RIP Phil Murray

I have just learned that former RNZAF and Alpine Fighter Collection display pilot Phil Murray passed away yesterday, Friday 28th of December 2012, after a long battle with cancer.

Phil had been a topdressing pilot before he joined the RNZAF. When I knew him in the Air Force he was a Flight Lieutenant instructing at RNZAF Base Wigram. He was a member of the RNZAF’s Red Checkers aerobatic display team for several season in the 1990’s, and he was also a member of the elite team of warbirds pilots who flew the Sir Tim Wallis’s Alpine Fighter Collection’s aircraft at airshows around NZ. He also had a great ‘crazy flying’ routine in a Piper Cub, which he’d dress up as a clown or some other character and ‘steal’ the aeroplane. His flying was very precise and wonderful to watch.

It seems more recently he flew as a test pilot for Pacific Aerospace Corporation Ltd, before flying airliners for Air New Zealand.

Phil’s death is a sad loss to the aviation community here. RIP