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Post by baz62 on Jan 25, 2015 12:23:11 GMT 12
So let me get this right. In the two years or so that BBZ, BRA and others have been in that hangar this is the very first flyable machine to come through the doors ? And is your Tomahawk flying yet? No? Then be quiet.
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Post by baronbeeza on Jan 25, 2015 12:36:26 GMT 12
We have one Tomahawk flying, how many do you need ?
The unfortunate thing though it is not at Wigram, Rangiora or West Melton. All those airfields seem to have 'complications' these days.
The others are in storage or the workshop at home. The problem there is that you get to see an (aeroplane)? when you pull the curtains in the morning. Every morning..
I think I am guilty of having a Tomahawk ? in the Rangiora hangar for a few nights. It would be good to see a flying machine there, The 172 doesn't look out of place.
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Post by nzjet on Jan 25, 2015 13:01:50 GMT 12
So let me get this right. In the two years or so that BBZ, BRA and others have been in that hangar this is the very first flyable machine to come through the doors ? And is your Tomahawk flying yet? No? Then be quiet. Ill bring some lotion over for that burn...
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Post by ZacYates on Jan 26, 2015 7:43:12 GMT 12
I think that's a bit harsh baronbeeza, I don't see the need to be so snarky - as far as I'm aware BBZ is Baz's pet project that he works on in his spare time. I caught your snipe about coming round to mask the markings at the weekend, too. I'm sure Baz doesn't want others to fight his battles for him but your comments really hit me as being out of line and totally unnecessary.
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Post by johnnyfalcon on Jan 26, 2015 9:02:29 GMT 12
Handbag. The flesh-tearing is not quite what it seems. Us chaps down here give as good as we get. The Baron gets his fair share of ribbing
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Post by baronbeeza on Jan 26, 2015 9:17:47 GMT 12
Snarky, snipe ? You didn't do time then Zac. IYCTAJTYSHJU You may be right though, some peoples' memories may not extend too far back and possibly having trouble following some of the going's on here. First up we may have a quick refresher with the other thread, Operation BRA.. rnzaf.proboards.com/thread/17564Ok, admittedly both are 'parts' aircraft but realistically what aircraft do you think would be flying first ? Another beer would have been the answer there Ok, there is the hangar and with the Tomahawk leaving after a few nights there (waiting to unload the trailer). Note the condition of the trailer. Now we have some advance on the restorations. First the 'Auster Mover' Remember this is the same trailer that brought the aircraft down from the North Island. It is now a dedicated aircraft mover but obviously versatile with it. Then the rotisseries. rnzaf.proboards.com/thread/20174/senior-members-asked-me-updateYou may see the Cherokee all masked up ready for the markings I did that in the evening and painted during the lunch break. Done it many times over the years... And the latest is the paint stripping and preparation shed. This is for the Strontium Chromate paint, the very same stuff I gave you the hot lead on for the Fletcher, it was going cheap two years ago when I emailed Zac about it. You can't get it these days. Photobucket is down but I will get a pic of the building project up asap. So in the past five or six years we have been reduced from this Airfield, hangar, fuel, workshop, office etc all within a few Km from home. To something like this As for flying, well you can't get hangarage locally so it is a 190 Km return trip just to get to the aircraft and airfield. NZJet covered that in his post. I can't imagine the Air NZ Flying Club is too happy about having to relocate as well. Having the 172 in the 'Auster' hangar is making the best of a bad situation, surely. GA is not in a happy place at the moment. Having the value of the machine in free-fall is none too pleasing either. You can probably understand why progress on the machines themselves has slowed right down. It is possibly just wasted cash.
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Post by baz62 on Jan 26, 2015 15:29:59 GMT 12
Thanks for the backup Zac but no need, Baronbeeza has bitten like a hungry trout which is all the payback I need! Who is the dodgy looking character on the right in the last photo Kev? He's giving off a "Wanna buy a used plane?" vibe One Tomahawk flying? Is that the one that was already flying that was temporarily parked at Rangiora? How is it going, getting a bit of use? There used to be quite a few Pa38s on TradeMe but i see only one at present for $20K (engine on condtion). Anyway enough of the Spamcan thread drift. I spent some time tidying up the control arch, replacing rusty bolts, nuts washers,splitpins (previous owner did NOT preserve anything) and a rubdown and a nice shiny coat of black as there was lots of chipped paint and scratches. The data plate had been previously painted so took the opportunity to rub that back to nice shiny brass and masked it so you can actually read it if you want to! And all installed. The control columns are just for show as I'm waiting for some new bolts (once one Anthony Galbraith actually orders them!! )and the pilot's side one needs a push to talk switch installed and some wiring run. And quite by accident I discovered that not all the woodwork was on the fuselage. I was leafing through the "Manual of Instructions for the J5F" (sort of a how to maintain your Auster in a simplified book) to see what bolts to order for the control Arch when my eyes fell on this page: This page shows all the woodwork that goes on the Auster including the floorboards. I was casting my eye looking for any bolts when i noticed the detail to the right of the rear undercarriage attachment. Hmmmm. Something appears to be tied on there with tape. A quick look through my photos showed nothing on my airframe. However i did have a photo of J5F BCQ taken during a re-fabric and I could definitely see something there. This is where the genius of buying a wrecked aircraft the same as my own came to roost! Out with the knife and peeled back the fabric and found this: (You have to imagine you are looking at the area immediately above the undercarriage leg on the port side. The fuselage is lying on it's starboard side.) Now there are two of these on each side. The manual only shows one which is behind the rear U/C attachment but there is also one between the attachments. Once I got them all off and cleaned off about 30 years of accumulated dirt I had these wooden formers: Now a new thought popped into mind. I had seen these before. A rummage through my shelf of cockpit parts produced these: I had seen these ages ago but had no idea what the hell they were or where they would go! All I found on one was a penciled "Left". Very helpful. A call into see Anthony and his T7 project and we were looking at a T7 drawing showing the same area and it also showed this item but only the rear one. Anthony did a bit of research and found that his one only had the rear and not the central one and some people didn't even bother with those! I don't know what purpose they serve although they seem to change the "line " of that lower tube so perhaps there was issues applying the fabric evenly there? The fabric wraps round from the outside and then goes up the interior to finally go over the door sill. This is a close up of the former in place on the other side with tape still holding it in place (on the left of the forward attachment starboard side). Hope this was of interest, it's certainly been a steep learning curve but an enjoyable one. I certainly don't "know it all" about Austers (or aircraft engineering) but that would be boring right?
