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Post by phil82 on Jul 29, 2009 16:34:44 GMT 12
I keep hearing these stories about long forgotten parts at Te Rapa, well I was a Te Rapa Techo (Airframes) from Feb 74 to March 76 (taking over from Smoky Dawson and with Steve Bailey as our SNCO). With ,literally, years of experience at ferreting out old aircraft parts I thought it would be an Alladins Cave of old parts. This was not so, the only part I found while doing my surveys that didn't relate to an in service aircraft was a Auster wheel hub. I could find nothing else and ,believe me, I searched every site (as the grocers called the big sheds) from top to bottom. As a result, I think a lot of the stories circulating are urban myths put about by people who never went there.. Ah, but I was there Shorty, and I actually saw the Catalina control yoke!. Perhaps it was a 'joke'? Also received in the list of essential parts for the Andover, were a number of stall-warning horns, straight out of British Leyland by the look of them! I wonder how often they had to replace one of them? |
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Post by shorty on Jul 29, 2009 20:52:41 GMT 12
Of course the real question to ask of our dear storeman was "What trade did you sign up as?"
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Post by sopwitht1 on Jul 29, 2009 21:31:32 GMT 12
Things do pop up in the wierdest places - by the way I'm not ex RNZAF - but I have worked on military aircraft in the past - last year it was discovered at Woodbourne that one of the maintenance access stairs was fitted with Mustang tail wheels, hubs and all. They've been duly removed though. I'm really enjoying Shorty's threads with pics of bits and pieces lying around Marlborough...
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Post by camtech on Jul 29, 2009 22:27:18 GMT 12
Shorty, the tail existed, but what happened to it, I don't know. I worked with Smokey Dawson for a fair while and he said that he thought they had found most of the treasures. But when there in 1977, we did find some instruments from Austers and Sunderlands. Most was in mislabelled boxes that we thought was for us. As you say, where did some of these stores bashers come from??
Some of the gear that was purchased for the Andover was odd to say the least (I remember the stall warning horns - actually had to change one once! I'm sure it was a BL part) and after having sat through a stores conference in the UK, can understand how some of it arrived. The poms were adamant that we had to have odd bits and pieces, and even though the staff officers were told adamantly that we already had stocks, the stuff finished up back in NZ. We actually resurrected some old Canberra stuff from training aids and manufactured our own test rigs for various systems. Some B170 stuff was still usable, as was other RNZAF inventory gear.
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