PL-11 Airtruck

[stu]

Feb 11, 2010 14:31:47 GMT 12 ErrolC said:

Feb 11, 2010 12:45:45 GMT 12 roger said:

With regard to the DVD documentary about the PL-11 Airtruck:
However, I still felt that the movie lacked "character" and -- for my own entertainment only -- produced a version

Been there, done that. One of the battle sequences on the Battlefield Cambridge DVD works really well if you start "What's that Sound" at the same time, but we couldn't distribute DVDs with the song on them.

Try this guy for donation based royalty free music...
incompetech.com/

I've used one of his tracks in a project I'm working on to add to the NZ Warbirds site. N.b. this video is FAR from finished, just here to illustrate the music....


Cheers,
Stu.

p.s. if it's any help, I can send you the clean sfx of the Harvards as used in the clip.

[roger]

Thanks guys, This gives me a few leads. I'll check that incompetech website over the weekend and see what I can find. Yes, Stu, a CD or even an audio clip (MP3 file?) with some Harvard engine noise recorded on it could be useful -- even if it is only for experimentation, but then again it might "do the trick". You can find my email address in the "members" listing -- postal address is PO Box 246 Wendouree, VIC., 3355 Australia.
Where's Wendouree, you ask? Its a suburb of Ballarat, and Lake Wendouree was made famous as the venue for the 1956 Olympic Games rowing events ... but it is now no more than a mess of swampy ground (!)

[roger]

Oh yeah -- Stu, your movie clip is really good!!!! Could've been tempted to stay up all night watching some of the others ...

[nzav8a]

ZK-CKE Wellington

[Peter Lewis]

Nice pic there nzav8a. I guess that would have been early in CKE's life.

Those who attended the recent member's meeting at the hotel in Cambridge will have seen the copy of Roger's DVD that I ran through late in the afternoon, A stout effort, with a lot of previously unseen footage of the test flights.

Thanks Roger.

[nzav8a]

ZK-BPV Te Kuiti 1963

[stu]

Feb 12, 2010 23:21:38 GMT 12 roger said:

Thanks guys, This gives me a few leads. I'll check that incompetech website over the weekend and see what I can find. Yes, Stu, a CD or even an audio clip (MP3 file?) with some Harvard engine noise recorded on it could be useful -- even if it is only for experimentation, but then again it might "do the trick

Hi Roger,

I'll put some mp3s together and email them to you in the next couple of days.

Cheers,
Stu.

[The Red Baron]

I see a death notice in the paper for John Colin Worthington,DFC. (Service No: NZ415727 Royal Air Force 605 Squadron WWII.
Driving force behind Northern Aviation and the PL-11's development and pilot of BPV when it met its demise.

[ron]

To give this old thread a kick along, the Queensland Air Museum at Caloundra recently took delivery of Airtruk VH-HSB (formerly ZK-CWX)



The aircraft was trucked to Caloundra in Feb and March courtesy of HARS. Do any of the learned Airtruk afficionados on this forum have images of VH-HSB in an Australian livery other than the existing green & white AND with an operator's name on the aircraft?

Rgds
Ron

[30sqnatc]

I picked up a copy of Air Pictorial July 1960 issue in a second hand bookshop today which had this piece in the World Air News section

[davidd]

