1959 Wellington Airport Opening Airshow

[htbrst]

There was an interview on RadioNZ this afternoon with the Navigator on the Vulcan who is in NZ at the moment:

www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/2548206/vulcan-navigator-returns

A spectacular airshow was planned for the Grand Opening of Wellington International Airport in October 1959. An Avro Vulcan bomber plane flown by a team of RAF pilots from the UK roared off, as planned, and thrilled viewers in the skies above Wellington, but delight turned to dismay when the plane came down short of the runway. It was only the pilot's great skill that got her back in the sky and prevented a tragedy. Bryn Lewis was the navigator onboard the Vulcan on that day.

The intended 3-ship formation that he mentions would have been awesome to see! He also discusses the earlier Vulcan visit which crashed on return to the UK

[beagle]

Nov 4, 2012 13:46:17 GMT 12 kiwithrottlejockey said:

I was there with my Mum's cousin, Allan Macaulay (of Aviation Radio).

I was only 5½-years-old, but I can remember heaps of it.

I must be getting old as I can remember only very little from those sort of years.

[gtw]

Best airshow I have been at. I did a solo crosscountry flight to Wellington on the 7 Oct 59 in ZK- BQT.
And I did a better landing than the Vulcan. The Vulcan was almost 45degrees off centre after the wheel hit
It straitend then followed the nose skyward.

[dakman]

Even now I talk to people about the Vulcan undershoot at Wellington.and they all think its the same aircraft that was lost in a crash on return to UK .
Guess earlier visits by Vulcans to NZ were not so memorable .

[Deleted]

Caught the RNZ interview quite by chance returning from a job with one of our photographers. News to him, and he greatly enjoyed it!

[suthg]

I wonder if I was there, but it may have been a little after - was it perhaps the Queen's arrival or departure was it in 1963 - a Viscount I remember was flying that day so I was a 10yr old but still could hardly see over everyone to see the plane through the tall wire mesh fences, at which I thought (and have always thought) was a nice looking passenger plane. My first view of Rongotai and at any plane for that matter!! Having been brought up on a sheep farm two & 1/2 hours away in Sth Wairarapa.

Edit - and thanks for the First Officer report link too - first read of it, and then the recent navigator interview - very well worth while!

[skyhawkdon]

Fascinating interview!

[Dave Homewood]

I was chatting the other day with Ray Tocker who was aboard the Sunderland that also bounced. He said when they took off from Evans Bay to head to Rongotai for their display he looked out the back and could see Rongotai clearly and realised then that the wind was going to be an issue, as he could see a Chipmunk trying to land and it went into a knife edge climb in the vortices! So someone did that manoeuvre at a kiwi airshow before Doug Brooker in his MX2 then, haha.

[kiwithrottlejockey]

Retired wing commander remembers near miss

“I thought people were going to die!”

By TIM DONOGHUE - The Dominion Post | 4:07PM - Wednesday, 13 March 2013


TELLING THE TALE: Retired Wing Commander Bryn Lewis,
who was navigator in the Vulcan bomber that nearly
crashed at Wellington Airport in 1959.

RETIRED Wing Commander Bryn Lewis thought he and many Wellingtonians were going to die when the Vulcan bomber he was navigating clipped the southern end of Wellington Airport in October 1959.

The 88-year-old visited the Wellington Airport tower in Rongotai yesterday to reminisce with air traffic controllers about the day catastrophe very nearly struck the airfield's official opening day celebrations 54 years ago.

Mr Lewis told Airways New Zealand control tower staff how the five crew members were mightily relieved Captain Tony Smailes managed to get the bomber back in the air after the undercarriage impact.

"I thought we were going to die ... and people on the ground were going to die."

These thoughts were not helped when the RAF squadron commander controlling operations on the ground ordered the three men in the back of the aircraft to bail out during the short flight back to Ohakea.

"When we hit the end of the runway the whole aircraft shuddered violently. There was a huge bang. We knew we had done some serious damage," Mr Lewis said.

While his pilot had undershot the runway and the left wing tip touched the ground, Captain Smailes regained control by putting on full power to go away.



Mr Lewis believed his skipper saved the lives of many Wellingtonians by getting the plane back in the air.

"The pilot put on full power to pull away. We did not need to jettison fuel for the landing at Ohakea because the impact had punctured the fuel tank.

"When I heard the impact I thought it was London Airport all over again," Mr Lewis said.

"That's why I thought we were all going to die, because the pilot in a Vulcan 1956 London crash landed in the cabbage patch short of the airfield, killing four crew members."

Mr Lewis said he was amazed when Captain Smailes managed to regain control of the aircraft on the climb out from Wellington.

"I tried to clamber under my seat to get my parachute on. As soon as the squadron commander on the ground in Ohakea ordered the three of us in the back to bail out I thought about it and said no, I'm, not going to bail."

"The other two with me in the back said they would not bail as well. I thought we should take our chances as the damaged undercarriage was still locked down."

"There would not have been much fun in bailing out and immediately being greeted by a huge undercarriage strut."

"Who is going to open your parachute when you are unconscious?" Mr Lewis asked.

In the finish, Captain Smailes made the decision for the whole crew to remain on board for the crash landing.

