had not grown to two levels. If we captioned "present-day PAC" I guess that would be OK. OJ
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Post by oj on Dec 30, 2009 20:05:01 GMT 12
I'm keen to learn more about EMK. I haven't seen this one before and don't recognise the hangar. Other than the original JAL PT6-powered CTZ, I have not seen a dual-wheeled Fletcher. Perhaps these were the duals off CTZ, as in later years when it was put on static display, the duals were removed beforehand. OJ
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Post by oj on Dec 30, 2009 19:52:16 GMT 12
More amazing stuff! Absolutely spiffing. With regard to the photo taken from the NZAIL Cafeteria window; if Woody 99 wants to know who owned the cars in the photo, I can provide most of the owners names! The paint scheme on DAH was the result of an NZAIL staff competition. The scheme chosen by the judges was not that generally favoured by the staff, so we called it Yukky Dah! This was because it was more like pink puke than puce! OJ
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