One thing I would like to see on this thread is a picture of the really ugly PL-7 "Flying Tanker" built by Kingsford Smith Aviation Services in Australia about 1957. As mentioned earlier in this thread, it was powered by an Armstrong Siddeley Cheetah engine, with a fixed pitch metal propeller (Fairy Reed). I have two pictures of this equally strange machine in a commercial book "The Aeroplane Pictorial Review (No.2)" of 1957, pages un-numbered unfortunately, but in "Utility Aircraft Section", where it is described as the "Pellarine PL-7 built in Australia". It was clearly a sesqui-plane similar in many ways to the PL-11, but had a much larger lower wing (without any dihedral), and a slim fuselage with pilot seated right at rear under a small canopy (somewhat like that fitted to the Murrayair MA-1 conversion of Stearman). Upper wing was mounted parasol-fashion on fairly long and splayed out cabane "N" struts, and further struts brace the upper and lower wings together and against fuselage. Upper wing comprises a flat centre section, and outer panels with modest dihedral. Pilot forward visibility must have been relatively poor from that far back (although providing plenty of references for aligning with horizon) along the very long nose - looks like about 15 feet or more in front of windscreen - and God knows how the hopper was loaded - as tailplane is continuous, presume it was loaded from the front at an angle over the wing, although the loader's arm and bucket would have to fill hopper from in front of the pilot's cockpit, presume cockpit well sealed against swirling dust! General shape of wings and tail surfaces similar to PL-11 - no taper, slightly rounded squared off tips. However the large and continuous tailplane had rounded tips which projected out well past the vertical tail surfaces, with V-struts bracing fin against tailplane on outer faces, single strut on inner faces. The elevator had large aerodynamic balance areas at tips. Overall dimensions cannot have been too much smaller than the PL-11, but pilot was a lot closer to the ground; presume he had an entry door on port side, but difficult to see in photographs, cannot see foot holds. Comments welcome!
David D

[hairy]

Hi David

The short video in the link below should answer your questions...........

www.t3licensing.com/video/clip/48050006_5000.do

Some additional pictures here............. www.aviastar.org/air/australia/kingsford_pl-7.php

[davidd]

Hairy,
Thanks for that, all new pictures to me. I also googled this unlovely thing, which like the PL-11 seems to have been praised by those pilots who tried it out. The engine is always quoted as a Cheetah X, which was the version fitted to Oxfords, so no surprise where the engine came from, ditto the prop and cowlings (much the same story as the Wasp engine in the PL-11, except for the "donor" aircraft.) However the horse power rating of 400 HP quoted in every article seems somewhat higher than is usually the case with this model. Apparently there was no entry door (as falsely suggested by me), pilot had to jump in over cockpit sill after sliding canopy back. The loader driver could be carried in the hopper (cough, cough! Like the NZ PA-18 mod.) Had hydraulic brakes on mainwheels, etc, and something not obvious in the original photos I have is that the tail booms are converged towards the rear by quite a degree.
David D

[rayo]

I came across these Airtuck and Airtruk threads recently and remembered I had a photo which I have now found. As photo's of the P-11 in particular seem quite rare and because the registration is clear and I know exactly where and when it was taken I decided to post it.

Here we are at New plymouths old Bell Block Airport in May 1965.

[Peter Lewis]

Thanks, Rayo.

[isc]

I put a photo of CKE on another forum, forgotten which on but should be able to find it, it has Don Erceg climbing out at Bell Block after coming back from high altitude trials that Rural did on the West Coast of the South Island in 1966.
Got a bit of info about the PL-7 Tanker in the 1958 volume of the Observers book Of Aircraft, It gives the weights E 2230lb F 5000lb, 45 cu ft hopper/1 ton super. spray booms built into the trailing edge of the lower wings. Wired for bomb racks.
Speeds;Max127mph at sea level, cruise(75% power)112mph, operating speed 70 - 90mph. Ceiling 12800ft, initial rate of climb 740ft/min, range 360ml. Span40' 9 1/2", length 24' 6", height 12', wing area 405sq ft. isc

[delticman]

With regard to ZK-CKE. Rural Aviation (1963) Ltd were contracted to complete some flying tests. John Worthington did these at Bell Block and they were followed by CAA test flights at Wellington and Paraparaumu.

It was later leased to Rural Aviation and got the red stripes. It worked at Piriaka, Taumarunui with Peter Meek and in Te Kuiti with Don Erceg. It was during that time it worked out of Te Anau and Hokitika on baiting contracts.

[isc]

Heres what I wrote on the edge of the slide of CKE: Just back from first ops in South Is rabbit baiting West Coast. Found unsatisfactory at 5000ft+, only 25cwt and 100/200ft per min rate of climb. Don Erceg.
Ivor Hagen and CHK sent to help. Ivor was one of the pilots in Otago area.
I was working in the engine shop at Bell Block at the time. isc

[ronb]

 It took me a few years (!) but i finally got tiime to post these pics of the Airtruck and it's remains . Pictured are my mum, me and two brothers and mark, the id from next door. 

[Dave Homewood]

Ouch!!