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Post by thomarse on Apr 5, 2014 6:20:12 GMT 12
Was it Mobil, Dave?
Memory fade - perhaps there was a bit of sponsorship involved.
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Post by Peter Lewis on Apr 5, 2014 7:20:10 GMT 12
Avian ZK-ACM at Fenton Street, Rotorua, 9March1963. (The first 'vintage' aircraft I had ever seen). The horse is quite evident. Any Mobil connection had never occurred to me, but is possible.
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Post by chinapilot on Apr 5, 2014 10:13:25 GMT 12
Give Keith Trillo a call - he purchased ACM around 1964 and completely rebuilt it. He would know the complete history.
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Post by Peter Lewis on Apr 6, 2014 9:11:15 GMT 12
W M Harray , a dairy farmer ,don't know his personal aviation status ,except that he thoughtflying to Matamata regularly was better than driving. Good to see you and FMM at Tokoroa Bruce.
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Post by eieio on Apr 6, 2014 20:24:01 GMT 12
Mobils "flying Red Horse" was red . Further info to hand, M Harray was a navy man ,trained at Galatea with Kawerau Aero Club . He had an incident at Wkakatane very late in the day ,Her indoors put a bit of a damper on further flying. And good to see some aucklanders at Tokoroa .Perhaps the turn out indicates pilots have got over the revenue collectors ugliness ,.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Apr 6, 2014 23:16:57 GMT 12
Mobil's pegasus is red and looks just like that one on the aircraft. Did the owner then have a Mobil garage perhaps? Or sponsorship for airshows? Mobil did sponsor Mustang ZK-CCG back around the same time.
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Post by woody99 on Apr 7, 2014 19:18:10 GMT 12
I grew up and learnt to fly in Whakatane in the late 70s and early 80's. We used to operate from Galatea every weekend for a while - taking a Cessna 150 from WK over for a days training. Aerohire was the Whakatane flying establishment. We would operate Galatea on a Saturday, and Opotiki on a Sunday. Gary Dixon of GA owned Cherokee 140 ZK-CIP. It sat unused for a long time and I actually dry-hired it from him for six months while building hours for my CPL.
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Post by Peter Lewis on Apr 7, 2014 21:21:02 GMT 12
G T & C M Dixon had a Murupara address when they took over ZK-CIP on 9Jun1978.
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Post by eieio on Apr 7, 2014 21:30:42 GMT 12
The Galatea owner of ACM was strictly a dairy farmer ,perhaps the flying horse was something to do with Stan Blackmore,the previous owner .The Dixons lived about 500 yds from the airfield.
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Post by woody99 on Apr 7, 2014 21:38:51 GMT 12
G T & C M Dixon had a Murupara address when they took over ZK-CIP on 9Jun1978. That would be right - Murupara was just down the road. GA was closest field. Dixon Transport rings a bell.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Apr 7, 2014 23:08:25 GMT 12
I was wondering where the name Galatea came from as it is clearly not a Maori name, and I wondered if it was from Australian Aboriginal or perhaps an Indian language.
So I googled and found it was originally a British camp called Fort Galatea, which was named after HMS Galatea. This was an Ariadne class 26-gun sixth rate wooden screw frigate in the Royal Navy, launched in 1859 and broken up 1883. Several more HMS Galatea's were to follow.
As the Royal Navy named ships Galatea there must have been an interesting meaning so I looked further, and there was. So, it turns out Galatea is actually from the ancient Greek mythology. Wikipedia says:
"Galatea (Greek: Γαλάτεια; "she who is milk-white")[1] is a name popularly applied to the statue carved of ivory by Pygmalion of Cyprus, which then came to life, in Greek mythology; in modern English the name usually alludes to that story.
"Though the name "Galatea" has become so firmly associated with Pygmalion's statue as to seem antique, its use in connection with Pygmalion originated with a post-classical writer. No extant ancient text mentions the statue's name.[2] As late as 1763, a sculpture of the subject shown by Falconet at the Paris Salon (illustration) carried the title Pygmalion aux pieds de sa statue qui s'anime ("Pygmalion at the feet of his statue that comes to life"). That sculpture, currently at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, now bears the expected modern title Pygmalion and Galatea.
"According to Meyer Reinhold, the name "Galatea" was first given wide circulation in Jean-Jacques Rousseau's scène lyrique of 1762, Pygmalion. The name had become a commonplace of pastoral fictions, because of the well known myth of Acis and Galatea; one of Honoré d'Urfé's characters in L'Astrée was a Galatea, though not this sculptural creation."
Fascinating where our place names come from.
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Post by thomarse on Apr 8, 2014 6:48:43 GMT 12
That's very interesting, Dave. I had no idea, so consulted my prized "Wise's New Zealand Guide" which although ancient contains many tales you don't hear nowadays.
Yep, Fort Galatea it was, and the surrounding area was known as The Galatea Estate "of some 25,000 acres which has been cut up into development farms for ex-Servicemen". Unfortunately (and uncharacteristically)Wise's don't mention the airfield or its history.
I thought Dave Starr might have chipped-in here; no-one's mentioned the ag-Dak days of Galatea again.
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Post by shorty on Apr 8, 2014 8:55:50 GMT 12
Given its greek origins is it pronounced gala-te-ah or ga-lay-she-ah?
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Post by Dave Homewood on Apr 8, 2014 11:15:02 GMT 12
I was originally wondering also if it was a very British word, Gala Tea, as in tea on the lawn with cream cakes, and gazebos and butlers.
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zkdex
Squadron Leader
Posts: 101
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Post by zkdex on Apr 8, 2014 13:23:22 GMT 12
Fort Galatea was the third and largest of three redoubts built on the military track south of Te Teko, during the land wars. As already mentioned, named after HMS Galatea. Redoubt 1 was Fort Alfred, built near the Rangitaiki river, below the present day Tahuna Road. Redoubt 2 was Fort Clarke, built in what is now Matahina Forest, close to where Matahina Forest village used to be(and now also a distant memory). Critical factor for location was local water supply - Matahina is a very 'dry' forest. One other thing about Galatea: during WW2 it was the location for a Conscientious Objectors farm.
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Post by starr on Apr 8, 2014 17:51:43 GMT 12
thomarse, I have thought about it. Yes I loaded the DC3 AZL at Galatea in 1962. Gerry Oman was the pilot at the time. We did a couple of jobs in the Waioweka Gorge, which were done from Whakatane later on. I think Gerry Kluck may have done some work off Galatea in the late 60s or early 70s. From what I can remember it was quite a good aerodrome in those days.
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Post by eieio on Apr 8, 2014 22:03:22 GMT 12
Jeez Dave the going is getting heavy with all that studious stuff . Fort Galatea buildings existed until about 1970 . One story tells of the massacre at Opepe [Napier/Taupo road .One guy escaped and ran to Fort Galatea naked and barefoot. AZL did a pre feed drop of carrots in the Ureweras from GA for the Forest Service.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Apr 8, 2014 22:34:13 GMT 12
A pity the fort buildings were not preserved.
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Post by The Red Baron on Apr 8, 2014 22:57:26 GMT 12
The first royal visitor to New Zealand, the Duke of Edinburgh, arrived at Wellington on 11 April 1869 as Captain of HMS Galatea. HMS Galatea Wellington Harbour
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Post by Dave Homewood on Apr 8, 2014 23:24:01 GMT 12
I knew he was in the Navy but had no idea he was that bloody old.
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