Post by Dave Homewood on Dec 30, 2005 13:52:19 GMT 12
Is there still a Vampire Gate Guard at Ohakea? Or is the Harvard at Wigram the only miliatry Gate Guard on a pole left in NZ?
Apart from the Hurricane replica at Motat, are there any other gate gaurds on poles at all in NZ still? I know that the Te Rapa Avenger is now in the RNZAF Museum (I don't think that was on a pole as such was it?) and their subsequent Vampire is now on loan to Wanaka's NZFPM.
The Rukuhia Turbo Fletcher Gate Guard is now off it's pole at the gate of Hamilton Airport and now in the Waikato Museum in town.
And the Lodestar at Gisborne's Darton Field is now indoors too. So are the Wigram Harvard and Motat Hurricanes he last of them?
I was involved in painting the Wigram Harvard in April-May 1993. That was when it changed from its longstanding wartime yellow scheme to the now familiar grey and red scheme. This was decided because Wigram was to close and it was thought a good idea to reflect both the wartime training through the yellow scheme and modern training there through the modern scheme.
Little did the powers that be then now that soon the CT-4's were to be repainted yellow! And also an unexpected twist arose when the aircraft was painted pristinely and remounted, and Technical Squadron was preparing to close and move out of Wigram. The Tch Sqn Engineering Officer, Teresa Cunningham, who'd been in charge of the operation, found in a very old Minute in a box of files she was sorting through for the move that the aircraft was not put up by the military as such, but in fact by a veteran's group. They had donated the airframe to the base after raising money for it, and they had stipulated in the terms that at no point would the colour scheme deviate from the wartime one! We felt very bad about that, but it was not known to any of us till well after the event. Obviously wasn'ty a well known clause as the media never picked up on it, and there must have still been many vets still alive then.
I noted last year when I visted they had changed the main gate to Wigram slightly and had actually moved the Harvard! What a job. It was a big thing for us to put it back up without scratching thenew paint on the day. CTV filmed it all too, the re-erection of the famous gate guard. Anyway, that's just a little aside. Any other gate guards left in NZ? And I don't mean rotting Lodestars sitting at Wanaka.
Apart from the Hurricane replica at Motat, are there any other gate gaurds on poles at all in NZ still? I know that the Te Rapa Avenger is now in the RNZAF Museum (I don't think that was on a pole as such was it?) and their subsequent Vampire is now on loan to Wanaka's NZFPM.
The Rukuhia Turbo Fletcher Gate Guard is now off it's pole at the gate of Hamilton Airport and now in the Waikato Museum in town.
And the Lodestar at Gisborne's Darton Field is now indoors too. So are the Wigram Harvard and Motat Hurricanes he last of them?
I was involved in painting the Wigram Harvard in April-May 1993. That was when it changed from its longstanding wartime yellow scheme to the now familiar grey and red scheme. This was decided because Wigram was to close and it was thought a good idea to reflect both the wartime training through the yellow scheme and modern training there through the modern scheme.
Little did the powers that be then now that soon the CT-4's were to be repainted yellow! And also an unexpected twist arose when the aircraft was painted pristinely and remounted, and Technical Squadron was preparing to close and move out of Wigram. The Tch Sqn Engineering Officer, Teresa Cunningham, who'd been in charge of the operation, found in a very old Minute in a box of files she was sorting through for the move that the aircraft was not put up by the military as such, but in fact by a veteran's group. They had donated the airframe to the base after raising money for it, and they had stipulated in the terms that at no point would the colour scheme deviate from the wartime one! We felt very bad about that, but it was not known to any of us till well after the event. Obviously wasn'ty a well known clause as the media never picked up on it, and there must have still been many vets still alive then.
I noted last year when I visted they had changed the main gate to Wigram slightly and had actually moved the Harvard! What a job. It was a big thing for us to put it back up without scratching thenew paint on the day. CTV filmed it all too, the re-erection of the famous gate guard. Anyway, that's just a little aside. Any other gate guards left in NZ? And I don't mean rotting Lodestars sitting at Wanaka.
