Although I liked the old colours it wore in US markings, I like this one much better, especially as I had the pleasure of meeting Colin. I think this is the nicest scheme I’ve seen on a two-seater, though Johnny Houlton’s ML407 is a close second for looks.

IIRC TB863 is a highback Mk XVI.

Cheers

Cees

Correct.

As for the Moth Minor…

This aircraft first flew from Hatfield on the 11th of July 1939, and it was originally registered as G-AFON.

It was shipped to New Zealand in late 1939 via Australia where it was offloaded and checked but did not fly. It was entered onto the New Zealand Civil Aircraft Register as ZK-AHK and was test flown from Rongotai, Wellington, on the 12th of September 1941.

it was operated by the New Plymouth Aero Club for a year. Though the war had greatly curbed any aeroclub activities, New plymouth had been allowed to continue to train pilots as most of them were moving into the RNZAF after training. One such was Roy Calvert of Cambridge who went on to win three DFC’s.

However eventually the war menat that this aero club training ceased and the Moth Minor was then impressed into the RNZAF with Unit 18 Rongotai for a cost of 700 pounds on the 12th of October 1942.

It then entered service with No.22 Squadron, at Wigram on the 16th of January 1943. This was an Army Co-operation Squadron flying mainly Vincents out of nearby Norwood and I expect this was used for communications duties.

It was later allocated to the Communications Flight at Rongotai on the 19th of February 1943. This Flight was basically set up to support RNZAF headquarters which was in Wellington City, with an assortment of communications aircraft for officer and men to travel around the many stations with. The Flight grew and became No. 42 (Communications) Squadron, one of the few wartime squadrosn that continues to serve today.

After the war this aircraft was sold back to New Plymouth Aero Club from RNZAF Woodbourne (then being used as a storage facility for aircraft no longer required) on the 15th of July 1946. it retunred to the New Zealand Civil Aircraft Register as ZK-AKM on the 12th of November 1946.

It was sold on to a H. Wood. Then it sold to the Otaki and Districts Aero Club in 1960 before becoming inactive. Sold again to J. Moon and B. Farrell, of Woodbourne in 1961. To D. Lilico in 1966 and based at Ardmore. It was cancelled from the register 1974.

The machine was rebuilt and re-registered as ZK-AKM and was flying again in April 1977. Changing hands it was registered to G.S (Stan) Smith, H. McNair and R Stanley, of Albany 08 December 1983. The last change of ownership was to Stan and Gillie Smith, North Shore Airfield, Dairy Flat, Auckland, where it is currently airworthy and wear’s it’s wartime scheme with postwar registration codes.

Great photos Peter, please post them onto the NZ forum too.

It is interesting to see the Pahiatua slide used to wear the modern RNZAF colours. Nowadays it’s in the wartime scheme. It’s one of the few Harvard MkII’s left in NZ. It’s also the last of many Harvards that made their way into NZ playgrounds. Most of the others are now being rebuilt to fly, but I hope they don’t touch the slide, it’s a classic icon of an otherwise uneventful town.

Stan Smith still flies the Moth Minor regularly.

Interesting photos there Jeff. I’m sure the members of my NZ avitaion forum would love to see some of your photos, and you’d be most welcome to join us there – http://rnzaf.proboards43.com

Here are two Vulcan photos. One is a head-on at Ohakea Air Show (New Zealand) about 1960. The other is also taken at Ohakea, showing the (same?) Vulcan with broken undercarriage following a low-pass accident at the Rongotai Airport opening the week before. Those Vampires taking off are the RNZAF Formation Team.

This Vulcan was repaired, flown back to the UK a few weeks later, and crashed on landing there, killing all on board.

Jeff Law
New Zealand

Hi Jeff,

Great photos there. As Papa Lima states, that Vulcan did not crash on its return to the UK. That’s a myth that has somehow gone around the NZ aviation scene and also made it into an otherwise great documentary. It was another Vulcan that vistied on another time that crashed on touching down back in the UK.

As for NZ airshow crashes there’s an old but large thread on my NZ aviation forum here, they may be of interest to your mate Skybolt:
http://rnzaf.proboards43.com/?board=airshow&action=display&thread=4587&page=1

You might find this brilliant thread of interest too:
http://rnzaf.proboards43.com/index.cgi?board=airshow&action=display&thread=4744&page=1

It’s scary to read this thread – it seems almost every UK airshow goer seems to have witnessed a fatal crash. Things are much safer here I think. The closest I have seen was a mild ground loop of a Stearman landing at last year’s Omaka Classic Fighters show. Thankfully.

Keith Trillo’s hugely historic Avro Avian, which had previously been owned by several NZ aviation pioneers, was destroyed by a fire when the building he kept it in caught alight.

Thankfully very careless early media reports a few weeks ago stating that arsonists had set fire to and destroyed the hangar at MOTAT in Auckland was utterly wrong. A railway carriage was destroyed, but the aircraft collection was untouched.

I just posted this onto my forum and thought perhaps it appropriate to copy it to here too:

I recently picked up a copy of the airshow programme booklet for the 1983 RNZAF Base Whenuapai airshow, which was raising money at the time for the RNZAF Museum. The museum’s director, Squadron leader John Barry, had the following poem printed next to his article on the museum which explained why an RNZAF museum was necessary.

The author is unknown to me, it simply says by “R.C.D.” so whether he was a kiwi or British I don’t know. But I reckon the poem is wonderful, and perhaps has grown more poignant and pertinent now 25 years later. I hope you too enjoy it.

For those who don’t know what the Runnymede Memorial is all about, see here http://www.cwgc.org/search/cemetery_details.aspx?cemetery=109600&mode=1

REFLECTIONS AT RUNNYMEDE

Marble file index of stone white panels,
Number, name, initials clean printed,
As on visiting cards
Proffered from the unknown grave.

Cold, austere, remote, those styles record
The warm blemished humanity of beings
Now labelled and deep frozen in time.
Why am I here, remembering, rather than amongst them?

Our Flight Commander, Banks; quiet Ronnie Frost,
He joined with me; young Naylor lost
In the North Sea. Was he twenty
When he came into my room and cried

Like a child the night Geoff Hewitt died
Leaving a pregnant wife?
Three weeks later I cleared his room
And found his Bible by his bed.

Butler was his pilot, he’d there too.
Pale, quiet, reserved; who else was in that crew?
Is that Nicholson from OTU
Shot down on his first sortie, over Lorient?

And there is Jack, rear gunner, friend,
Married five days after me and wed
Six weeks; then reported “Missing”
Over Brest. Now presumed dead.

Why was their promised fruit laid waste,
As blossom is destroyed in the orchard
By bullfinches? Did random chance
Snuff out the Genesis of greatness?

Seed and pollen, wantonly expended
In part-payment of debtsincurred by others
Now they are the creditors.
Their monuments, promissory notes claiming redemption.

When we, who survived, are dead, will others comprehend
The profound meaning behind those inscriptions
Or, like lexicographers studying ancient tablets,
Grope merely for an approximate significane?