|
|
Post by corsair67 on Dec 2, 2005 18:46:43 GMT 12
How many Boeing Stearmans are active in NZ, if any? I remember that there used to be one at Ardmore in the 1980s which belonged to a bloke called Len Cowper(?), but is that one still around?
|
|
|
|
Post by DragonflyDH90 on Dec 2, 2005 21:11:34 GMT 12
Yeah, Len's machine is still around just doesnt do much anymore, its for sale but a bit expensive. There is Paul Holmes' machine, whatever state that is in, it has been recently registered under another name not sure if that means it has moved on. Old Flying Machine Company's Stearman is in Wanaka ,I think.
I think there are two others, total of five. I heard a rumour the other day that there may be another coming into NZ.
|
|
|
|
Post by corsair67 on Dec 3, 2005 10:39:11 GMT 12
Thanks for that: good to see there are a few around. I'd forgotten about the "Gnome's" attempts at being a pilot!
Didn't he have a slight problem with a fence post and a wingtip 'blending'?
|
|
|
|
Post by Bruce on Dec 5, 2005 10:58:24 GMT 12
Issues with a small nut on the end of the control column......
|
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Dec 5, 2005 11:42:02 GMT 12
Paul Holmes has crashed the same Stearman twice, both times into paddocks, and hitting fences i think, the second time it was much more devastating to the aircraft I believe. It looked like a write off in the photos in some womans' tabloid magazine I saw in a shop.
Shortly after that crash at the beginning of the year, a Stearman wreck apparently went to Australia from NZ but I don't know if it's the same one, and if it was only for repair. Holmes has also survived a helicopter crash that killed his cameraman, but he wasn't flying then.
|
|
|
|
Post by corsair67 on Dec 5, 2005 11:52:01 GMT 12
He can't sing and he can't fly: well that's two less options now that his TV show's gone belly-up! I wonder if McDonalds will take him on?
Sounds like he wasted a perfectly good Stearman, if you ask me.
|
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Dec 5, 2005 19:05:14 GMT 12
He's never been able to interview either but he's made a huge success of that! he still has his radio show on 1ZB or wherever, and he still does have a show on Prime. But Prime has just been bought be Sky and is to become a live free-to-air rugby channel!!!! So I hope he won't be commentator - surely Sky can get out of the big contract they have with him! I think to be fair though Craig, on both occasions the Stearman wasn't perfectly good, the engine had stopped first time and he ran out of air so made an emergency landing in which on rollout he clipped a fence. Not too serious, not a crqash really. And on the second crash the tyre blew during a touch and go, causing the wing to touch the ground and it flipped. First crash onenews.nzoom.com/onenews_detail/0,1227,248959-1-7,00.html Note from that link other things he did which are probably more serious than the first crash! "In 2000 he was investigated for allegedly flying his Stearman bi-plane too low over Ardmore Airport. Earlier that year he was in strife for landing on the grass runway at Ardmore while it was closed for maintenance." Second crash www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=9005130Surprisingly the photos that were in Woman's Weakly, No Idea or whatever tabloid it was i glanced at are not splashed all over the net. Does anyone have that issue? |
|
|
|
Post by corsair67 on Dec 5, 2005 19:46:14 GMT 12
Actually, after watching the TVONE clip I feel a little sorry for him, because in the first accident he was actually trying to do the right thing by making a precautionary landing instead of pushing on. Far too many pilots have been killed by push-on-itis over the years.
|
|
|
|
Post by turboNZ on Dec 5, 2005 22:24:39 GMT 12
Amazingly before this thread even started, this is my PC wallpaper. (bigger, of course) nice pic, ay.  |
|
|
|
Post by corsair67 on Dec 6, 2005 9:39:39 GMT 12
That's obviously not Paul Holmes flying the Stearman because the pilot in this photo can see over the cockpit coaming!  |
|
|
|
Post by phil82 on Jan 29, 2006 9:09:40 GMT 12
Well, eat yer hearts out fellas, but I've done aerobatics in the Stearman that used to operate from Wigram [it may do still]. I was wandering around the area one day waiting for the Museum to open, and saw this guy wheeling it out of the hangar. It was a tourist operation, and he didn't have an immediate booking, so.........
...wonderful loops over Lyttelton, positive-g all the way over, hands never moved from my lap! Su-bloody-perb!
|
|
|
|
Post by DragonflyDH90 on Jan 29, 2006 20:33:04 GMT 12
The Stearman hasnt operated from Wigram for quite a considerable time, the company (Barnstormers) is no longer about.
|
|
|
|
Post by Allan Udy on Mar 6, 2006 18:56:06 GMT 12
>Well, eat yer hearts out fellas, but I've done aerobatics in the Stearman
>that used to operate from Wigram
I've got some really nice video footage (about 8 mins) of aerobatics from the front seat of the Stearman with loops and stall turns. I'm just waiting for an opportunity to put it together with some other video before it's commercially released.
If anyone expresses any interest in seeing this sort of material, let me know. It may fan the fires to get that project finsihed sooner, rather than later...
Cheers,
Allan
|
|
