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Post by tbf2504 on Mar 21, 2021 9:57:39 GMT 12
David There is a good photo of a Baffin over Birdlings Flat taken in the late 1930s
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Post by davidd on Mar 22, 2021 12:25:15 GMT 12
Yes, I guess they may have used the bombing/gunnery facilities out there at the lake/spit, etc. Will have to check in the unit history, such as it is, in case this is mentioned. David D
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Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 22, 2021 15:11:37 GMT 12
Some really brilliant aerial photos of Wigram taken during 1940-1941 have been posted just recently to the FotoWeb page. They are fascinating to zoom in on and look at places I worked and visited and the likes, fifty years later, and seeing what was different back in those early days of the war. Two things really stand out to me and I want to ask about. The first is in several of the photos there can be seen huge letters 'R' and 'T' in front of the control tower, lying flat so they could be seen from the air. The T is at right angles to the R. What was their purpose? And the other thing really interesting is this photo. Click Here To go to the original sized photo. Look how there is a load of roadways cut into the grass airfield. Only one Oxford can be seen parked in that area but there are numerous other objects randomly dotted around. Not sure if they are little huts or tool carts or maybe fuel tankers? They look too small to be trucks. Was this some sort of dispersal area but all the aeroplanes were up flying at the time except one? In another shot there's loads of biplanes, Gordons, etc, dispersed on the field near the bomb dump but these weird tracks are not there. I am guessing these tracks did not last long because they camouflaged the station as best they could when the Japanese entered the war.
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Post by shorty on Mar 22, 2021 15:36:58 GMT 12
I don't think those are roadways,more likely where field tiles have been laid for drainage. Depending on how dry it was when the photo was taken it would determine howmuch they would show.
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Post by tbf2504 on Mar 22, 2021 15:42:01 GMT 12
The "T" is most likely the landing indicator used for many years before radio controlled airfields. It was a T on a 360 degree moving table and was turned to show pilots the direction of the wind looking down the leg to the head. At some airfields the "T" had lights for indication of runway in use at night. Not sure was the "R" is
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Post by McFly on Mar 22, 2021 16:08:47 GMT 12
The "T" is most likely the landing indicator used for many years before radio controlled airfields. It was a T on a 360 degree moving table and was turned to show pilots the direction of the wind looking down the leg to the head. At some airfields the "T" had lights for indication of runway in use at night. Not sure was the "R" is Another view of the 'T' this time at RNZAF Whenuapai... "Open day at RNZAF Station Whenuapai. Low level oblique view of crowds in front of a hangar, the control tower and various vehicles on the airfield, including an ambulance, a fuel tanker and a fire tender." (WhG4198A-53) (Air Force Museum Collection)
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Post by davidd on Mar 27, 2021 13:25:11 GMT 12
These early methods of conveying information to pilots of aircraft intending to land at an aerodrome have a bit of history. In British Commonwealth (probably something similar in USA) this eventually (in 1930s, maybe earlier) came to include the wind "Tee" located within the "Signal Square" as shown at Whenuapai (as above).
Also, in centre of the flying field was located a large circle (in NZ required to be 100 feet in diameter, width of white band, 5 feet), to be "painted" in white. The name of the aerodrome to be displayed south of the circle, height of letters, 20 feet, so placed as to be visible to pilots overhead, and intended to be read with pilot positioned "facing north". After WW2 the airfield "circle/name" display was no longer required.
The white "dumb-bell" shape shown in the "Signal Square" above indicated that the airfield surface is unserviceable EXCEPT for runways, and that landings and take-offs are to be made on runways only, "and at no time are aircraft to use the grass surface of the airfield for taxying." To quote the full (and ponderous) text of the first post-war NZ Air Pilot (January 1946): "The superimposition of a detachable black crossbar 5 feet in length and 2 feet in width on each of the circular ends of, and at right angles to the length of the dumb bell is to indicate that landings and take offs are to be made on runways only, but that subject to standard unserviceability markings, aircraft are permitted to taxi on the grass surface."
There were various other markings that could be displayed flat on the ground (usually sheets with various coloured markings thereon) within the Signal Square too, and the mast in the rear corner was intended to display other items such as coloured flags (a green or red flag indicated LH or RH circuits respectively, for instance), also 3D items such as a red ball (plus an accompanying white cross on the ground) which indicated that parachute dropping was in progress.
A "yellow triangular equilateral pyramid (inverted) when hoisted on the mast , is to indicate to pilots that a beam approach is in use." Other ground signals could be employed in the Signal square to indicate "bombing" or "diving" practice underway, and a simple yellow cross on ground within signal square indicated a cable dropping area. Remember that these instructions covered both civil and military airfields, as is apparent in the types of warnings and exercises mentioned, including the beam approach one. David D
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Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 27, 2021 14:55:03 GMT 12
So what did the big R mean at Wigram? Was that maybe R for Right Hand Circuit?
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Post by Bruce on Mar 27, 2021 17:46:14 GMT 12
I would guess it meant "restricted operations" since half the flying field was dug up for drain laying...
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Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 29, 2021 9:26:29 GMT 12
A couple more photos from RNZAF Birdlings Flat from 1948 WgG547-48 - View of the main building at Birdlings Flat airstrip. Trucks and vehicles visible at right. LINK HEREWgG548-48 - View of the main building at Birdlings Flat airstrip. Fire Tender at staff car MT420 visible at left. LINK HERE
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Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 29, 2021 9:59:55 GMT 12
These photos show the style of helmet that we were issued when I was at GSTS at Woodbourne in 1989. We only wore them on a couple of occasions - one was during some all night defence patrol exercise where we had to stay awake and watch a perimeter. I think we also wore them the day they locked us in the concrete room and tear gassed us, and we had to don our gas masks - not certain there though. I never saw an RNZAF helmet again after the Basic Training. I have always wondered, were they some sort of NATO pattern? Were they a US design? Were they the same as what our Army wore back then before the Kevlar helmets came in? Does the RNZAF now have Kevlar modern helmets? These ones struck me as not being much protection against anything. LINKlink
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Post by aircraftclocks on Mar 29, 2021 11:16:47 GMT 12
I remember being the DNCO at Hobsonville in 1989, supervising defaulters on Jankers assembling helmets. I always wondered why these were needed, I guess I now know.
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Post by baz62 on Mar 29, 2021 16:31:32 GMT 12
They look like US helmets.
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Post by johnnyfalcon on Mar 29, 2021 18:55:17 GMT 12
That looks like Don Simms driving a Vauxhall Viva...!
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Post by classicman on Mar 29, 2021 19:23:35 GMT 12
The chap in the car is Bryan C_______. He was an Officer Cadet studying at Canterbury University a year ahead of me and would go on to become an education officer. He gave me the best academic advice I ever received - “you work, you pass”.
And as for the helmets, by the time I deployed on a UN mission in 1992 they had been replaced by the same Kevlar helmets that were used by the army.
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Post by 30sqnatc on Mar 29, 2021 19:25:37 GMT 12
They look like US helmets. They are just the fibreglass inner helmet worn inside US M1 steel helmet. Protection level zero. The liner contains the adjustable suspension system.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 29, 2021 19:41:15 GMT 12
So bought at The Warehouse then
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Post by skyhawkdon on Mar 30, 2021 14:09:01 GMT 12
That looks like Don Simms driving a Vauxhall Viva...! Wash your mouth out! I was a Ford Escort man! Plus I was never an Officer Cadet ;+)
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Post by johnnyfalcon on Mar 30, 2021 14:47:10 GMT 12
The fish are biting...!
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Post by Peter Lewis on Mar 31, 2021 14:50:28 GMT 12
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