Aileron Roll,
Sorry, we posted that mesage at the same time – Yes you’re quite right, that was indeed Phil Murray’s Midget Mustang. I’d forgotten it was his. I was thinking it was belonging to a NATTS pilot – but it was indeed Phil’s. He was an instructor at CFS then.
The crumpled heap is explained above. That was very sad, and worse for us who were resident in No 6 Hangar as it was laid out for the investigation for about three months right where ZK-TAF now sits in the photos. The CT4 was only shifted so we could do the paint job.
Sadly there was not enough money for the whole team to get a ride, so I didn’t. Dennis did, and deservedly so. Also, there was a NATTS pilot (I cannot think of his name now, can see his face) who co-ordinated the whole advert, not just the painting side of things, and he got a great ride.
But we were rewarded very nicely. The crew needed extras, and almost everyone on base put their names down. We all went to the Base Institute for an audition (basically they took a butchers at you and said whether you were right for the part or not). I think 50 people from base were selected. I easn’t, but some of the S&S paint team were. Then someone had a word and managed to get more of us onto the shoot since we’d worked so hard on the plane. That was the only thing I ever had to work overtime on in the RNZAF!!!
So I was given the job of an extra. We had to simply dress up nice, stand near a beer tent on the airfield, and sip beer all day for two days, whilst the P51D, Corsair, a Harvard and various other little nifty things buzzed over our heads low enogh to nearly touch. We were playing the rich people in the corporate area at the end of the race, so they also brought in about 20 really hot models from a Christchurch agency, plus some BMW’s and Ferraris, etc. On top of this, we were paid $50 per half day for being an extra, plus our regular RNZAF pay as it was an official job! It was there and then I decided I wanted to get into film making, which is what I am studying now.
Later I also played the part of a mechanic, and I knelt on the wing as the star plane and star pilot was rolled out of the hangar for the beginning of the race. I had to give a bogus hand sinal to make it look more like Hollywood!
The pilot was played by a top British actor ofthe time, Simon someone. Can’t recall his second name. But apparently he was well known in the theatre and on tele. He was a nice bloke, chatted with us airmen, unlike his passenger, the French model who was then Bendon’s worldwide symbol before Elle McPherson took over the role I believe. She was hot, but said little.
After we’d finished the paint scheme on the Friday, that weekend was Wings and Wheels, an airshow at Wigram. We advised them not to fly it because we knew it was going to rain, and we doidn’t know what would happen with the peel-off-paint. They flew it, and yes, it peeled off. Just a bit, but too much to patch. So Dennis hastily found some very good matching yellow Danco tape and taped over the gaps. It never showed up on film.
They took Dennis to Queenstown to complete the filming and he had to do several more patches. Plus the radiator crapped out and the engine blew on the Mustang. A disaster, but enough was in the can to finish the advert. The pilot had a double mishap as when he was blowing the Stang’s engine, his wife was pranging his Ferrari into a hare at high speed! Expensive day.
That was an amazing experince for us all. I hope you all liked the photos.
I also photographed when we painted the ex-OFMC Avenger into RNZAF colours for Sir Tim Wallis if you’re interested
Sign In
