What a great shame that Mr Howells was not to acheive his dream. He had amassed an incredible collection and had obviously done a lot of work. I note he had made more than one instrument panel.

One thing I would like to say is that those photos on all the ebay listings of all the panels and ancilliery equipment provide a great reference source for modellers, especially colour references. You don’t normally see all the bits by themselves and with such good close ups, and in good light.

I think I’m right is saying that P51D ZK-CCG was the only Mustang to fly in New Zealand between the time the type was retired in New Zealand till Tim Wallis imported his first one in the 1980’s (which is now based at Ardmore).

Most of the P51D’s that left RNZAF service were broken down when they were sold off for scrap, and components turned up all over the place. In the Nelson-Motueka area several wheels became trailers and the Merlins were mounted onto the trailers with prop and all, and they towed the engines running at full tilt between the apple tree rows in the orchards there, blowing the frost off them. I have this info firsthand from my Dad who worked on an orchard in the area and remembers the early-morning sounds of Merlins in the valleys. There’d probably still be a lot of Mustang parts around that region if someone bothered to look.

Wow, I hadn’t heard of that. Have you any more details? Which country is it in? Is it in a lake?

A shame if it isn’t recovered. Our government should fund this – they’re spending millions on useless projects but this is a very worthwhile one.

Does anyone know whether the Sunderland sustained any damage at all? I hope not.