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Post by FlyingKiwi on Jun 16, 2022 21:40:25 GMT 12
I noticed today there's a Britten Norman Islander fuselage right at the back. I assume it's the one that had the whoopsie at Okiwi Station some years ago (DLA I think?) and got flown back under a helicopter. It was parked on the southeast apron at Ardmore for years.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jun 16, 2022 22:43:32 GMT 12
Your idea of "many years" is not in the same realm of most people here's idea of "many years" Aidan. Can you estimate how long ago?
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Post by Deleted on Jun 17, 2022 8:07:31 GMT 12
Once upon a time there was a Ceres under a tarp over there. I think the one the went to Riverhead? ZK-BSQ - whose presence at Ardmore I think predates Aidan by a few years! I may be mistaken on the timeframe though. |
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Post by westland831 on Jun 19, 2022 17:48:21 GMT 12
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Post by Bruce on Jun 20, 2022 12:39:07 GMT 12
Bringing broken Islanders back from the Barrier by helicopter was not an uncommon experience. I saw one of GBAs come back to Ardmore under a Llama in about 1993...
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Post by Dave Homewood on May 3, 2023 21:36:17 GMT 12
Air Force hunt for TomtitA search for surviving parts of a World War II Hawker Tomtit has been started by the R.N.Z.A.F. Museum at the Wigram base. The museum has a tail plane for this 50-year-old aircraft and hopes that if the other bits can be found, restorers will have a handsome-old aircraft to display. The Hawker Tomtit, NZ53, was one of four similar aircraft bought in 1930 to serve as advanced pilot trainers. At a recent gathering of Air Force engineering officers, someone recalled that a Tomtit had been given to the Reefton Air Training Corps cadets during the war. The story came to the ears of Squadron Leader V. K. Barry, the R.N.Z.A.F. Museum director, at Wigram, who immediately began to follow up the lead. Mr Jack Latham who trained A.T.C. boys at Reefton during the war, recalled the plane but thought it had gone to the Murchison A.T.C. . Subsequently he was able to discover not only that the Tomtit had indeed been used at Murchison, but that a former A.T.C. officer now living in Collingwood would be able to help. That officer, Mr George Masters, was tracked down and was most helpful. Apparently the NZ53 had been parked for a long time in a paddock next to Mr Masters’s house at Murchison and after the A.T.C. had finished with it, seemed to have “sort of just faded away.” Some say that cows were seen grazing on its fabric, others that it was stored for a long time in the Domain implements shed. Opinions differ also as to its final fate. Did people gradually strip it, or was it loaded on a truck and carted away? The “gradual stripping away” school of thought had" some credence because the museum has been given the under-carriage of NZ53. As Squadron Leader Barry sees it, if the wheels were found in the West Coast-Nelson area, other pieces of the aircraft could still be around. The Hawker Tomtit was a biplane painted silver-grey over all, powered by an Armstrong Siddeley Mongoose 111c, five cylinder radial engine. The Press, 16 February 1980.
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Rumours!
May 23, 2023 12:59:11 GMT 12
via mobile
Post by hrvd1068 on May 23, 2023 12:59:11 GMT 12
would been before your time Aidan there was 2 harvard tube frames in the back paddock at ardmore i think greg may have grabbed them.
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Post by hrvd1068 on May 23, 2023 13:00:27 GMT 12
I noticed today there's a Britten Norman Islander fuselage right at the back. I assume it's the one that had the whoopsie at Okiwi Station some years ago (DLA I think?) and got flown back under a helicopter. It was parked on the southeast apron at Ardmore for years. Yes that is correct i put the islander there. It used to sit out the front of mike smiths hangar. |
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Post by planewriting on May 23, 2023 22:11:42 GMT 12
Can anybody advise on any progress on tracking down the Tomtit featured above?
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kiwiwreckdiver
Squadron Leader
Still military and aviation history mad
Posts: 124
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Post by kiwiwreckdiver on Aug 26, 2023 15:23:37 GMT 12
Hi there any idea what become of all those P51 'Parts or IDs" listed at Nelson  |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2023 19:58:33 GMT 12
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Post by Deleted on Aug 30, 2023 20:25:19 GMT 12
Hi there any idea what become of all those P51 'Parts or IDs" listed at Nelson Hi, If anyone has a copy of Wings November 1982, has the write-up on the mustangs. Shows 2427 at Omaka airshow in April 1959, it also says vandals damaged both 2427 & 2428, resulting in both aircraft being dismantled and stored with a number of components sent to austrailia to assist Robert Vuletich's restoration project. Peter Coleman also had bits of 2402, 03, 05 ,13, 14 and 26. Also says 2427 lost its wings outboard of undercart and was rebuilt using wings off 2402,prop off 2423, and wheels off 2408.If no one esle can find mag I will scan pages and get them on site. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 3, 2023 9:04:57 GMT 12
Here's one for the brains trust that really has me confused.
