NZ6218

[harvard1041]

Found a few photos which might be of interest - shows the recovery of A-4 NZ6218 which rolled in Townsville.

Aircraft was out of the air for 5 years - had a lot of work done on the vertical, replacement wing, lots of work in the NLG area ... as I'm sure a few on here know.

Flew post KAHU - oldest, yet lowest life A-4 I believe.



















Rgds
Hvd1041

PS - RNZAF man in uniform in many of these photos - as opposed to overalls or stubbies etc - is Flt Lt Rob Fyfe of recent Air NZ discusstion.

[Luther Moore]

Nothing a bit of duct tape cant fix.

[Dave Homewood]

How did it end up on its back? I haven't got that far in The Book yet. Was it the wind? A pot hole? it looks to be in a parking area rather than somewhere it would be moving fast?

[baz62]

Feb 7, 2012 0:20:35 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

How did it end up on its back? I haven't got that far in The Book yet. Was it the wind? A pot hole? it looks to be in a parking area rather than somewhere it would be moving fast?

Wet runway and because it was an ex RAN A4 it had no drag chute. Got a bit sideways and whoompa! over she went, whereas a dragchute would have helped straighten her up.

[Dave Homewood]

But it looks so close to parked aircraft, is the runway really that close to dispersal?!

[Dave Homewood]

And buildings?

[Calum]

Great photos. Mind If I add them to my web site?

[Bruce]

Looks like it was moved to the apron area whilst still inverted Dave (see the pic of it on a transporter)- probably to allow more crane - swinging room.

[curtiss]

Baz,

That is not quite the whole story.

A4's were fitted with an automatic nosewheel certreing system when ever the hook was lowered. This system existed for use on carriers. In the case of NZ6218, the pilot started to drift sideways on the runway and then used nosewheel steering to try and correct it. For some reason that I am not aware of, he then lowered the hook ( see above pics). This caused the nosewheel to abrubtly centre .......and over she went. A modification to disconnect the nosewheel centreing was introduced on RNZAF aircraft as a result of this incident.

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks guys, now I get what happened. Was the pilot injured? is he here on the forum? It would be interesting to hear a first hand account.

[baz62]

Feb 7, 2012 19:30:46 GMT 12 curtiss said:

Baz,

That is not quite the whole story.

A4's were fitted with an automatic nosewheel certreing system when ever the hook was lowered. This system existed for use on carriers. In the case of NZ6218, the pilot started to drift sideways on the runway and then used nosewheel steering to try and correct it. For some reason that I am not aware of, he then lowered the hook ( see above pics). This caused the nosewheel to abrubtly centre .......and over she went. A modification to disconnect the nosewheel centreing was introduced on RNZAF aircraft as a result of this incident.

Ah very interesting curtiss I never knew that. Would he have lowered the hook if he thought there was an arresting wire? Or did the hook come down due to the forces involved with the roll over? Glad my Auster doesn't have a hook might be tempted to use it in a short landing competition! ;D

[baronbeeza]

Ian (Wally) Walls I believe Dave. Last saw him in Invercargill 8 years or so ago and he must have been flying for Air NZ.
He would have been a University Cadet about the same time as Rob Fyfe.
A Google showed him flying with the Checkers at the 1988 Wanaka show.
If he was injured, which I don't think he was, then it would not have been serious. Perhaps a little pride.

[harvard1041]

Hi Calum

Yes - no problem using the photos - actually can you ask Tunny if he has any others ? ... I have lots of the rebuild 'somewhere' ... there is a really good one with Tunny, Dave Mitchell, Rag Gordon, Trev Triska & myself kneeling in front of it when it left ARS in about 1989 - we even made the front pages of the Marlborough Excuse ( cost us all beers at the next Happy Hour ).

Curtiss is spot on for the reasons - no drag chute, drifted, hook down to catch the 'long wire' and self centering tipping him over. Ian Walls wasn't injured - he crawled out the busted glass in the canopy - there are photos of him and several other pilots standing around with the aircraft on the runway.

It was lifted - put on the transporter & moved off the runway - those photos I have were taken two days after the incident when it was put 'right side up'. Wing was subsequent taken off - all flown back in a C-130 to Woodbourne ... and then rebuilt.

NZ6218 was of course an ex USMC / USN & RAN aircraft.

Cheers
Hvd1041

[skyhawkdon]

Great photos. A shame I didn't have them for the book!

[harvard1041]

Hi Don - you're welcome to them of course.... there are some much better ones out there.... some official - some 'private'.

I'll dig out some of the rebuild - we used part of the ex-Blue Angles fuse as well ( the one that ended up in TTS ).

Cheers
Hvd1041

[beagle]

Just found these in one of my old albums

[beagle]

Is that one of the Mc Coy brothers in the second image

[Dave Homewood]

Great photos there Beags.

[beagle]

pity I didn't have the nikon back then.

might have remustered to photo then, just as well.

[baronbeeza]

Has this one been seen here before ?

I missed this one..

Those thing fell over often enough though. I saw the one Ian Gore dropped onto it's nose just minutes after it happened.