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Post by shorty on Aug 7, 2021 9:00:00 GMT 12
I don't recall any non mechanical items being held there, and I can't recall the building you are referring to either Dave, mind you that was 50 years ago (gawd, that makes me feel old!0
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Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 7, 2021 9:50:16 GMT 12
The building may not have been there when you were based there Shorty. I first visited in 1988.
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Post by tbf2504 on Aug 7, 2021 10:03:04 GMT 12
The only other reference to "elephant house" was at Wigram where the fuel tankers were stored adjacent to the YMCA and barrack block 16. There was no such structure at Te Rapa when I was there 1974-75
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Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 7, 2021 10:15:59 GMT 12
In 1988 it was most definitely there with a sign in big bold letters, Elephant House. All of us potential recruits getting our medicals talked about it as we all spotted it on the way to the base hospital.
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Post by oj on Aug 7, 2021 14:34:45 GMT 12
They would perhaps have been shelf-life renewal inspections.
Remember the base was No1 SD (main RNZAF inventory) and the damp Waikato air tends to make everything that is not hermetically sealed turn green!
I'll have to ask big brother; he was based there for several years.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 7, 2021 15:24:53 GMT 12
They would perhaps have been shelf-life renewal inspections. If you're referring to parachutes, every man-carrying parachute in the RNZAF got/gets the regular inspection involving unpacking, hanging to dry, inspection and repacking. Emergency escape chutes as used in the Airtrainer, Strikemaster, Macchi and Skyhawk when I was in were on a six month rotation to be inspected and repacked. The T-10's got repacked much more regularly, sometimes twice a day, when they were being used for paratroop training. And the square chutes used by PJI's also got a regular inspection by S&S and repacked. I cannot recall how many months the cargo chutes had before repack, probably similar if stored, but they too got used and repacked often after being dropped from a C-130, P-3K, F-27 or Andover back then. Chutes were stored in bays at Auckland, Wigram (at PTS) and Ohakea. I would be very surprised if extra chutes were stored unused at Te Rapa, I am sure that simply never happened. |
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Post by shorty on Aug 7, 2021 19:22:48 GMT 12
If there had of been parachutes, flying clothing etc at Te Rapa then we would have had a S & S in the Tech Section. In the tech section we had one of each trade and our job ws to survey the items in store and carry out any mods, SMI's etc that applied and to make sure items were adequately packed. Because we were away from our normal trade duties it was only a two year posting.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 7, 2021 20:46:46 GMT 12
But was there an S&S Technician there Shorty? I have never heard of any S&S posting there. Although the base closed two years into my service.
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Post by shorty on Aug 7, 2021 20:53:07 GMT 12
No, there was engines, airframes, electrical, radio and all were at least corporals plus a SNCO i/c
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Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 7, 2021 21:06:25 GMT 12
Exactly. Thanks.
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Post by oj on Aug 8, 2021 15:20:50 GMT 12
I apologist for creating such a circuitous discussion on parachutes.
Someone else can volunteer an explanation for the Elephant Tower!
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Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 8, 2021 15:39:12 GMT 12
No need to apologise OJ, we were just talking through the possibility that you suggested and have come to the conclusion that it was not for parachutes... or elephants. Elephant trackers maybe?
I have actually asked about the building before on the forum and never got a satisfactory answer. I conclude that there are next to no ex-Suppliers here, and that stands to reason as that trade never seemed to be very interested in aviation.
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Post by 30sqnatc on Aug 8, 2021 18:41:52 GMT 12
There are a series of chronological photos starting in 1955 of Te Rapa on Railway Research site where there was interest in the private siding that served the base. My memory may be faulty but I'm sure the map of the original application to NZR included a siding crossing SH1 and running parallel to SH1 but on the other side. Was this to the airstrip? www.facebook.com/groups/1484541598471503/posts/1508639872728342 |
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Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 8, 2021 19:55:45 GMT 12
Erm, when the PWD were building Te Rapa, they had to stop, pull up all the concrete they'd laid, and start all over again, after the supervisor realised the men had the actual drawing of the site upside down. So maybe that was what you saw. The way the concrete had been poured for the buildings meant it impossible to het the rail siding in there, and they could not adapt what they had, so they had to start again.
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Post by planewriting on Feb 21, 2023 17:29:50 GMT 12
I knew of Te Rapa being Hamiton's first aerodrome inthe 1920's and into the 1930's. I'm surprised to hear that Te Rapa was ever an airfield site (rather than being a helipad). Some years ago, Peter Layne and I collected his father and went to Te Rapa. His father learnt to fly in the early 1930s at Bryants paddock as the early Hamilton field was then known. This was down Bryants Road, which is the other side of SH1 from the Te Rapa stores depot. The site was still an open field at that time, about 20 years ago, but may well be built on by now. Bryants paddock was the early haunt of Stan Blackmore, and the location of the fatal Blackburn Bluebird crash in 1933. I understand that the plus factor for the Te Rapa stores depot location was that it fronted on to the road and backed on to the railway line. I won't bore you about who Bryant was, but there is a story . . . I've just been proof reading the next Aviation Historical Society The Aero Historian due out in March 2023 and needed to check on something leading me back to this thread. The occasion Peter Lewis and I, my wife, our two month old son and my father went to Bryant's Road was after we had been at Te Kowhai when DH89B ZK-AKU ran into a hedge on 27 January 1980. |
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Post by tbf2504 on Feb 22, 2023 11:21:06 GMT 12
The elephant house at Wigram was a building with slatted sides, slatted doors at each end and a corrugated hip iron roof. Located near seven hangar it was used to house the articulated fuel tankers. I assume that the reason
for the slatted sides and doors was to ensure ventilation around the tankers when parked inside to prevent a buildup of fumes etc.
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Post by flyinkiwi on Mar 17, 2023 15:45:06 GMT 12
It is all fascinating but I am troubled by not being able to find any photos of said Te Rapa airfield. A very careful search of Retrolens was unfruitful. Not the slightest trace of a landing strip or any buildings other than for farm use. My search involved a wide radius from Te-Rapa and the Bryant suburbs. Anybody got any good oil on this? About the closest I could find is an aerial photo of Hamilton belonging to the Geography Dept at the University of Waikato taken in July 1943. The bad news is I think it's one block southeast of where the airstrip was located so it's just out of frame at the top:  |
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