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Post by scorpiomikey on Sept 13, 2011 20:36:18 GMT 12
I was talking to my dad today and he was telling me about an incident that happened when he was in the airforce.
As he tells it, some time around 1969 (hes not 100% positive on this) a RNZAF harvard in all silver went out (he believes it was 1013) to do a training run with instructions not to fly under 500 feet. When it returned it was listing heavily to one side and landed heavily, instead of taxiing to the 75sqn hangar like it was meant to, it went directly to the maintenance sheds.
The resulting story was it had done some low flying and managed to take the roof of a Ministry of Works truck, leaving the truck cab and a couple feet of wing in the flat deck.
Does anyone have any photos of said incident? Or confirmation of any details etc?
His memory is getting sketchy recently and hes wanting to do a diorama of the incident.
Thanks heaps in advance guys.
Mike.
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Post by camtech on Sept 13, 2011 22:27:27 GMT 12
It was certainly NZ1013, and the pilot did not leave any of his wing on the truck. A photo I have shows the aircraft in a very untaxiable state on the grass at Ohakea. The pilot, I beleive was named Rennai. I'll have a look at the records i have as I recall reading the official report on this. Shorty may know more.
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Post by camtech on Sept 13, 2011 22:30:19 GMT 12
Just found this:
NORTH AMERICAN Harvard Mk III NZ1013
Accident 22 October 1969 – Pilot of 75 Sqdn on routine flight from Hobsonville to Ohakea. During the landing roll. A gust of wind caught the aircraft and the pilot corrected without realising that he had become airborne. The aircraft yawed and the starboard wing hit the ground, then pitched forward, the undercarriage hit the ground and then the port wing hit the ground, shearing the port undercarriage. The pilot was uninjured, but the aircraft suffered internal engine damage, sheared port oleo, port wing buckled and torn, tail wheel assembly torn off and the aircraft centre section moved in relation to the fuselage. Accident attributed to error of judgement by the pilot.
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Post by camtech on Sept 13, 2011 22:40:23 GMT 12
Or have we got the wrong one.
Just found an accident report for NZ1056 which was "damaged" after hitting a truck 3 Feb 1969. The pilot was Rennai. I'm sure I have a photo somewhere of this aircraft and also a photo of the truck.
Pays to double check!!!!
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Post by camtech on Sept 13, 2011 22:44:44 GMT 12
Just saw a photo of the aircraft and although appearing badly damaged - port wing badly smashed and yes some bits were reallocted to the truck - the aircraft was repaired and survived until retired in 1977.
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Post by Tony on Sept 14, 2011 0:59:50 GMT 12
It was still an urban legend when I joined in 1973.
Apparently it was some beat-up!!!
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Post by scorpiomikey on Sept 14, 2011 8:41:47 GMT 12
Or have we got the wrong one. Just found an accident report for NZ1056 which was "damaged" after hitting a truck 3 Feb 1969. The pilot was Rennai. I'm sure I have a photo somewhere of this aircraft and also a photo of the truck. Pays to double check!!!! This could very well be the incident!!!! are you able to post the pictures? Hes working downstairs at the moment so i ll ask him when he comes up for lunch. |
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Post by mumbles on Sept 14, 2011 9:48:26 GMT 12
Or have we got the wrong one. Just found an accident report for NZ1056 which was "damaged" after hitting a truck 3 Feb 1969. The pilot was Rennai. I'm sure I have a photo somewhere of this aircraft and also a photo of the truck. Pays to double check!!!! This could very well be the incident!!!! are you able to post the pictures? My father was on a crash crew at OH at the time and remembers the incident well. He collected the roof of a MOW truck with the wingtip, and returned to OH with the aileron hanging by a single hinge the story goes. As I understand it had the pilot not been low flying in the first place he would have been endorsed for recovering the aircraft, but under the circumstances he was immediately grounded. Not sure if that part is correct but that is the story as relayed to me. |
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Post by jonesy on Sept 14, 2011 10:20:11 GMT 12
Just loving this story! Whats great is that so many different aspects are coming out there from people involved in one way or another. Not so much an urban myth now??
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Post by scorpiomikey on Sept 14, 2011 15:01:59 GMT 12
Dad confirmed it was 56. It was the incident described above. Anyone with photos id love to see them.
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Post by johnnyfalcon on Sept 14, 2011 15:31:18 GMT 12
Yeah, my Dad told me this story when I was a kid. He was based at Ohakea when it happened. Not sure if he has any photos though. I'll see if he has any other anecdotes to add! :-)
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Post by skyhawkdon on Sept 14, 2011 19:29:14 GMT 12
I'm pretty sure there are photos in the 75 Squadron unit histories (official and unofficial) held at Wigram. I can recall seeing them when doing Skyhawk research for the book. The incident took place at the Raumai weapons range where the MOW truck was doing some maintenance work.
When I was on Tech's course at Wigram in 1986 I saw a photo of an incident involving a Harvard at Wigram, when the wing tip touched the ground during a low pass! In the photo there was a cloud of dust coming from the wing tip.
