The Marlborough Museum of Flight was really one guy named Warwick Bint and they uplifted the Hudson from the Holdaways and took it to, of all places, Warwick’s residence. This was a block of flats in Blenheim and it sat alongside the driveway there. I recall seeing a photo of it there somewhere once.

All that happened to it was some paint was stripped off the port nose. Then Warwick left Bleanheim and it all fell apart. The Holdaways had to go and reclaim the aircraft and took it back to their farm. We heard this had happened so wrote to them and said that if they were ever to dispose of it we’d like first option on it. They replied immediately to the effect that we could have it if we repaid the $30 it had cost to get it back (these are 1970’s $). So we acquired NZ2035.

The Holdaways had three wings and a few other small parts which we got as well. MoTaT then furnished bits that they had reclaimed earlier from the Holdaways.

A wee while later Warwick Bint turned up in my life (literally in the dead of night) and gave me the contact details of Angus Cameron from Dunback Central Otago. From Angus we go the centre sections of NZ2039, and one outer wing. We broke up this wing for materials to repair the centre sections and to repair the two wings for NZ2035. The “spare” wing we then sent to Cliff Robertson at Queensland Air Museum for his Ventura.

So that’s the main part of the story.

As for the one in the mud flats I never knew it was accessible so that’s interesting in asmuch as I would have expected Barry East to have burgled it when he did MoTaTs NZ2031.

I’m not sure but I believe NZ2084 was likely at the roadside garage at Larsens in the late 60’s when I passed by. There were two fuselages there with nose codes X and Y, if memory serves correctly, but I’m surmising that either could be 2084.

cheers

I’m not sure how rare they are in your part of the world Jon but I’m need of one for the Boulton Paul Type C turret I’m rebuilding for Hudson NZ2035.

If you’re inclined to pass one on pleae PM me

cheers

I believe this is a really serious issue for restorers and the previous post comment on collectors touches on an aspect of this whole business which I find very serious but for which I have no answer.

Being down here in NZ I wonder what people in other places have to say on this issue.

Let’s say I’m a collector (and I admit some of this is a bit of generalisation so forgive me but it is based on observation over time) I tend to collect the items that express action. So I go for how high, how fast, and the like so altimeters, rev counters, asi’s etc are my thing.

Equally I tend to buy them to put on a shelf and so I’m only going to buy a few. So I’m prepared to go to a reasonably highish level of cost as I’m not doing it every week so I go to say $NZ120 or so per instrument I’ll buy.

Now if I’m a restorer, as I am with a volunteer society, I have to find a complete set of specific insturments for a given aircraft. In my case I’m hunting down the 45 or so for a Lockheed Hudson so straight line maths says I need to spend of the order of $NZ6000 for the aircraft set.

So what is happening now is the collectors are driving up the price (especially if you end up in auction situations) but also to a degree taking the items out of circulation as it were. Equally people see a market for items of a certain type so they offer them up but what happens to the others (eg who can do me a Cambridge fuel ratiometer as opposed to the much easier to find turn and slip)?

I wonder what people think of this topic? I’m not for one minute denying the collectors their right to their hobby but I wonder about the greater good for the world and the museum aspect of it all.

Thoughts greatfully appreciated (offers of instruments and other gear even more so!).

As an intimate Hudson person those are not Wright cylinders but equally knowing Hercules engines pretty well they are some variant therefof. The flat heads of the cylinders and the studs etc confiirm that

Seeing the thread’s into Viscounts in general you may be interested in a couple of recent pix of our (Ferrymead) Viscount ZK-BRF “City of Christchurch”.

We’re due literally today (its sat morning NZ time) going to be bead blasting the wheel bays prior to painting and reinstallation of the u/c and then the centre sections can be rejoined.

The fence is a recreation of the original one at Christchurch airport circa 1960s when the old girl was in her heyday. The whole display is to be a full-size diorama. Just left out of shot is the nose of Bristol Freighter ZK-CRK complete with Morris Minor car being unloaded from it. In the background of the shot you’ll see the baggage trolley power pull and the nose of the 1940’s fordson refueler which will all be set up around the aircraft when finished.

As far as I know she’s probably the only Viscount safely housed inside anyone able to verify that?

Enjoy you Viscount fans!

That’s interesting but the points against it would be that

1. the grey is a blue-grey getting to the silver-grey shades

2. HR339 was used solely in the ETO during the war then stored before sale to the RNZAF

3. interestingly, but possibly totally erroneously, an HRxxx block mossie (HR370) turned up in Australia in what from descriptions is the same scheme (see Mosquito Monograph by David Vincent page 212)

4. we know its a “genuine” scheme as it has all the hadnling marks applied correctly over the grey (trestle points etc etc)

I’ll try and rustle up a pic

It annoyed me Dave so hunted it out from early 1979 edition and the original photographer was Neville Parnell.

Must have really given the tourists a memory for life!

Hi Wombat,

There was a pretty in depth article on them published in one of the very early Air Enthusiast editions at the time when it was a quarterly and in the Green-Swanborough era. Perhaps some one can get you a copy.

cheers