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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Sept 6, 2012 12:32:43 GMT 12
These buses came in handy for NAC. I recall diverting from New Plymouth to Wanganui in a F27 due weather. They shipped us all by bus to New Plymouth. I think the bus may have been a Newman’s as well. It possible came from Palmerston North Buses were so ugly back then. They look like the crappy old buses I had to go to school on as a kid, they always stank of decaying leather seats. Shiver! Newmans Coachlines owned six Flixible Clipper coaches and they were officially based at Palmerston North, but were used exclusively on Napier-Hastings-Palmerston North-Wellington services. They were built under licence from Flixible by Ansair in Australia, which was a subsidiary company of Ansett-ANA, operating coach services throughout Oz. I travelled on those Flixible Clippers numerous times when I was a kid. We often used to get put on the Newmans bus at Hastings and sent down to Mum's cousin's place at a farm just north of Norswood during school holidays. Then, we'd return on the bus with Mum's cousin's kids and they'd spend a week in the city, before they'd get sent back home on the bus. It was always a Flixible Clipper coach on those services and they were like Rolls-Royces compared with the buses being operated by NZR Road Services in the late 1950s and 1960s. Being rear-engined, they were very quiet to travel in by comparison. I also travelled in the NAC-branded bus when I travelled by NAC during school holidays in the 1960s. You could check in at NAC's Hastings depot and actually receive your boarding pass, then get transported to Napier Airport where the bus used to drive right onto the tarmac and you simply transfered from the bus to the NAC airliner, which meant you got seated before the people who checked in at the airport. The baggage (which had been weighed at Hastings) was simply transfered directly from the bus to the airliner and vice-versa. Dave, beauty is probably in the eye of the beholder. Those Flixible Clipper coaches were a 1947 design and the styling is typical of that period. They were manufactured in the USA right up until about 1957, while in Australia, Ansair/Ansett built them up until about 1960. They are now regarded as real classics and change hands for huge sums of money in the USA as collectors' items.   |
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Post by Tony on Sept 6, 2012 23:51:54 GMT 12
Buses were so ugly back then. They look like the crappy old buses I had to go to school on as a kid, they always stank of decaying leather seats. Shiver! Bit harsh there Dave. They were fantastic busses, quiet and comfortable. Art Deco as we say today ;D ;D ;D NZR Road Service busses were just bodies built on a truck chassis. Wellington - Napier in them plenty of times and i loved them. Allso as a kid the local Wellington City Transport Scorching Bay bus were the old Daimlers similar to this www.flickr.com/photos/imagetaker1/6121539875/sizes/z/in/photostream/and I somehow knew that they were special and historical so despite all their faults I loved them. Better than the square boxes that replaced them. |
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Post by Tony on Sept 6, 2012 23:58:40 GMT 12
Regarding Viscounts, I flew once on them. Christchurch - Wellington. This would have been in mid-1973 as I was under training at Wigram and flew up for a weekend with my wife.
Loved it ;D ;D
Large windows, seats as comfortable as the old NZR 1st Class seats with bags of leg room.
I sat at the rear and listed to the rush of the air past the rear door. The seals were British after all ;D ;D
I remember idly watching the Rescue Fire building pass by and realised we were still airborne!
About 10 feet off the runway. It seemed like the Captain stalled the aircraft on the runway and we landed with a hell of a thump and used all the runway to stop. I wondered if we were going swimming in Evans Bay....
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Post by phil82 on Sept 7, 2012 2:00:49 GMT 12
Buses were so ugly back then. They look like the crappy old buses I had to go to school on as a kid, they always stank of decaying leather seats. Shiver! Bit harsh there Dave. They were fantastic busses, quiet and comfortable. Art Deco as we say today ;D ;D ;D NZR Road Service busses were just bodies built on a truck chassis. Wellington - Napier in them plenty of times and i loved them. Allso as a kid the local Wellington City Transport Scorching Bay bus were the old Daimlers similar to this www.flickr.com/photos/imagetaker1/6121539875/sizes/z/in/photostream/and I somehow knew that they were special and historical so despite all their faults I loved them. Better than the square boxes Quite right. American bus design was light years ahead of NZ. Art deco Indeed! The engines were powerful, and at the back and therefore quiet, and the chassis were designed from the start to be used for buses....unlike the NZ Railways Road Services which were under-powered, noisy truck chassis. I use the Valley Flyer bus which runs from Upper Hutt, Lower Hutt, Wellington and the Airport every 15 minutes. It's an excellent service, and the buses are new, with built in GPS and Wi-fi, and cameras so you can see where you've been and where you're going. They are also noisy, vibrate, and have more rattles than a second-hand rubbish bin! |
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Post by expatkiwi on Sept 7, 2012 5:01:09 GMT 12
Regarding Viscounts, I flew once on them. Christchurch - Wellington. This would have been in mid-1973 as I was under training at Wigram and flew up for a weekend with my wife. Loved it ;D ;D Large windows, seats as comfortable as the old NZR 1st Class seats with bags of leg room. I sat at the rear and listed to the rush of the air past the rear door. The seals were British after all ;D ;D I remember idly watching the Rescue Fire building pass by and realised we were still airborne! About 10 feet off the runway. It seemed like the Captain stalled the aircraft on the runway and we landed with a hell of a thump and used all the runway to stop. I wondered if we were going swimming in Evans Bay.... I read about the high approach speeds that the Viscounts had to go at on final to landing. Still, if only the leg room and the big windows could have carried on to today's jets... |
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Post by expatkiwi on Sept 7, 2012 9:48:56 GMT 12
 I think that I did recall this early logo livery on one of my first flights in the late '60's. I was only 5 or 6 then, but even then I had an inordinate interest in signs. |
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Post by Dave Homewood on Sept 7, 2012 9:50:05 GMT 12
I guess I am simply of the generation who sees these "lightyears ahead" buses as the smelly, noisy, slow old clunkers of my childhood. Buses pretty much just like the ones in the photos used to be on all the local school routes and everyone knew them as "crates" because they were so old and clunky.
