Here's an artilce from the Wairarapa Times-Age. I note it states that the Corsair is owned by the Vintage Aviator. is that correct? It used to be part of the Old Stick and Rudder Company's collection, who still have it on their website.
Mates not crates for flyboysGerald Ford | 24th January 2011
Comrades: RNZAF veterans Robin Carter, Peter Thomas, and Roy Wilson, together again at Wings Over Wairarapa after flying together in World War II. Photo / Susan Nikolaison The show is more about the mates than the crates, say the World War II pilots who are the faces of Wings Over Wairarapa this year.
The air show publicity poster this year was a 1944 photo of four RNZAF pilots in front of a Corsair aircraft. Three of those pilots - Robin Carter, Peter Thomas and Roy Wilson - are still alive, and Wings organisers presented them to the crowd along with other World War II veterans.
The fourth, Ivor Field, who was also photographed for the poster, died recently.
"I always come, not for the show, but to meet my mates," Mr Carter, who lives "around the corner" from Hood Aerodrome, said, adding he enjoyed "hearing the Harvard in the air every now and then". "I could have walked here, but (organiser) Tom Williams insisted that he drive me here".
The Harvard was used at Hood Aerodrome and elsewhere to train pilots for World War II.
At Wings the old flyboys had a chance to look over a Corsair belonging to Vintage Aviator. "It was a wonderful plane," Mr Carter said. "I had an anti-aircraft shell go through the engine and it still flew."
Mr Carter pointed to a large odd-shaped bomb beneath the photographed Corsair.
"They were called daisy cutters," he said.
"They had a piece on the end that made the bomb explode just above the ground." Those bombs cleared undergrowth, causing huge explosions that required a quick turnaround from pilots - to get safely back above 1000ft.
"Pulling up from a bombing dive we put six times gravity force on our bodies," Mr Carter said.
The Corsair, which Mr Thomas remembered as having "bags of firepower", would then return to attack exposed men on the ground with anti-personnel bombs or the three machineguns on each wing.
Mr Thomas also remembered how the plane was capable of "very tight turns".
The men flew the planes briefly in Guadalcanal before transferring to Bougainville.
Mr Field was represented by his younger son, Nigel, who had brought along his father's logbooks to show the men.
Nigel said his father had not spoken much of the war.
It had been a former crewman who told him of Mr Field snr's "dead reckoning" navigation that on one mission had saved the lives of all on the plane.
"There was only one opportunity to go through the cloud and he found the island," said Nigel.
"He (the crewman) was pleased to be able to tell the story.
"I think he thought his number was up."
Other World War II pilots present were survivors of the Battle of Britain and the famous Dambuster missions, as well as "Wairarapa Wildcat", fighter ace Geoff Fisken.
www.times-age.co.nz/local/news/mates-not-crates-for-flyboys/3938012/
cheers