"I had a dial in front of me which told me we were losing fuel fast. I told the captain to get us down quick. There was no time for an airfield flyover to get a report on the state of the undercarriage."

"So we landed without our left rear wheels. It was a beautiful landing. The aircraft stayed horizontal until it lost aerodynamic speed. At that point the left wingtip contacted the ground and we slid off the runway."

"We were alive," Mr Lewis said.

The same crew was back in the air the following day in another RAF Vulcan bomber for an exhibition flight over Ohakea.

"We had an Air Vice-Marshal with us. He told us to get back up and do the flying at the Ohakea display. It is very important to get up again rather than sit around and say — I'm not too sure about this flying lark."

"We got back in another Vulcan and went up again. There is a lovely picture of us flying over Ohakea with the broken bomber underneath us," Mr Lewis said.

Mr Lewis, who lives in retirement in Suffolk, is on holiday in New Zealand on his first trip back to the country since the Rongotai incident 54 years ago.

www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/capital-life/8420667/Retired-wing-commander-remembers-near-miss

[pjw4118]

We had Bryn aboard the Lancaster last week and he later gave the boys a talk on the ultimate Vulcan touch and go.
He had served on Shackletons and commented how the wartime navigators post in the Lanc was almost identical

[No longer identifiable]

Although I was only 8 at the time, I seem to remember a Blackburn Beverley at the opening (or perhaps it was at Ohakea?). I do, however, remember our neighbours from Lower Hutt being sprayed with either Jet A1 or hydraulic fluid after the vulcan incident.

[No longer identifiable]

Just done a webby-thing search for the Wellington airport opening and found this short movie on Youtube (sorry if it has been covered before). I was trying to see if my memory was correct, and it was – there is a Beverley there. Neat to also see a couple of Voodoos flying over.

If you're wondering about my fixation on the Beverley, it's because I remember it clearly, and also because my wifes uncle was an RNZAF loadmaster, and we always have a good larf about the big, lumbering, almost-getting-in-the-way-of-itself BEVERLEY (even the name makes me snigger ;D).

[bae]

Mar 30, 2013 20:19:35 GMT 12 No longer identifiable said:

Just done a webby-thing search for the Wellington airport opening and found this short movie on Youtube (sorry if it has been covered before). I was trying to see if my memory was correct, and it was – there is a Beverley there. Neat to also see a couple of Voodoos flying over.

If you're wondering about my fixation on the Beverley, it's because I remember it clearly, and also because my wifes uncle was an RNZAF loadmaster, and we always have a good larf about the big, lumbering, almost-getting-in-the-way-of-itself BEVERLEY (even the name makes me snigger ;D).

Extracts from a letter written by Group Captain F.C. Griffiths Blackburn Beverley, XM104 RAF Transport Command.
" ......... on our way to Rotorua [in the vicinity of Ohakune] we saw a plume of white smoke in a deep valley. As we got nearer it manifested itself as a cropdusting [topdressing] operation. I took the power off and we watched from about two miles away as he dropped his load, landed on the small farm strip and picked up another load and took off. It was the first time I'd seen cropdusting and it was a very slick operation, maybe only four minutes between take-off's.
We'd been briefed to fly low and show the Beverley to the inhabitants so here was an opportunty!
I don't think either the pilot of the cropduster or the loading party on the ground had any idea we were standing off at reduced power and I judged it nicely. The Beverley is a superb aircraft though large for landing in small places at low speed. As the cropduster took off we came in just behind him to the utter astonishment of the party on the ground. I don't suppose four engined aircraft often came into their farm strip. I touched our wheels and off we went to Rotorua.
I'm not exactly sure where this place was as we were a bit lost at the time but at least there must be someone who will remember the incident....."

[delticman]

I'm not sure about this story. It came up a couple of years ago and one AHSNZ member checked his records and doubted it. It would have made the Topdressers Book if it was true. Has this story ever been talked about within New Zealand in the sixties or seventies?

[Dave Homewood]

Ray, are you doubting the word of an RAF Group Captain? That could mean pistols at dawn!

I see no reason why it might not have happened.

[beagle]

From reading that post, it sounded as if they were almost hovering.

[phil82]

I've spent a bit of time in the back of a Beverley, and they were quite a remarkable aircraft in many ways, so I don't doubt the story at all. We in NZ never saw the Beverley at its very best, which was doing the very same job later taken on by the Andover. They couldn't carry a pound of butter across the Tasman, but over 80 -100 miles in a tactical environment they were brilliant. At Tengah, whenever 14 Sqn went north, to Gong Kedah say, the RAF provided the transport, usually a Beverley. Not as noisy as a Freighter either!

[delticman]

Dave, people can say anything they like. I do find it a bit hard to believe that you can do a touch and go on a farm airstrip in this region in a Beverley. I've sat in one, they were big aircraft of their times. I'm looking forward to you guys telling me where it was and what the cropduster was.

[Dave Homewood]

I was typing with tongue firmly in cheek there Ray.

[delticman]

Ok Dave, It's not you that I worry about. I have no doubt that the aircraft flew in the region. Was logged flying Ohakea-Rotorua-Whenuapai on 24th Feb 1964. That was after the Ohakea Air Show which was pretty good, I seem to remember even if it took a long time to get back on the State Highway One. Or the Main Road as it was in those days!