Some Photos From My Stash

[hairy]

Aug 20, 2008 18:37:52 GMT 12 shorty said:

........ they show NZ5612. I don't know the identity of the P-40N cockpit section and neither can I recall what the other debris is . Obviousy somebody wanted something out of the rear fuselage fairly desperately!

I have met the guy who weilded the axe to make the hole, I bought an RAF MKII bone-dome off him! He is ex.MOTAT and was one of the Warbirds Harvard pilots. As we were chatting about old aircraft he said "Next time you see Ross, tell him the guy who cut the hole in the back of his Corsair says Hi". I asked him about it and he told me that he with MOTAT at the time and a group of them were down there on the scrounge and there was a component that they were after and it was the easiest way to get it.

[shorty]

After a short break I'm back to continue the P 40 collection. Back in the mid 60s a grouyp of us from MOTAT went on an expedition to the Manawatu chasing aircraft parts (the Mosquito, Vildebeeste etc. Knowing that Production Engineering in Marton had broken up some aircraft we did a big dig at their old factory site, especially the creek bank behind the factory. (They had moved to their new plant by then). Amongst all the Vildie bits , which what we were really after, there was the remains of a P-40 centre section so deeply embedded in the bank that we couldn't shift, all was not lost however as one of the staff was a traction engine enthusiast and he had his engine across the creek and it was in steam. Running a hawser across to the opposite bank it made short work of pulling the offending lump out of the way. Pretty appropriate to use vintage equipment to recover vintage bits. There was nothing useable at all, it was so badly corroded and chopped at.
Also on the trip were Bunny Darby, Don Subritzky, Ken Jacobs, Peter Dingwall, Bob Norton,Monty Armstrong and Dave Graham. I'll post some more of the expidition when I get to Vildies and Vincents.

9 by Neville Mines, on Flickr
The next two are views of NZ 3009 early in it's sojurn at Western Springs. I am intrigued by the "go fast" marking visible in the first shot, it definitely looks intentional and I've not seen it on an in service aircraft. In the background can be seen the old tram control cab that I can remember seeing when it was in Queen St, just below Customs St outside the old picture theatre that was there (the name of which I can't remember)and opposite the CPO which is now Britomart TrainStation
NZ 3009a by Neville Mines, on Flickr
In this shot it has been paint stripped and I don't know if the scheme was documented. As you can see the Lanc hadn't yet been repainted and the Gemini is hiding under the cover in front
More later.
NZ 3009b by Neville Mines, on Flickr

[beagle]

so the lancaster wa sstored outside for quite afew years then

[shorty]

The photo was taken about 1964-65.
The Lanc stayed outside for many years (20 perhaps?) It was repainted while out in the opening, made masking fun!

[Dave Homewood]

That shot of the steam traction engine is great. That marking on the P-40 is certainly very interesting. I wonder what it was done for. I think apart from earl 14 Squadron service at Masterton NZ3009 was only used for training at one of the OTU's wasn't it? I wonder if it was a CO's aircraft and thus had a special paint job? That did happen sometmes, like Doug St George's personal P-40M at Ardmore, all polished metal.

[shorty]

BTW, the Lancaster was oficially handed over to the "Ppeople of New Zealand" by the French Charge d" Affaires on 15 April 1964 and the crew were flown back to Tontouta in WU-15 on 17 June. The only time two Lancasters had been in the country at one time.
Incidentally the Chairman of the Museum Executive committee stated that the Lancaster would be kept fully operational and painted in the markings of 75 sqn

[Dave Homewood]

Well they kept half the promise. It was semi-operational for a long time too.

It was also donated to New Zealand, not MOTAT, they are merely the guardians of it.

I don't think it got under cover till about 1988-89 wasn't it?

[shorty]

Just before going on with some more photos I thought that, given all that arose with NZ3009, there might be some interest in this article from Volume 7, issue 3 of the Journal of the Aviation Historical Society of New Zealand.
Quote
KITTYHAWK RESTORATION by Peter Wheeler

The aircraft at the Rukuhia scrapyard have for a long time been the subject of discussion and even attempts have been made in the past to restore one. These attempts were unsuccesful and it wasn't until early in 1963 after much discussion by Auckland Branch members that it was finally decided that we would try to restore a Kittyhawk.