I much prefer the look of the earlier 1930's buses which were much more stylish, but to ride in one give me a 2010+ model any day - quiter, fresher smelling (usually), quicker, safer, more comfortable, etc.
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Post by expatkiwi on Sept 7, 2012 14:30:01 GMT 12
My personal favorite NAC aircraft livery is that of the final variant "Wings of the Nation". My biggest regret is that the final livery came out after the Viscounts were retired. Still, the F27's and the Boeing 737's looked great in that livery! IMHO, the Godwit was a great logo idea.  Note: pic taken from www.airliners.net |
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Post by expatkiwi on Sept 7, 2012 15:08:07 GMT 12
The NATIONAL AIRWAYS livery was a very no-nonsense paint job. First livery to make the Godwit much more visible.  Note: pic taken from www.airliners.net |
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Post by expatkiwi on Sept 7, 2012 15:14:18 GMT 12
I'd better add the Viscount. She'd have really looked great in the "Wings of the Nation" livery. Sigh...  Note: pic taken from www.airliners.net |
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Post by expatkiwi on Sept 7, 2012 15:20:35 GMT 12
See the darkened area of the fuselage just in front of the eppenage? Those earlier jet engines put out a lot of 'dirty' exhaust, which deposited some of it on the fuselage.  Note: pic taken from www.airliners.net |
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Post by beagle on Sept 7, 2012 17:39:27 GMT 12
who would have thought 40 years later, with a few updates that we would be still flying them.
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Post by expatkiwi on Sept 7, 2012 18:43:32 GMT 12
who would have thought 40 years later, with a few updates that we would be still flying them. Well-maintained machinery usually lasts... |
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Post by expatkiwi on Sept 8, 2012 7:02:11 GMT 12
 The above depiction is of the NAC flag flown for the first time on 19 February 1968. According to Richard Waugh's book "NAC: The Illustrated History of New Zealand National Airways Corporation 1947-1978", the flag was described as a royal blue flag with a stylized Godwit within a white circle. I thought when I was at Auckland Domestic Terminal back in the mid '70's, the NAC flag was red with not only the godwit logo, but the lettering NAC beneath it. It could be a local variant, or the royal blue flag being superseded. I do recall seeing the NAC flag flying at half mast on TV at Auckland Airport the day before the merger of NAC into Air New Zealand. I was only 13 at the time, but I had a mania for flags (still do, actually).  (the flag I recall seeing) |
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Post by expatkiwi on Sept 8, 2012 7:06:06 GMT 12
Interesting poem:
A HOLY DIVERSION
An NAC man stood at the Pearly Gates,
His face was worn and old,
He meekly asked the man of fate,
Admission to the Fold.
"What have you done" St. Peter asked,
"To seek admission here?"
"I was an NAC man down on Earth,
For many a weary year".
The gate swung open sharply then,
as Peter touched the bell,
"Come in" he said, "and take the harp,
you've had your share of Hell!"
NAC Skylines No. 89.
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Post by expatkiwi on Sept 11, 2012 0:56:40 GMT 12
Harrysone's Viscount model.  |
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Post by expatkiwi on Sept 11, 2012 9:34:20 GMT 12
 If the Viscounts had stayed in NAC service a couple of years longer, they'd have looked like this.... |
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Post by expatkiwi on Sept 14, 2012 2:09:27 GMT 12
A fitting symbol of the end of an era: a Friendship in NAC livery with Air New Zealand decals placed over the godwit.  |
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Post by flyjoe180 on Sept 14, 2012 16:07:46 GMT 12
Richard Waugh's NAC book is a fantastic read and illustrated with beautiful pictures. There are quite afew NAC pieces of memorabilia to be found on Trademe. Do you guys remember the cardboard 737s? I got one on my only NAC flight to Auckland from Christchurch.
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Post by flyjoe180 on Sept 14, 2012 16:09:02 GMT 12
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