1980 Cresco Calendar!

[Dave Homewood]

Here's something to interest the Topdressing fans hopefully.

In 1979 Dad built an extension to his garage which became his aeromodelling room, and later also his shop when he had a model business.

In late 1979 Dad was given a calendar by family friend Pat Monk for the model room. Pat was of course chief designer at NZAI and chief designer of the Cresco. The calendar has hung on the wall ever since till today when Mum told me to take it home. It's a collectable and an heirloom now!

As it's not the kind of binding that bends well I think the photos will be hard to scan, so i have just fired off a few quick photos for you guys to see. The front page with Jan and Feb is missing - par for the course with Dad, he seldom used calendars for anything but decoration, and once up they never came down! There's still a 1973 calendar hanging in the garage!

Anyway, here's some basic photos.
I know this is sideways, I was in a hurry and thought I'd give you a basic gist of the look of it overall:



Miss Cresco March-April - ZK-LTP


Miss Cresco May-June - ZK-EMN


Miss Cresco July-August - ZK-LTP


Miss Cresco Sept and Miss Cresco Oct - ZK-LTP and EMN


Miss Cresco Nov and Miss Cresco Dec - ZK-EMK and naked friend


Lastly a few details of the text

[fletcherfu24]

What goes up generally comes down again,a couple of clippings of LTP's demise.I note they were dated 12/79 so LTP meet its demise before the calendar was printed.Also I finally found a use for some clippings I've been hoarding for 29 years.. ;D

[Dave Homewood]

May 27, 2008 22:09:26 GMT 12 @fletcherfu24 said:

What goes up generally comes down

Except Dad's calendars... till today

Great cuttings there. Of course that calendar would have been printed before the end of the year so the crash may have been after the printing was done. Most calendars are printed in August these days.

[Peter Lewis]

Most interesting. ZK-LTP was carrying out flutter tests at the time of the crash - 10th December 79.
I have a few old calenders tucked away, never look at them but can't bear to throw them out!

[Bruce]

ZK-LTP had an all - flying tailplane as on the fletcher, however after the Crash the tailplane was redesigned as a fixed tailplane with conventional elevators. Obviously something changed with the airflow that set up some nasty flutter - although it is interesting to consider all the subsequent mods with the change to PT6, all the oddball hopper lid appendages etc, none of which make any difference to the flight characteristics - strange... (likewise similar mods -including PT6s on turbine fletchers and they still have the original tailplane?)

[fletcherfu24]

Was it the elevator or the tail that fell off?,I can remember reading that LTP ended up in an inverted spin and it lost the outer wing panels at which point the pilot decided joining the caterpillar club was an attractive option.
The tail was also braced on all Crescos after LTP so I'm thinking it was the tail that folded down onto the elevator as Fletchers are prone to doing.As Bruce says the elevators were modified but turbo Fletcher still fly with the all moving tailplane.