Last weekend in Auckland.

[Gavin Conroy]

Here are a few photos I took last weekend.
Am back to Ardmore on Wednesday, might as well buy a house there.

[Dave Homewood]

Absolutely wonderful photos Gavin! I love that second photo, of the Gull.

What is the status of the Mustang? Is the engine being overhaulled or changed?

[Darren Masters]

Gavin, brilliant pics as usual I've seen you guys fly over the place alot of late. I'm just down the road from Ardmore. Always enjoy the 'free airshow'

[Gavin Conroy]

Thanks Darren, I love it at Ardmore, should buy a house there.
Dave, the engine is having an overhaul at the moment.

[Damon]

I saw CIT in the back ground in one of the photos towing a banner and Andrew flying the Messenger.How can he fly two aircraft at once? Quite a talent there!

[Dave Homewood]

What is that wingtip Gavin? Great photo. The farm in the forground was my grandparents' though the 1940's and early 1950's, Dad grew up there.

[Damon]

The wingtip is probably the L-39 Dave..

[Darren Masters]

Definitely the L39's wingtip and colour-scheme. Dave, that little farmhouse that basically the wingtip is pointing at (just forward of wingtip and before the rd) I think I know who lives there now. Is this the one you are talking about?

[Dave Homewood]

I think that was their house, their farm used to run right along the road there. They leased the farm for eight years, 1943-51. Then when the lease was up it was offered to them by the owner as he wanted to sell it, it was worth 800 pounds but he liked them and offered it for 600 pounds. However they'd already decided to move to Cambridge as my Uncle Ted lived here and they loved the place.

One night a Corsair knocked a small 3 or 4 foot high radio aerial off their roof it was that low and disorientated, and between us Bryan Cox and I worked out he may have actually been the pilot.

They often had Corsairs come through their fence into the paddocks. One time a pilot had both hands chopped off by the canopy as he tried to get out - Dad picked one of them up, he said. Meanwhile my Grandad was pulling the rest of the pilot out of the wreckage. I have never pinpointed which aircraft that was, I'd love to know what happened to the pilot. Dad thought he died, but there's no mention of such an incident that I can find where a pilot died.

Dad and Nana both used to say how regularly Corsairs tipped over on landing onto their noses while pilots were training, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of photographic evidence of this it seems.

[Gavin Conroy]

Hi Dave,
Sorry missed your post but yes it is the L-39 wing tip, and really interesting story you have posted above.

Do you know if the Corsair pilot that knocked the aerial off landed safely?

[Dave Homewood]

I assume so. Dad and Nana told that story many a time of how they were all in he kitchen one evening and they heard a Corsair approaching and it got so loud the house was shaling and they all thought it would hit them. Next morning the aerial for picking up he radio broadcast from central Auckland was on the ground.

In 1991 I bought Bryan Cox's 'Too Young To Die'. I was enthralled by the book because I discovered that, like me, he was born and brought up in Cambridge, and had joined the RNZAF. Then I get to the bit where he describes a very low night take off and it seemed to tie in. I wrote to him via the publisher and heard back and he reckoned that it was quite probably the same flight that Dad and Nana described. Years later when I started Wing Over Cambridge I got reacquainted with Bryan and I'm still friends with him today. He gve a great talk as guest speaker at the website launch.

I will look out the passage in his book and post the page number - have you got a copy?

[Dave Homewood]

I've had a skim through but cannot spot the story now. I'll look again later unless someone beats me to it.

[karladrage]

Beautiful colours and backdrops in the airborne shots, Gavin! You sure have some great looking scenery down there!

[corsair67]

Nov 3, 2011 10:11:30 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

I think that was their house, their farm used to run right along the road there. They leased the farm for eight years, 1943-51. Then when the lease was up it was offered to them by the owner as he wanted to sell it, it was worth 800 pounds but he liked them and offered it for 600 pounds. However they'd already decided to move to Cambridge as my Uncle Ted lived here and they loved the place.

One night a Corsair knocked a small 3 or 4 foot high radio aerial off their roof it was that low and disorientated, and between us Bryan Cox and I worked out he may have actually been the pilot.

They often had Corsairs come through their fence into the paddocks. One time a pilot had both hands chopped off by the canopy as he tried to get out - Dad picked one of them up, he said. Meanwhile my Grandad was pulling the rest of the pilot out of the wreckage. I have never pinpointed which aircraft that was, I'd love to know what happened to the pilot. Dad thought he died, but there's no mention of such an incident that I can find where a pilot died.

Dad and Nana both used to say how regularly Corsairs tipped over on landing onto their noses while pilots were training, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of photographic evidence of this it seems.

I wonder if this is the one?


From Warren P. Russell's Corsair Special:

NZ5514 - 06/03/1945 10.26hrs - Swung off runway during landing and overturned. Canopy not locked back and slammed shut on Flt Sgt J. W. Wright's arms causing injuries. Aircraft written off.

[Dave Homewood]

That is most likely the one. Next time I get down to the National Archives if I remember I will try to find the accident report for that crash. Thanks Craig.