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Post by Dave Homewood on May 7, 2005 17:05:07 GMT 12
A poster to the Key Publishing FlyPast forum said some time ago that there are apparently several Douglas Dauntless divebombers hidden away in various places in New Zealand.
The only one I knew about, apart from the RNZAF Museum's crashed example which was retrieved from the Islands in about 1987, was one that Ross Jowett brought in some years ago, but that is apparently now in the USA.
Doesanyone know whether there's any thruth in others being stored in NZ? Several were sold for scrap here in NZ so may possibly have been ferreted away by scrap dealers or their customers...
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Post by hairy on May 19, 2005 17:32:01 GMT 12
Ross Jowett recovered the substantial remains of one from Vanuatu in the 80s, he could not find a buyer in NZ so it was sold to the US for restoration. It had crashed whilst in US service but it was one that had served with the RNZAF and subsiquently returned to US forces with the others, I could get the serial for you if you would like next time I am at Ardmore.
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Post by Dave Homewood on May 19, 2005 18:09:39 GMT 12
Thanks Marcus, any details you can get would be great.
The discussion on Key stared more towards Dauntlesses that had been sold here for scrap, the training aircraft left in NZ. This chap reckoned there were about four about the country stored. I am sure it's possible if someone bought them from the scrapper. With folding wings there are not too hard to store in a barn.
After all, we all thought a few years ago that no Oxfords had survived, but the Subritzky example proves us wrong.
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Post by hairy on May 20, 2005 8:16:59 GMT 12
Further more Motat has (had?) some parts that were dug up from the dump at Seagrove but they were in bad shape due to being buried at or below sealevel.
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Post by Dave Homewood on May 20, 2005 23:53:20 GMT 12
Interesting. How many other airfield dumps have been dug through in NZ? Does anyone know?
Irecall very late 1980's seeing on the news where Taieri was dug and several Tiger Moth parts recovered. They'd hoped to find Tigers in their crates but I never found out if any were found in that condition.
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Post by hairy on May 22, 2005 18:32:46 GMT 12
The Dauntless that Ross Jowitt had was at one time NZ5021 but these were just bits and pieces. I will have to get back to you with the serial for the one that he recovered from Vanuatu.
The dumps at Seagrove were never fully excavated due to time restrictions, Alabar horse stud now owns the property (a client of mine) and on my last visit out there you can clearly see where the dumps are.
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Post by Tony on Jun 8, 2005 23:52:42 GMT 12
Ummm...
Folding wings on a SBD?
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jun 9, 2005 0:19:37 GMT 12
"Well done, Macfire, I was just seeing if anyone was awake" [Captain Mainwaring voice off]
You're quite correct, they didn't have folding wings now that I think about it - unusual for a US Navy carrier plane of the day.
Welcome to the forum too by the way
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stephen
Leading Aircraftman
Posts: 0
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Post by stephen on Aug 31, 2005 23:26:00 GMT 12
I remember going to seagrove in the late 60s as a boy hunting for relics from the "secret air station." The local farmer told me that motat people had done a lot of digging for dauntless remains and was very helpful. The 2, 5000 foot ardmore like strips were still very visable through the grass.
steve
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