On 14th April 1963 the first trip from Auckland to Rukuhia was made to select the aircraft to be restored. We wanted if possible the oldest there, and finally decided on a "E" type. A new set of wings was needed as the ones it had were beyond repair. This later entailed twice the amount of work to obtain a complete aircraft.

After some 18 trips (to January 14th 1964) the wings and fuselage had been parted and stripped for removal. During this time various sorties through the remaining aircraft produced cockpit equipment and other assorted parts, but owing to inexperience in restoring 20 year old aircraft and some scepticism on the part of the dump owners (and others) and because of our young age group (16-28), early progress was slow, but as experience was gained later work went ahead quickly

On 20th December, 11 days before all the remaining P—40s were to be chopped up and removed to make way for the new Rukuhia airport, all -the large sections wings, fuselage, tailpiane, had been removed and stored at James Aviation Ltd. Here we were greatly assisted by Mr James to whom we are very grateful. The smaller parts have already been brought to Auckland, and in all it has taken 9 months to complete the first stage of our restoration project. We are proud of this as there have been few members able to go on the 170—mile one—day trip and none were qualified mechanics or engineers. We did however find that the handiest tools were cold chisels and hammers.

Now remains the real part of the project — the actual restoration. The Kittyhawk will be brought to Auckland as soon as a place can be found to store it and work on it. We hope to exhibit the Kittyhawk at the Mangere Internatioz Airport when they are both finished, indeed the Airport Authority has set land aside for us and has suggested that the Society erect a building there to house the Kittyhawk

Our particular Kittyhawk is, as far as we oan ascertain, NZ3009 and was ET482 with the RAF. It was delivered to NZ in March 1942 and served with No 17 Squadron, and possibly with No 14 Sqn. It was finally with No 4 OTU as FE_S, we think. In 1946 it was flown to Rukuhia where it has remained ever since. If a nyone has additional details about NZ3009 we would be very pleased to hear of t At long last aircraft restoration has become a reality so making the Society a truly historical one with actual aircraft and not only photographs and data. Those of us who have worked on this project feel that we have proved that restoration can be undertaken by a non-profit group, and we hope that our example will be followed by other groups.

end of quote

[Dave Homewood]

Interesting article there Shorty. It probably doesn't even tell half the story though, it must have been quite a heck of a mission for youngsters in those days. Good on them all.

It is interesting to read it was destined to go to Mangere originally. Did it ever actually go there before MOTAT?

The first time I ever saw '09 it was indoors at the old part of MOTAT where the space and Jean Batten stuff, etc is, and I absolutely fell in love with the Kittyhawk from that moment on. Dad tried to tell me it wasn't a patch on the Corsair. It was another ten years or more before I got to see a Corsair and realise what he meant, when Tim's first flew into Wigram. Great days.

I do have to say that this scared me a little:

We did however find that the handiest tools were cold chisels and hammers.

;D

[shorty]

Notice it doesn't say who paid for it? And if it was owned by the Auckland Branch of the AHSNZ how did other people get to lay claim to it?

[Dave Homewood]

I was told that they were donated another P-40 by a chap in Auckland (which he aludes to in the article) and they swapped it for '09 because the rusty one was the same scrap value as the good one to the Asplins. Is this right?

[Peter Lewis]

I was the most junior bograt involved at the time, so the politics and machinations were well above my head. However, the scars of my youth are still with me.
There has been much argument - in court and out - over the years about NZ3009, but this is a precis:

