Hi Chris,

The Venom was taking off from Ardmore when the engine flamed out on takeoff, and it basically sank back onto the ground, skidding along on its belly, right through the perimeter fence, and across the road – seemingly about two feet in front of a car travelling along the road! A very, very near miss.

Imagine driving along on a country road at a reasoable open road speed and having a jet try to cut you off perpindicularly at high speed! Funnily enough the car appeared in the video to simply keep on going – not sure if it stopped down the road. Maybe the driver blinked and missed the jet go past his bonnet!

Sadly the jet hit a hedge or trees on the other side of the road, which did more damage, and it was written off. I believe that Trevor Bland was unhurt thankfully. Amazingly it was all caught on camera by an amatuer enthusiast – it was on the news and then later released on one of the Aviation Archives videos. I have it on tape somewhere, it showed the aftermath in more detail than the TV did.

And Aside Now – A few Ardmore Incidents

Those paddocks are no strangers to that sort of incident. As a kid Dad lived on the farm at the end of one of Ardmore’s strips throughout and after the war. He remembers Corsairs overshooting and crashing into the surrounding farmland several times. He once saw a crash, the pilot had tried to open the canopy but the impact had slammed it shut and cut the poor pilot’s hands off. Dad remembers picking up one of the hands and it was moving. Gross!

I have tried to find out who this was. Dad thought the pilot died, but I can’t find an exact match of any deaths there in For Your Tomorrow. Perhaps he survived. My grandfather apparently helped rescue a number of other pilots after crashes too, and/or recover their aircraft off his land.

Nana’s brother also crashed at Ardmore. He was flying a Harvard as target tug to some American pilots, and they shot him down! He was ordered to ditch at sea, but he insisted he could save the plane. I think it must have been just an undercarriage problem. He disobeyed the tower and bellylanded on the edge of the airfield. The plane survived remarkably apparently and was servicable again very soon, but he was Court Martialled and sent to Ardmore Military Prison.

Dad often tells of how he and his brother used to sneak onto the airfield and play there. He remembers one of the big hangars was chocka bloc full of gas masks, in readiness to hand out to Auckland if the Japs came closer. And he said one night they were playing in the drain inside the perimeter when a fire engine came round, firing a bren gun into the ditch. Apparently they did this regularly to scare off birds nesting there. He recalls bullets whistling over his head, and thinking nothing of it. The firemen never knew they were there!

And another interesting incident is that they had a short aerial of about two feet long on the top of the house. One time a Corsair was taking off and failed to gain height, and it knocked the aerial off! I had heard this story from Dad and Nana many times as they were in the house at the time and were rather shaken by the low flyer! So I was intrigued to read a very similar story in Bryan Cox’s book Too Young To Die where he described a takeoff where he failed to gain height and very nearly crashed into the house at the end of the runway. I wrote to him in 1992 after reading that and between us worked out it was most probably him in the plane. Funnily enough he and I were both born here in Cambridge.

That seems like a very good point Mathieu. I think the difficulty would be pinpointing such a wreck, and the depth may be a factor. Underwater currents and water pressure may have had an effect on the aircraft too. But then those Avengers discovered in the Bermuda Triangle looked pretty good after all this time. Where is Dr Robert Ballard when you need him? Imagine seeing a few dozen Seafires or Hurricanes or P40’s etc being winched up still in their protective rubber coating they sometimes used when shipping aircraft. 🙂

Melvyn, an interesting point about the price of Alumnium. I see your point too about the need to use a bulldozer to crush the aircraft. We can’t possibly hope they wheeled the planes into a hole and carefully filled in the dirt around them as if planting a bulb. They would have probably crushed and smashed up the aircraft. They bulldozed a load of Venturas into a gully to build it up level and extend the runway at Hamilton International Airport here in NZ. You’d hardly want the runway to start sinking over time. This is purely my imagination but I envisage perhaps a wrecking ball and heavy dozers flattening the bombers 🙁 – maybe they even filled in and around with concrete? I wonder if the Public Works Dept records detail what really went on.

What is the story about the FW190 under a hangar?

If you listen to the show you’ll find that the scrap dealers stripped all usable metal from the ships and it was merely the hulks that was left. I guess today technology would mean much more of the hulks could be recycled than they were able to in the 1920’s and 1930’s.

As for aircraft, I agree it is senseless, but they certainly did bury them anyway. I guess they didn’t have a need to turn them into pots and pans as rationing continued for many years later. Perhaps someday someone will find a site with the right soil conditions and a restorable wreck will be uncovered. If they can restore crashed aircraft from Russia, I’m sure a buried aircraft in the UK stands a chance.

Dave you are trouble now, it’s like women – NEVER publish a pilot’s or a woman’s age, they get very embarrassed!

Uh-oh… I didn’t realise display pilots were like actors… Actually, I read his date of birth in a very well known and highly reputable book which is seemingly in every library in New Zealand (except mine I’m afraid) so it can hardly be a secret. The book is the excellent tome ‘Spitfire – The New Zealand Story’ by Gerald S. Morris. It covers practically every Kiwi who ever flew a Spitfire, from wartime combat through to modern day displays – hence the reason Ray is mentioned.

I hope I have not offended Ray Hanna or anyone else by repeating the date here. Sorry.

Dave