Hawker Hind recovery photos

[shamus]

The guy in the photo who found the Hind was 'Guy Nuku' from the local tramping club.

[aeromuzz]

NZ1517 is one being restored to fly and it's for sale.
www.provenancefightersales.com/

[Dave Homewood]

From The Press, 5 April 1971

Plane wreck found

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, March 4.

An aircraft which crashed in the Tararuas 30 years ago and has since been sought by numerous search parties was found on Saturday.

It is in steep country about eight miles east of Waikanae.

The single-engined light bomber, a Hawker Hind, was discovered by Mr Guy Nuku, of Petone, when he briefly lost the rest of his party. Thirteen trampers and members of the Wellington branch of the Aviation Historical Society made up the group, which camped out on Friday night.

They had searched about seven hours when Mr Nuku stumbled on the wreck. He stayed with it until four of the men found him.

“You could stray within feet of the wreck and miss it,” the secretary of the Wellington branch of the Aviation Historical Society and organiser of the search (Mr M. Lovett) said today. The rare Rolls-Royce Kestrel engine was in excellent condition, the undercarriage, wheels and tyres were well 'preserved, and the tanks still contained oil.

The five men made an inventory of these and other details. The society will notify the Museum of Transport and Technology in Auckland. There was not enough in the bush to assemble a complete aircraft, Mr Lovett said. But with other parts from throughout the country, it would be possible to assemble the second complete Hawker Hind in the world.

There is one in England, which also boasts possession of two Hawker Harts, similar models to the one found. It is ironic that the Hawker remains are in such good repair. After the crash in 1941, an investigating Air Force party decided that the aircraft was not worth salvaging. An officer attempted to destroy it by breaking open a tank and igniting the fuel with a Verey cartridge. But much of the metal frame construction withstood damage. The location of the aircraft was later lost.

The Hawker Hind crashed while on routine training out of Ohakea and its pilot, Leading Aircraftsman G. C. Stewart, walked away to continue a full operational career. Today, he is living at Henderson, near Auckland.