The Auckland Branch of AHS decided on a project, and a ground-restoration of a P-40 seemed a reasonable target. The kick-start was Alf Bettany's donation of the remains of P-40K NZ3048. This was judged to be beyond restoration, but a deal was done with Larsen to swap this for another P-40, hopefully one of the 'Wairarapa Wildcat' aircraft (P-40M NZ3072 was still available). Darby was one of the AHS members, and set the deal up. Sadly, he was away when the 'new' aircraft was collected from Hamilton, and those involved sought to make life easier for themselves by collecting one of the aircraft that was nearer the gate. This just happened to be NZ3009. This airframe was duly delivered to Western Springs, and restoration work commenced. As is the case with this sort of volunteer effort, only a very few followed up their interest with actual work, notably Darby and Bob McGarry.
Many people and organizations donated large and small parts to assist the project. This later posed a question - who exactly did they donate to - AHS? MoTAT? Darby & McGarry?
Around the same time the AHS committee in Christchurch took fright, realizing that AHS was not an incorporated society just a group of people. This meant that should an aircraft owned by this group fall on somebody's foot or otherwise cause damage, each and every individual of the group would be liable for the full extent of the damage.
They there forbade the Auckland people to place the aircraft under AHS ownership while at the same time took steps to register AHS as an incorporated society. Thus, at that time, Darby and McGarry effectively took ownership of the aircraft.
A little later, apparently fed up with all of this, Darby wrote a letter to AHS Auckland Branch saying that he was donating the aircraft outright to MoTAT. I have the original of this letter.
Eventually, the aircraft was finished at MoTAT and went on display.
Twenty or so years later, when warbirds had moved from being a pile of junk who's only value was scrap metal to highly desirable investments, Mr Darby turned up at MoTAT saying that he had only given the airframe to MoTAT on loan, and he would now like it back please.
This triggered a complicated court case over ownership not only of the original airframe but also of all the bits that had been donated over the years.
The eventual outcome was that Darby took ownership of NZ3009, and NZ3039 became the display aircraft at MoTAT.

[shorty]

That is also the story as I knew of it. Funny what the lure of money does. Other things occured over the years but thats another series of stories that I really don't want to revisit.
In the meantime back to some photos, again taking note of the security fencing
NZ 3009c by Neville Mines, on Flickr
NZ 3009d by Neville Mines, on Flickr
NZ 3009e by Neville Mines, on Flickr

[shorty]

Continiuing with assorted P-40s the next three are of John Chambers' saves. Whilst I was at Woodbourne I was attached to 4 TTS to help with stuff for the Historic collection (as it was then known) and because I have known John Chambers since the late 60s I was asked to to go and see him and intoduce John Barry and Sandy Curry to him.
Hanging in the roof of Johns work place was his P-40M NZ3119, paint stripped and hiding under a dust cover. John very soon got the measure of John Barry and wouldn't lowere the fuselage for him to look at. Mind you John Chambers' business is that of a battery reconditioner so I think that would not be the best place to store an aluminium artifact with all the battery acid fumes wafting past it. The three heads visible are John Barry, George Jaunzemis and Sandy Curry, John Chambers arm is just visible behind Sandy.
NZ 3119 by Neville Mines, on Flickr

Outside the Howick workshop was the fuselage of his P-40E NZ 3094 which was later sold to the late Col Pay in Australia and restored to flying condition.
NZ 3094 by Neville Mines, on Flickr
NZ 3094a by Neville Mines, on Flickr

[stingray]

I had no idea that a p40 once sat up the road from me..Do you have a date?

[shorty]

About 1982

[Dave Homewood]

Which was the one they had on a trailer at the 1992 Mangere airshow? Was it the one outdoors? Sad that both have now gone overseas, but at least one is flying the the other is destined too. What has become of Col Pay's one? Is it for sale?

[shorty]

The P-40E was the one that was displayed at Mangere

[shorty]

Moving a bit further south there is one that definitely won't be getting restored to fly again. This is the mortal remains of NZ 3031 which crashed in the Orongaronga Ranges at the back of Wainouiomata killing Sgt Thomas Marchant. The photo was taken in 1968 and since then John Chambers tramped into it and packed out any useable bits (including the pilots armour plate) The aircraft missed the top of the ridge by about 20 yards.
NZ 3031 by Neville Mines, on Flickr
Quite some distance down the creek is the engine remains. There was a more recent photo of the engine printed in Classic Wing[s a couple of years back and the two photos make for an interesting comparison.Over the last 40 years the engine remains the most recognizable piece still there.
NZ 3031 Engine by Neville Mines, on Flickr

[Martin Wienert]

You can find three tiny pics of the engine remains here
www.pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/p-40/NZ3031.html
click on 'Photo Archive'