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Post by Dave Homewood on Jan 15, 2022 20:58:43 GMT 12
I also find it very odd that practically everyone I have come across who has a Wings collection, their earliest copies start around 1972. Not many people have a collection with earlier editions than that. My collection which i was given by my Dad who collected them also starts in 1972.
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Post by Peter Lewis on Jan 15, 2022 22:22:27 GMT 12
I have issues 1 to 4, and a letter from the publisher/editor who talks of 'four to five issues', so even he seemed to have been unsure 50 years later.
I would have thought that there would have been specialist car or rail magazines published prior to mid-1929?
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Post by madmax on Jan 16, 2022 11:09:10 GMT 12
I Have a sneaking suspicion the late Keith Trillo had a full set of NZ Wings mags
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Post by shorty on Jan 17, 2022 7:50:25 GMT 12
My collection starts with 1956 and runs to 1993 with the exception of 1970/71
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Post by camtech on Jan 17, 2022 20:37:43 GMT 12
I'm in the process of downsizing my collection, so currently flicking through and checking there's nothing further I want them for. My collection runs from 1972 through to 2009, with a few gaps around 1987, plus Oct 2013 (Don Simms Skyhawk article). Bundling them into year lots, probably going to Trade Me in the near future, unless someone has a better idea.
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Post by skyhawkdon on Jan 18, 2022 6:56:36 GMT 12
Hey Les, believe it or not but I don't actually have a copy of that 2013 issue with my Skyhawk article in it! If you don't want it I'd be happy to buy it off you for my collection.
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Post by curtiss on Jan 18, 2022 9:34:30 GMT 12
I have a few dozen Wings magazines from the 30's, 40's and 50's. The content is quite disappointing though - mostly Aero club newsletter stuff and adverts for english aeronautical product. Practically no military content. Wartime Whites and Contact have much better content.
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Post by denysjones on Jan 18, 2022 13:53:21 GMT 12
Time to get the thread back onto hardware matters after a great diversion regarding Wings. The other month when Alex and Dag made a sortie to Mapua they collected up far more material than transport was on hand for and so since then Alex's mum has paid the price for being resident in Nelson by her garage being home to a pile of treasures. Over time she had been visited by persons able to be coerced into being mules for us. Last weekend my neighbour paid the price for my role as house minder, cat feeder, and plant waterer and brought nearly the last of it to us. In it is testimony to kiwi inventiveness namely this the purpose of which eludes me! The black major component is the manual rotation unit from a Hudson's Boulton-Paul turret. The rusty bracket attached at the top is obviously agrarian but it was attached with appropriate 2BA bolts and mounted an American pulley. The two pieces attached at the bottom are somewhat more refined and aeronautical in nature. At first I thought the green one was Hudson as it immediately seemed familiar but checking proved it was "close but no cigar". After stripping and cleaning the two pieces they yielded P/Ns of 1026420 (the green one) and 1008433 both of which are too long to be Hudson's which doesn't go beyond 6 digits. Also in the delivery was this piece of spiral re-inforced rubber plumbing on which is a wrap around tag akin to a modern electricians' cable clip with the P/N 1015500. Does anyone recognise the style and sequence of the P/Ns? Lastly this pair of 24volt solenoids seem to have also been repurposed by way of the now rusted additions. It looks like something then slid into the additions, as the six blocks around the edges are actually L-shaped to overhang whatever so slid in, and the solenoid actuated the lever arm and the plunger that passes through the plates. They've been fitted with 2BA nuts and bolts. I have yet to disassemble and clean one in the quest for P/Ns. ttfn
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Post by camtech on Jan 18, 2022 15:32:21 GMT 12
Hey Les, believe it or not but I don't actually have a copy of that 2013 issue with my Skyhawk article in it! If you don't want it I'd be happy to buy it off you for my collection. Will pm you later.
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Post by oj on Jan 19, 2022 20:18:31 GMT 12
The agrarian adaptation looks like a can opener for a 44 gallon drum. You know; how you make your incinerator.
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Post by camtech on Jan 19, 2022 21:06:38 GMT 12
Hey Les, believe it or not but I don't actually have a copy of that 2013 issue with my Skyhawk article in it! If you don't want it I'd be happy to buy it off you for my collection. Will pm you later. Have sent you a PM.
