|
|
Post by kiwibeavers on Nov 12, 2012 17:53:45 GMT 12
Any notes saying who the Beaver pilot is Dave? Or dates?  |
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Nov 12, 2012 20:41:07 GMT 12
Sorry, no. I have placed up all the names I have, which are only in the photo titles. i was hoping someone like you might be able to add more.
|
|
|
|
Post by Peter Lewis on Nov 12, 2012 21:21:52 GMT 12
The glider ZK-GAI was a Slingsby T.31B Tandem Tutor which apparently arrived in NZ from Rhodesia!
Current from January 1954 until it crashed on landing Gordonton strip 1Feb65.
ZK-BGZ was of course the Tipsy Belfair ex OO-TIB.
Assembled at Rotorua, H Allen Mills operated it from late 1954 until the beginning of December 1956.
Sold to Edward Wilkie it crashed a few days later into a pine plantation near Rotorua 8th Dec 1956.
|
|
|
|
Post by kiwibeavers on Nov 13, 2012 6:56:39 GMT 12
It could possibly be Ron Woolford in some of these shots. Bob Shorthouse and Bill Pentecost also flew the James Beavers when new.
|
|
|
|
Post by The Red Baron on Nov 13, 2012 8:47:44 GMT 12
The forgotten heroes are the guys in the first photo loading the sacks of fertiliser into the loader bucket.The sacks weighed around 50kg and you had to chuck around 20 in for a Beaver load.
In another shot the sacks are all stacked up in a shed,would have been done by hand.
They were hard men back then,could you imagine the youth of today trying to hump those around?.
|
|
|
|
Post by starr on Nov 13, 2012 10:46:27 GMT 12
Those fertiliser sacks were 12 to the ton.
Bob Shorthouse didn't work for James until Aircraft Services was taken over in 1964. Bob Scott flew Beavers at one time.
|
|
|
|
Post by The Red Baron on Nov 13, 2012 11:08:03 GMT 12
Did you ever have to hand load the DC-3 loader Dave,or was it all bulk super by then?.
|
|
|
|
Post by starr on Nov 13, 2012 13:37:47 GMT 12
The only time we had to load by hand was occasionally in my early days, when we mixed Basic Slag with super. Bulk fert was the norm by then. Handling Slag was a very dusty job. Hard to get the black off. Not much good wearing white shirts n the evenings. The collars were black after a few hours.
Remember one job I loaded for Gerry Kluck in Kaitaia. A mix of 20tons of super and 20 tons of Slag. Gerry had to land back with a full load. It would not come out of the aeroplane. Took us nearly three hours to dig it out. Added 20 ton of lime to the mix and sowed it without any problems the next day.
|
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Nov 13, 2012 13:40:19 GMT 12
How did you mix it, just with shovels in a big pile?
|
|
|
|
Post by starr on Nov 13, 2012 15:14:44 GMT 12
With front end loader or sometimes with a Fletcher loader.
|
|
|
|
Post by davidd on Nov 16, 2012 10:04:13 GMT 12
Just discovered this thread - absolutely blooody marvellous stuff! Reminds me of my younger days on Banks Peninsula (ages 6 to 13, very impressionable) when the Super Cubs, Pawnees and particularly Cessna 180 ZK-BWK were in their heyday. Well-known pilots then were Warren Hart, Roger Crow, and Ken Eden. Funny to think that TWO topdressing pilots in NZ had the same name, and both of them wrote books about their experiences - "As the Crow Flys" and "Fying Low with Roger Crow."
David D
|
|
|
|
Post by thomarse on Nov 16, 2012 15:14:24 GMT 12
I haven't heard of "As The Crow Flies" - tell me more.
Sure it's not the same Crow? I've got "Flying Low"
|
|
|
|
Post by The Red Baron on Nov 16, 2012 16:08:12 GMT 12
As The Crow Flies was about aeroclub flying in the '50s if I remember correctly,I know my Dad had a copy in his bookshelf. Roger Crowe the topdressing pilot passed away recently too www.wings.net.nz/roger-crow-tribute/ |
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Nov 18, 2012 10:01:47 GMT 12
|
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Nov 18, 2012 10:03:09 GMT 12
In the photos above, note the DC-3 wings with the James logo painted on them. And I'd love to know why they had all those canvas tents there, were they storing somthing in them? Or was a scout troup staying there?
|
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Nov 18, 2012 10:06:14 GMT 12
|
|
|
|
Post by davidd on Nov 18, 2012 10:06:15 GMT 12
That is Roger without a final "e"! This particular Roger was the one who flew in Canterbury in the 1960s in his favourite Pawnee 235 (ZK-BYY) for many yeras, and was well known around Banks Peninsula. I remember he had a brother living at Pigeon Bay where I grew up, and Roger used to often stay with him when on topdressing jobs; the airstrip they used then was just below the Pigeon Bay cemetery, but later they used the new strip located on the saddle between Duvauchelle and Pigeon Bay, and right beside the summit road, which provided a very handy location for attending to any properties in Pigeon Bay or anywhere around Akaroa harbour.
David D
|
|
|
|
Post by The Red Baron on Nov 18, 2012 13:25:40 GMT 12
Tiger Moth ZK-ARB had a whoopsie early 1955 south of Rotorua,Don Nairn was pilot.
And as the Hiller flew in 1955 that would be in sequence with the photos.
|
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Nov 18, 2012 14:27:58 GMT 12
|
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Nov 18, 2012 14:30:35 GMT 12
|
|