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Post by camtech on Sept 14, 2011 19:37:11 GMT 12
I have found a report on the accident, plus some photos. I'll scan them in the next day or so and post them. Also found a photo of NZ1013 after its mishap.
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Post by camtech on Sept 14, 2011 20:18:08 GMT 12
Just found these two - not great quality, but first is of NZ1056  And the second of NZ1013  |
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Post by Dave Homewood on Sept 14, 2011 21:02:44 GMT 12
This was not a new thing of course, back before the war one of the Avro 626's lost it's undercarriage at a display at Westport or Greymouth when it flew too low in the beat up and hit a van! It had to fly back to Wigram and make a landing with at least one wheel missing. I think it was actually NZ203 from memory, now in the Museum.
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E.T.
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 78
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Post by E.T. on Sept 14, 2011 22:00:56 GMT 12
Not only not new, but also not exempt from future occurances either - I heard a story from the early/mid 80's of a Blunty or a Skwark (memory getting hazy) very nearly taking the roof off a landrover that appeared over one side of a sand dune while the (pretty sure it was a) Blunty appeared simultaneously from the other side in the dunes near Raumai range. I'm pretty sure the landrovers of the day were nowhere near 50ft in height from ground to cab roof!!
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Post by errolmartyn on Sept 14, 2011 22:44:40 GMT 12
This was not a new thing of course, back before the war one of the Avro 626's lost it's undercarriage at a display at Westport or Greymouth when it flew too low in the beat up and hit a van! It had to fly back to Wigram and make a landing with at least one wheel missing. I think it was actually NZ203 from memory, now in the Museum. Yes indeed, it was NZ203. And a near thing for all concerned it was, too, but at Mt Cook and not on the Coast, as the Evening Post of 4 May 1936 reported: SWOOP LOW TO GROUND AEROPLANE STRIKES BUS NEWSPAPER MEN INJURED MISHAP AT MOUNT COOK (By Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, May 3. Flying-Officer F. Truman landed his Air Force Avro aeroplane at the Wigram aerodrome this afternoon without one of the landing wheels and without part of his left tail plane. These he had lost at the new aerodrome at Mount Cook, where he was present at the official opening today. Flying Officer Truman brought the machine down otherwise undamaged and his passenger and himself unhurt, a very skilful feat of flying. The wheel and tail plane were lost in a mishap at Mount Cook in which two other men were not so fortunate. After the official opening ceremony, Flying Officer Truman took off, with Mr. Harry Wigley, son of the managing director of the Mount Cook Tourist Company, as a passenger, to give an exhibition of aerobatics. At an altitude between 3000 and 4000 feet he commenced inverted flying, rolling and looping. Then he dived from about 2000 feet and swooped over the aerodrome very close to the ground. He turned and dived down the valley again, swooping low, greatly to the alarm and consternation of spectators. In a moment the undercarriage of the machine struck a parked motorbus, shearing through the roof, shattering the glass, and tearing the sheet metal as if it were paper. One wheel of the undercarriage of the aeroplane and part of the left tail plane were torn off. A wheel was at once taken out into the flying field and shown to the men in the aeroplane. The pilot flew low for a moment as if undecided what to do, then pointed in the direction of Christchurch and flew to Wigram. The two men injured were Mr. H. Max Whatman, a "Star-Sun" reporter, and Mr. Reginald N. Downes, chief reporter of the "Timaru Herald." They were sitting in the bus which the aeroplane struck. Mr. Whatman suffered severe shock and was cut by flying glass. His spectacles were smashed but his eyes escaped injury. Mr. Downes was also cut and suffered shock, but not so seriously. Mr. Whatman was brought to Christchurch by another aeroplane for medical attention. Errol |
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Post by Dave Homewood on Sept 15, 2011 0:41:59 GMT 12
Thanks Errol, it all comes back to me now. Although I never realised before it was Harry Wigley in the passenger's seat. He probably loved every moment of it as I have been told by pilot Skip Watson who flew with him later when Wigley lead No. 19 Squadron that he was a mad thrill seeker in the air. None of his men ever followed him into a ground attack as it was mad to do so the way he flew. He was happy with the arrangement that they instead followed Paul Green, the more conventional Flight Commander, and then Harry opened the cockpit after climb out and would fire a flare gun so the rest of the squadron knew where he was so they could form up on him. Hilarious and dangerous. Every time he landed after a raid he apparently dived at the runway at high speed, ran along it low hard and fast, and pulled up into a loop and as he went over the top he dropped his undercart; and as he rounded back to the bottom of the loop he touched down!! Every time after every raid!! The Americans and kiwis alike all came out to watch his landings apparently. I would love to have seen that, I really would. Was he a thrill seeker like that later in his tourist flying days?
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Post by johnnyfalcon on Sept 15, 2011 8:26:32 GMT 12
Another story from same Dad was of a Vampire returning from Raumai with vegetation and what appeared to be cow manure smeared under its belly.
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Post by scorpiomikey on Sept 16, 2011 10:00:12 GMT 12
I remember dad saying something about the vampire one, although his story involved a rather serious accident involving the display team.
The 626 apparently had some damage to the engine done too, although it wasnt picked up for a long time.
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