A friend and I were talking to a museum docent yesterday who had spoken with a visitor whose father had a Corsair on their farm near Rangiora which was flown from time to time until it was sold to the USA in the 1970s. The gentleman showed him photographs of the machine - given the story sounded so similar to Mustang NZ2427/ZK-CCG I asked whether the aircraft in the photos was in camouflage, the docent said it was and was adamant it was a Corsair. He suggested the gentleman ask the folks in the museum office to make copies of the photos but, regrettably, he doesn't believe that happened.
Does this ring any bells for anyone? After perusing NZDF-Serials the only possible candidate I see NZ5526, which had been an instructional airframe at Wigram.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Sept 3, 2023 10:06:03 GMT 12
Which Museum, Zac? The AHC?
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Post by Dave Homewood on Sept 3, 2023 10:11:23 GMT 12
The first question you'd have to ask is how many farms near Rangiora had a runway capable of handling operations of a Corsair.
I find it very hard to believe that one flew "from time to time" without there being any other record or memory of this. As far as I am aware Rangiora is not exactly remote, people would have seen and heard a Corsair flying from a farm strip, surely.
It is not so unbelievable if one actually survived on a farm. A lot more aircraft seem to have made their way to farms and other places post-disposal other than those on the known record. For example the P-40 that was found on a far at Fairlie, the Corsair that was on a farm near Helensville, the half a dozen P-40's that apparently went to Timaru, etc.
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Rumours!
Sept 3, 2023 19:57:16 GMT 12
via mobile
Post by chrism on Sept 3, 2023 19:57:16 GMT 12
The first question you'd have to ask is how many farms near Rangiora had a runway capable of handling operations of a Corsair. I find it very hard to believe that one flew "from time to time" without there being any other record or memory of this. As far as I am aware Rangiora is not exactly remote, people would have seen and heard a Corsair flying from a farm strip, surely. It is not so unbelievable if one actually survived on a farm. A lot more aircraft seem to have made their way to farms and other places post-disposal other than those on the known record. For example the P-40 that was found on a far at Fairlie, the Corsair that was on a farm near Helensville, the half a dozen P-40's that apparently went to Timaru, etc. Helensville Corsair? Do tell more!? |
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Post by Dave Homewood on Sept 3, 2023 20:12:23 GMT 12
It has been mentioned on the forum before. When Don Subritzky was recovering a Hind wreck from a farm pond in the 1980s or 1990s, he decided to knock on doors along the road in case other parts of the Hind were still around the area as it was thought by the owner that neighbours probably took parts from it over the years before it was eventually pushed into the pond. He discovered at one farm the family had had a Corsair for many years tucked away, but it had recently (to his visit) been taken away by a scrap dealer. Another forum member said he recalled seeing what he thought was a Corsair around the same time being towed to the scrap yard at Otahuhu.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 3, 2023 20:50:54 GMT 12
Which Museum, Zac? The AHC? Yes - in hindsight I don't know why I was being so cagey! |
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Post by denysjones on Sept 4, 2023 13:16:51 GMT 12
Harking back to Zac's post 30/8 above quoting Dave K's one of 28/5/09 I've posted the Wings article mentioned on the Fate of the Mustangs thread (seems it best belongs there).
Re the Corsair at Rangiora business. Way back in time (1970's) I was told that the Corsair from the Electrical school at Wigram had sold to a Mr Shearer in North Canterbury so there might actual be something related but it wouldn't have been flying.
I spent some phone time calling numbers listed as Shearer (great back in those times when you could trawl phone books) all to no avail apart from one family north of Kaiapoi who had had a Hudson but long sold to a scrappie.
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Post by shorty on Sept 4, 2023 14:56:38 GMT 12
I was under the impression that the ex Electrical School Corsair went to a scrappie in Ashburton. I'm sure I have seen a photo of it there but can't remember where (Wings photo page perhaps?) Seem to recall it was natural metal and the photo was from R.H side.
ember
Corsair went to Ashburton, I'm sure I've seen a
photo of it but can't rem
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