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Post by denysjones on Jan 22, 2022 20:23:50 GMT 12
Last week Rob gave me a hand and we got the starter-feathering pump onto the building up display Cyclone. The job of getting nuts onto studs was made a lot easier by removing the pair of magnetos that someone had kindly put on to, presumably, ensure their safe keeping for the day when the engine would be the subject of the current works. The pump has to be eased onto the studs progressionally by nuts on all the studs at the same time due to overhang of the body case. Damn nuisance! These mags, and the two sets on 2035, were salvaged from the scrappies back in the 1970's and we're just about at the end of our stocks. Ah for those days of materials in the scrappies! So this week's home project was to rework the left mag and this coming week we'll do it all over again for the right. While the mags are off mounting the generator will also be simplified so I'll plea again as to if anyone has one or can point me towards it. It's Eclipse type 314 model 5. Meanwhile it is suggested that all the bits from last week id'd as 10xxxx are in fact ex-Oxford. On the Hudson main front it was another day of small detail stuff with the bulk centred around the installation of saddles, made during the week, that attach the firewalls to the rear engine frames. ttfn
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Post by agile on Jan 23, 2022 10:18:55 GMT 12
In case this Mosquito update gets a bit TLDR I'll start with a reminder to check out our Trademe listings here if you are interested in Aviation or NZ (non-aviation) history books. It's a great way to support us, and reducing the quantity of books in my spare room will do my marriage a power of good. So on the Mosquito front we have paused work on The Big Repair while we sort out the damage around the machine gun bay and nose. Partly this is because the two repairs will join up, but another reason will become apparent below. The port side of the nose, already weakened by years out in the elements was seriously damaged in the 2011 earthquake, with a large crack forming immediately forwrd of the armoured bulkhead and extending almost all the way down to the cannon fairing at the bottom: At the time we quickly stabilised the area to stop the crack propagating, but now we need to address this dog of a repair. In typical British fashion the area is absurdly complicated with loads of tiny blocks and stiffeners, not to mention single layers of veneer in odd places. This is the inside of the aft port machine gun door hinge. The rectangular metal block is the hinge. The large chunk of plywood to the left is the temporary plywood bulkhead taking the place of the forward cockpit armour, which is too heavy for the weakened fuselage to support: Because the broken inner skin is hard against the bulkhead and the break runs over the deck of the machine gun bay, our repair strategy is to place a patch over the outside of the inner skin, then build the area up as per the original but with a lesser thickness of balsa. With this in mind an area around the broken inner skin has been exposed. The jack in the left of shot, which is holding the side of the nose in place is borrowed from Dagy's cider press. Naturally there is therefore some time pressure on this repair: On the port side some bastard back in the day fairly neatly chopped out the two hinge blocks and the section of door sill between them - this damage is visible in photos of the aircraft at Maheno. This repair overlaps The Big Repair. The other reason we have halted work on that is that we were a bit puzzled about how to template the hole in the outer skin for the cockpit door. This needs to be fairly precise so that the door neatly fits the finished hatchway, but the door is currently screwed into the opening and is holding everything together, so we can't use it. A chance conversation with Anthony Galbraith led to his son Cameron doing a quick Lidar scan of the area with his IPhone. I'm hoping one of my work colleagues can unroll this to produce a template. I'm still a bit dazed by this - when I was at uni the tech to do this cost about $1,000,000 and would take probably about 15 minutes to produce an uncoloured scan of the area. 15 years later dude's walking around with it in his pocket. Meanwhile the sheetmetal department has been hard at work on rebuilding the aileron trim tabs: and making new fuel tanks straps. There are 48 straps for the wing and fuselage tanks, and they come in 12 different lengths. Most of these are still in the wing of HR339, but they were mostly missing from the fuselage of NZ2328. We have retrieved a few from Pigeon Bay, Mapua and other swaps, and have decided to make the last few missing ones as good riveting training for George and his new assistant Reid: In the acquisitions department, as hinted at in a previous post hrvd1068 swapped us the IFF aerial and bracket in exchange for some choice bits to help with the restoration of 1068: This mounts across the inside of the rear fuselage between bulkheads 5 & 6. Once this is in place that section of the aircraft is fully internally complete. From the Mosquito mysteries/curiosities desk, two items. This tiny piece of Mosquito tail fairing rescused from Mapua came back from my Mum's garage along with the bits in Denys' last post but one (thanks Mum!!). It's unlikely to be any use to anyone but we were struck by the colours. We have always been told that HR339 was unique in arriving in NZ in brown/green camouflage. We have HR339's fairing, so there must have been at least one more: And while tidying up a few bits and pieces I came across this wing access panel (E.98634 for those playing at home) which is labelled PZ393: The Mosquito production list says of PZ393: "PZ393 FBVI 613/69/204AFS Swung on landing and u/c collapsed Brize Norton 17.1.50". It seems quite unlikely that a part from this aircraft would have crossed paths with the NZ fleet, all of which were over here by 1950. But could this have intended to be 'PZ392'? PZ392 was a contemporary of HR339 on 487 Squadron in the latter part of WW2 and wore the fuselage code EG-B. Like HR339 was exported to NZ in 1948, to become NZ2380. She was stored at Woodbourne and broken up some time after 1952. It's nice to think that a small piece of this war veteran may have survived, although I guess we'll never know for sure. Finally, the team of two who have been working on the Air Race sculpture have finished their work. It looks fabulous: Thanks to David Laughlin and Don Hensley for their work on this. Don, David and I also shared the cost of the materials for this display. If you got this far, thanks for reading all the way to the bottom!! Cheers A
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Post by ZacYates on Jan 23, 2022 13:06:10 GMT 12
Another great update Alex. I can't imagine how disheartening it was to see the crack after the earthquake. Is the fuselage now on any kind of floating/flexible fixture which could absorb some of the shock should it happen again? A chance conversation with Anthony Galbraith led to his son Cameron doing a quick Lidar scan of the area with his IPhone. I'm still a bit dazed by this - when I was at uni the tech to do this cost about $1,000,000 and would take probably about 15 minutes to produce an uncoloured scan of the area. 15 years later dude's walking around with it in his pocket. Anthony posted a similar thing about the R4D on a modelling forum and I was stunned. I had no idea this technology was available for consumers, least of all on your phone!! Just incredible!
