NZPAF/RNZAF Fairey IIIF Survivor?

[Dave Homewood]

I have some sporadic issues of NZ Wings Magazine from the 1970's and 1980's that I picked up somewhere. In the September 1985 issue there's a great article by the late Air Commodore Stan Quill about the Fairey IIIF, both its history and his own experiences flying one in the RNZAF just before the war.

The thing is, the intro to this article states:
"A suggestion that on of the Royal New Zealand Air Force's three Fairey IIIF's might have survived the scrapping process prompted Stan Quill to pen the accompanying memories of the aircraft."

This 'suggestion' must have been in a previous issue which I do not have.

Does anyone know what it is all about? I know that someone has suggested that one of the two first ever Boeings was walled up inside the North Head tunnels, did the theory on the IIIF have anything to do with that?

Also in his article, Stan Quill said that the Fairey Gordon was a re-engined IIIF. I never realised that before, but it makes sense. I think there is supposed to be remains of a Gordon hiden away somewhere in NZ - does anyone know about this? Perhaps that is what was mistaken for the IIIF?

[Bruce]

Hi Dave,
Charles Darby recovered a Gordon from a crash site near Blenheim in the 1980s. I have seen bits of this aircraft and there is certainly enough to base a rebuild on - at one stage he even reserved a civil registration for it. the few bits a saw was around 1992, and there was some preliminary restoration going on. Since then P40s have taken priority and the civil registration has been cancelled.
The Gordon is structurally identical to the IIIF, and in fact a good number of the RNZAF machines saw RAF service as IIIF's before reconditioning as Gordons Other than the engine, the only difference is the Tail fin. The Gordon is based on the RAF IIIF Mark IV (Which had 2 single tandem copits) whereas the NZ IIFs were IIIF Mark III B and IIIM which were ex FAA and had a single copit forward and a large open 2 seat copit behind it.
According to my references the fates of the RNZAF IIIFs was as follows:
F1134, Crashed Hobsonville 1930, Reduced to parts, replaced by S1805
F1133 withdrawn from service 1939, became instructional Airframe INST2, Scrapped approx mid WW2
S1805 as F1133, Became INST18, also scrapped.
If any IIIF bits were around in the 1980s it would likely be only a few components of either F1133 or S1805.
(I've just aquired a model IIIF for my collection....) Beautiful looking machines I must say.

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks for that info Bruce.

I do like both the IIIF and the Gordon, great aircraft. I'd never looked closely at the two before to compare them. That's interesting to know they are almost the same. I guess it must have been the Gordon wreck that aroused suspicion it might have been the sleaker cousin.

Who makes the kitset by the way? Is there one in 1/48th?

Cheers
Dave

[Bruce]

The kit I have is a 1/72 Contrail Vac form. These things are scarce as hens teeth and it took some fairly agressive bidding on eBay to pick one up. Its a "Hard work" kit but thats O.K. It actually has parts to build THREE fairey IIIFs of various marks. I will build a mark IIIM on floats and convert the mark IV with a spare 14cylinder engine I have in my bits box into a Gordon.
I have no idea about 1/48 scale kits, I'd imagine they would be even harder to find! Contrail actually produce a Gordon as well, with a white metal engine, but these are also very rare.

[IVAN]

The Gordon in question is NZ629. I contacted Charles Darby about this aircraft last year. He still owns it and at that stage it was being assessed by Pioneer Aero regarding a start on restoration.

I have his whole history of the recovery of the aircraft on a word document, and will send it to anybody who would like a copy. Please contact me on my home email.

For detailed histories of the Gordons and the Fairey IIIFs have a look at the website:

www.adf-serials.com/nz-serials/

[Vildebeest]

Hello, just popping over from Flypast via Dave's link for a peep. A thread wholly devoted to Vildebeests and one to Fairey IIF's, now that'swhat I like.

If you do inter-war models, have a look at www.sangereng.fsnet.co.uk . They do a Fairey IIIf in1/72, which I think is the Contrail kit tarted up a bit. Quite a few of their kits are I think the old Contrail ones. THey don't do a 1/48 one. but they do a 1/48 Vildebeest/Vincent, which I have and is not bed, though not yet started. They also do some very nice looking inter-war flying boats. If only I had the time....

Paul

[Dave Homewood]

Hi Paul,

Good to see you here. You'd be most welcome to sign up and stay. We have lots of topics come up of old stuff you'd enjoy discussing.

I'm surprised to hear the Sanger Vincent is ok. I bought their Hudson in 1/48th years ago, and as bitterly disappointed. It looked nothing like a Hudson, it looked like they vacuum formed the fuselage over adead fish! It too was ex-Contrail I believe. It reamins, needless to say, unbuilt, and has made a good talking point for showing others who need a laugh. It was alao very expensive for the crap you got. Oh well, I have a Classic Airframes one now...

[Bruce]

I certainly found my Contrail kit to be quite good. Like alll Vacforms it is a "hard work" kit, but the surface detail is quite good for 1/72 scale (better than some injected kits I've seen) and all the parts fitted quite well. Theres a little bit of "blobbiness" (indistinct profiles) around the floats, but not too bad. Here are some photos of it:







The IIIF was a BIG aeroplane - for comparison here are a few other machines from a similar era:
DH60 Floatplane (Converted from Airfix Tiger Moth)
Gloster Grebe (Merlin Kit)
and Avro 626 (Converted from Pegasus Tutor)
All to the same scale (1/72)

[Vildebeest]

Yes, the 1/48 Vildebeest is not bad in terms of quality, though it will need quite a bit of work. The quality of the surface is a lot better than an old 1/72 Contrail Vildebeest I have which is hard work. I've also got (unbuilt again!) a 1/72 Harrow from Sanger which again may the old Contrail which is reasonable quality.

The Merlin Grebe, got one of those, a nice model, actually built that one!

Paul

[Dave Homewood]

I like the models Bruce. That is an amazing comparison size when you see them together. But I guess as the IIIF and the Gordon were very similar, and the Gordon and Baffin were a sinilar size, and the Baffin was comparable to the Vincent for size, it makes some sense. Photos often don't demonstrate the shere mass of the bigger biplanes the RNZAF/NZPAF operated.

[Bruce]

Just managed to score a Contrail Baffin on eBay too........

[Dave Homewood]

A Baffin, Cool. Can you take a few photos of the kit and post them on the forum BEFORE it's built so we can see the kit. And AFTER too of course