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Post by agalbraith on Jan 26, 2015 16:09:32 GMT 12
Yep, good job Baz....slightly Gay(wouldnt see that on a Military Auster....Lol)but otherwise great work and spotting of that piece!
She is moving along nicely, now for the rudder pedals aye...
Cheers Anthony
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Post by baronbeeza on Jan 26, 2015 16:33:42 GMT 12
Jeez, you think I bit. Baz must have signed off work early and rushed out and quickly lined stuff up for some pics.
I have a pic here of the shed I am building, just can't get logged onto the appropriate part of Photobucket yet to post it here.
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Post by baz62 on Jan 26, 2015 17:22:35 GMT 12
I have a pic here of the shed I am building, Ah ha returning to the scene of the crime! Where are you building the shed? Hangar sized or workshop sized?
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Post by ZacYates on Jan 27, 2015 15:05:37 GMT 12
I daresay I have misjudged the atmosphere of the post somewhat!
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Post by baronbeeza on Jan 30, 2015 15:16:23 GMT 12
Ok, here is the new preparation shed. It has half a roof on now but will have a lot of window area on the walls. Aluminium windows are dirt cheap in ChCh at the moment.
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Post by suthg on Jan 30, 2015 17:23:13 GMT 12
Building permits come quick and easy in CHCH? Where are the footings and nib wall?? End wall big window, side wall big window, hmmm a glorified garage. What is happening to the current garage green side door?? What about the fume extraction system for painting? Ohhh open the doors and the windows haha! Seems pretty quick. Perhaps someone has some skills or red tape acumen - or is hiding everything LOL!
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Post by baz62 on Jan 30, 2015 17:44:32 GMT 12
That prep for painting Kev?
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Post by baronbeeza on Jan 30, 2015 19:37:03 GMT 12
Jeez Graeme, you had nice things to say about the trailer, exactly the same steel was used for that as well. As you upset that I am not using Kinleth pine ?
Anyway, it is a carport. The rules were so many square metres, no closer than height to boundary and one side had to be permanently open. It qualifies for all, although that door that is sitting in the entrance way is obviously just sitting there for 'looks' at the moment.
Think CARPORT !
The fuselage can be either worked on within the carport or wheeled out into the open. That structure is solid, steel channel with deep driven steel and concrete piles, over a metre deep. The idea is the components can go straight from there down to the paintshop booth on the trailer. There is another carport around the back for the storage of the painted parts before they get re-assembled. The lighter green door is a sliding one mounted on a top track that rolls forward behind the agapanthus.
It all worked out pretty well. I would have progressed things a little this arvo but just returned from another trip to do some flying.
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Post by suthg on Jan 30, 2015 20:47:23 GMT 12
Yeah, I know there are some shortcuts for garages. Well done! It should stay around a lot longer than pine!! Wow, 1m deep steel piles set in concrete, she's not going to blow away either!! Where are the second hand windows coming from?
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Feb 25, 2015 17:38:32 GMT 12
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Post by Peter Lewis on Feb 25, 2015 19:59:52 GMT 12
Nice find KTJ.
Of course 'Auster BOX' should be BDX.
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Post by baz62 on Mar 11, 2015 16:43:55 GMT 12
Just got an email from a very busy Graham Orphan, elbows deep as he is organising Classic Fighters 15. He came across a photo of his very first aircraft. This was in Australia and was a J1B Auster VH-EHP. This Auster started out here as ZK-AWS and Graham sent me this photo. What's also of interest is the chap in the center. This is Harry Wigley, well known for pioneering the use of ski-planes using Auster BDX and the man who started Mount Cook Airlines.
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Post by Peter Lewis on Mar 11, 2015 16:55:19 GMT 12
Aiglet ZK-AWS arrived here in 1950 and went to Southern Senic at Queenstown. They exported it to Australia in mid-1960, as detailed above.
Seems an odd thing to do as Austers were still a mainstream aircraft at that time, admitedly under pressure from the C180.
I wonder, what was the back-story behind the export?
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