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Post by agile on Jan 23, 2022 14:54:01 GMT 12
Another great update Alex. I can't imagine how disheartening it was to see the crack after the earthquake. Is the fuselage now on any kind of floating/flexible fixture which could absorb some of the shock should it happen again? The aircraft is chained and stropped to the workshop floor now. There's a heavy timber prop attached to the end of the nose supporting the mg bay and that was enough to keep her stable through the aftershocks. So I think we're good for the time being, and of course once these repairs are done (~a year or so) she'll be as safe as houses. It was a bit disheartening but it also exposed an area of structural weakness that might not have otherwise come to light, so not the worst thing that could have happened.
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Post by Antonio on Jan 23, 2022 17:50:41 GMT 12
"From the Mosquito mysteries/curiosities desk, two items. This tiny piece of Mosquito tail fairing rescused from Mapua came back from my Mum's garage along with the bits in Denys' last post but one (thanks Mum!!). It's unlikely to be any use to anyone but we were struck by the colours. We have always been told that HR339 was unique in arriving in NZ in brown/green camouflage. We have HR339's fairing, so there must have been at least one more:"
I remember back in the 1970's (?) visiting Ferrymead and taking a photo of HR339's tail plane, that fascinated because it was in green/earth colouring. One day I hope to locate the photo.
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Post by agile on Jan 23, 2022 21:32:38 GMT 12
It will have been the fin, as neither tailplane was recovered (other than small fragments). I hope you find that photo, always interested to see pics of the collection from the early days.
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Post by curtiss on Jan 24, 2022 7:34:20 GMT 12
"From the Mosquito mysteries/curiosities desk, two items. This tiny piece of Mosquito tail fairing rescused from Mapua came back from my Mum's garage along with the bits in Denys' last post but one (thanks Mum!!). It's unlikely to be any use to anyone but we were struck by the colours. We have always been told that HR339 was unique in arriving in NZ in brown/green camouflage. We have HR339's fairing, so there must have been at least one more:" I remember back in the 1970's (?) visiting Ferrymead and taking a photo of HR339's tail plane, that fascinated because it was in green/earth colouring. One day I hope to locate the photo. Photos of the Mosquito's in storage show at least two camo aircraft plus INST123 was also camo which I think was at Hobsonville. Not sure which colour camo though....
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Post by agile on Jan 24, 2022 15:54:04 GMT 12
There were certainly plenty of aircraft in two colour grey/green camouflage, but green/brown/sky seems to have been unusual. On HR339 it's painted over the original grey/green.
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Post by denysjones on Jan 29, 2022 19:54:40 GMT 12
A day of several annoyingly fiddly jobs but more Hudson progress in the end. First up the two oil return tubes from the rear face of the firewall to the oil tanks, that I made up recently, were ready to install. The starboard one went in ok, fiddlyness aside. Getting parts, arms and tools into the small and now increasingly populated bay presents a few issues! The port became a bit of a battle as the connection on the base of the tank was not centrally aligned with the structure hole that the pipe passes through to connect to it. So it was a case of slackening off the tank retaining straps and then with a car scissor jack easing the tank across the bay to the correct position, thanks Mr Toyota, and then re-tightening the straps, again with less than wonderful access. That's the beastie running across the lower view and heading off upwards to the left. A, week-time project, refurbished vacuum pump was next up and took up position on the port Cyclone. Then attention turned to the makeup of the first set of plumbing for it. The images in the parts book and the specs in the tubing tables didn't agree so the outcome is best described as a compromise. It has to come back off the connection on the pump and then run to the left along the engine frame member in the foreground and the revert upwards and connect at the firewall After sorting all that, and the fact that it is two parts where the join gets anchored to the engine frame, we're done and it's now off for painting prior to installation next week. cheers for now!
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