de Havilland Heron Preservation Society?

[Dave Homewood]

I found out yesterday that NAC used four Herons on the Cook Strait service before the F27's. I never knew that, and was unaware that herons even flew in NZ. On doing some checking I found one of their Herons exists at Ardmore under ownership of a Heron Preservation Society.

Does anyone know whether it is under restoration? Will it fly again?

[Bruce]

This was ZK-BBJ which was one of the old Air North Machines. It was painted in a very distintive Orange, yellow and black (1970s!) scheme. When I was working at Gulf Aeronautics (Ardmore) the Heron was stored dismantled in our Hangar accompainied by a vast stock of spares from the old Air North Fleet. It subsequently went to Dairy flat where it was stored outside. HOWEVER.... This last weekend we had an SAA visit to the new Classic flyers museum at Tauranga. Outside a crane was moving a very distinctive set of Orange wings into storage - Yes BBJ is now in Tauranga with a view to long term restoration to display condition. Although HPS was intending to get it flying again this would be out of the question now as the condition of the wings showed extensive corrosion - this was a lot worse than when it was in the hangar, so the time at Northshore in the marine environment didnt do it any favours. It is of interest to note that the NAC (and later Air North) Herons were Series 1 machines with fixed Undercarriage. Air Rarotonga used some lycoming conversions, which were series 2 with Retracts - like the Dove. Vincent aviation in Wellington brought one fresh off a Cof A inspection, got it back to wellington and found it riddled with incurable corrosion. It was scrapped eventually (in Australia) and court cases between Vincent and the CAA (who signed it out) went on some time.....

[hairy]

-BBJ a couple of months ago at dairyflat.............


BBM........BBJ.........?[glow=red,2,300] [/glow]

[Bruce]

Yeah BBM... Kept getting it confused with a "Boeing Business Jet" (easy to do....)

[Bruce]

I was over at Tauranga today for a SportAvex Airshow planning meeting (I'm on the committee) and I can report that work has started on the restoration of BBM. As seen in the pic below it is being paint stripped - a wonderful job for someone. when the SAA visited the museum a couple of weeks ago, the manager said they planned to restore it to an NAC colour scheme - polished metal with red trim. In my opinion the wings will need significant reskinning if this is the case, as it would be very difficult to repair the major corrosion when the repairs cant be hidden under a layer of paint. Heron wings, like those of the Devon were "Redux Bonded" which was the first time a structural adhesive was commercially used in metal aircraft construction. It does make a reskinning job a difficult exercise however....
Look carefully in the background and you can see one of the museum's Devons hanging on the wall inside!

[Dave Homewood]

Great news, thanks Bruce. It will look great with polished aluminium and red trim. I assume it'll be displayed indoors when finished?

Tell us more about the airshow - when, what, etc. Perhaps a new thread would be good for that.

[Bruce]

SportAvex 2006 Airshow (SAA annual convention flyin and airshow) Public Airshow day 5th February 2006 Tauranga Airport. $20.00 admission. Extensive Warbirds, RNZAF and homebuilt flying displays, lots of ground displays as well. (I'll let you know some of the other juicy details as they get confirmed - watch the airshows threads......

[Dave Homewood]

Cheers Bruce. That sounds good. I might have to try to cadge a lift over to that one. Please do keep the Airshow thread updated with which warbirds and others, etc. Cool.