New Zealand News

The report threw a cloud over the Force’s two A-4 Skyhawk squadrons and argued that their replacement should not necessarily be jet powered. The rationale for the aircraft is in a maritime strike role to deter hostile acts by foreign shipping. The report questions its credibility because of its limited range even with inflight refuelling and the appropriateness of its armaments. It says there is some justification for maintaining the aircraft at present because of its part in the defence relationship with Australia and the fact that it is a ‘sunk cost’ but this should not imply a standing commitment to such aircraft. Equipping the aircraft and training pilots is expensive and jet aircraft are one of the fastest growing costs of military technology.

Thus its replacement may well be an aircraft capable of usefully performing a joint maritime surveillance strike role at a less technologically sophisticated level than is currently contemplated and at a lesser cost.

A Nowra Detachment?

The RNZAF moved quickly to modify claims from the other side of the Tasman that a detachment of its A-4 Skyhawks would be based at Nowra on a kind of permanent rental to the Royal Australian Navy. The rumour apparently touched a raw nerve because the New Zealand A-4s include a number bought some years ago at bargain basement prices from the RAN.

An RNZAF spokesman told Australian Aviation that the story sprang from a statement in February jointly made by the Defence Ministers of both countries. It welcomed new initiatives in combining maritime training and the-possibility of basing a small number of Skyhawks at Nowra. The arrangement would benefit both forces by providing fleet training. Since the aircraft would be from No. 2 Squadron which is primarily concerned with conversion training, a stint with the Nowra detachment would provide a heightened level of training for RNZAFpjlots converting to the A-4. The investigation was taken further-in March when RNZAF air staff policy and plans officer, Wing Commander Bob Henderson visited Nowra. However, said the spokesman: “The Australian press has knocked the whole thing out of proportion – any arrangement is still a long way down the track. ”

Luck Against Odds

Come in Earl Covell-our search and rescue authorities would like to hear from you. In rather dramatic circumstances, Earl wan- dered into their sphere in late February and then like a windblown migratory bird was spirited away before the SAR lads and lasses could benefit from his debriefing. They especially wanted to because it was a case of luck prevailing against odds.

Covell, a pilot employed by a Californian company, was delivering a Piper Chieftain from California to Melbourne when he radioed Nadi Airport that he had been forced to shut down his starboard engine and was unable to maintain height. The Navajo ditched about half way between Samoa and Norfolk Island.

Despite information that the aircraft carried three emergency locator beacons including one in the pilot’s lifejacket, two RNZAF Orions sent up for the search were unable to find any signals. However, two hours after sunset, one Orion crew sighted a flair and a strobe light and were able to make out the form of a liferaft in the water. Seas were very heavy at the time. The aircraft stayed on station in relays until the nearest ship, the container vessel Aotea could reach the liferaft 24 hours later. The Aotea was en route to Tokyo and Earl went with it. He was treated on- board for hypothermia and shock and also for burns to the lower half of his body caused by toxic marker dye inside his raft. He described the RNZAF Orions as the “prettiest aircraft he’s ever seen.

The SAR people were happy too with a copybook rescue. But one coordinator who wished not to be named, told Australian Aviation: “We’d dearly like to know why we were unable to pick up signals from any of the emergency locator beacons. We’d also be interested in finding out what happened with the engine and why the aircraft was unable to maintain height on the other engine. ”

SAR Centralised

The Covell rescue was one of the last oceanic searches handled from Auckland. At the end of March, the three SAR centres one based in central Auckland and the others at Wellington and Christchurch Airports – were centralised in one headquarters in the Wellington satellite city of Lower Hutt. The move was partly a cost cutting measure. Civil Aviation said that despite the fact that most oceanic SAR aircraft flew out from RNZAF Base Whenuapai, near Auckland, modem communications would make no difference if control was centred 600kms south.

Spit’ Comes Down

It was enough to make strong men weep. Here, only weeks out of its English packing case and less than three days after its first public appearance, lay Supermarine Spitfire Mk. XVI (ZK-XVI) in a Hawkes Bay cow paddock. Its undercarriage was crumpled, four bladed wooden propeller shattered and there were wrinkles under those gorgeous elliptical wings.

Owner and pilot, Tim Wallis, had been flying the Spit south after thrilling thousands at an Ardmore air show. At 3,000ft he struck fuel problems. He tried to make for an airfield, but the faltering engine forced him down into a paddock which was rougher than it appeared. However, the Spit (the only flying one in the country and reputed to have cost about $1m) is repairable. Some metal parts are being sought in Britain and ironically a German company will be manufacturing a new propeller.

Wallis, head of a South Island aviation company, the Alpine Deer Group, is also rebuilding a Curtiss P-40K Kittyhawk, for flying. “As far as I am concerned we will now be rebuilding two fighters at once. ” The accident was not the Spitfire’s fault, he added.

Strong Vibes From Air NZ

A hitch in the sale of Air New Zealand has not suppressed the airline’s new found sense of freedom – like a spouse released from an uneasy marriage (with the Government), it has begun emitting strong energy pulses and signals.

Underway are management realignments and plans for setting a cracking innovative pace in marketing, services, route development etc. The airline has made it clear to the media it intends to adopt a high profile and won’t be afraid to speak its mind. If any proof was needed, it came when Chief Executive Jim Scott told the Australian National Aviation Press Club he thought the Government could have done better in the $660m airline sell off and he would be disappointed if the company was not worth $1bn in two years.

The reaction in Wellington from the Minister of State Owned Enterprises, Mr Stan Rodger, was that he did not take kindly to the chief executive of the national carrier “going to Australia to attack New Zealand”. But he had no plans to sack Mr Scott as ministers had no power over Air New Zealand staff appointments.

The hiccup in the sale (led by Brierley Investments and including a 19. 9% stake by Qantas) came in late February when the Commerce Commission said it wanted more time to investigate the effect of trans-Tasman traffic -between them, Air New Zealand and Qantas carry 80% of this traffic. The commission is also understood to be interested in the effect the partnership will have on Ansett New Zealand. It has until June 27 to make a determination but the airline is confident this will come much sooner.

Partnership with Qantas did not necessarily mean unquestioning co-operation. The question of joining a global computer system had still to be settled and a partnership with Qantas would not mean Air New Zealand automatically joining the Sabre system as Qantas was, Australian Aviation was told (Air New Zealand has favoured the Galileo system used by British Airways).

The senior management realignment within the airline, due to become effective from April 1, involves the creation of two groups beneath the chief executive, Development and Industry Affairs, headed by Mr Norman MacFarlane and the airline group headed by Mr J McCrea. A key responsibility of the first is the setting up of development structures, while the airline group concentrates on the core business of the company.

Ansett Could Lose

A major loser in a close company partnership between Air New Zealand and Qantas could be Ansett New Zealand. Ansett New Zealand which is investing $280m in seven British Aerospace 146s to meet the growing struggle with Air New Zealand’s domestic services has Qantas as its general sales agents – hence most passengers flying to New Zealand with Qantas have (until now) been booked Ansett New Zealand for domestic travel.

In March, Ansett Airlines of Australia’s general manager, Mr Graeme McMahon, flew to Wellington to meet the Commerce Commission. Ansett New Zealand’s general manager, Mr John Buchanan, said it was a confidential discussion, but obviously it touched on the ‘ramifications’ of trans-Tasman traffic and a Qantas-Air New Zealand partnership.

Meanwhile, members of the Government Opposition were raising an interesting question: What happens if the Hawke Government goes ahead with proposals to privatise Qantas and Ansett gains a stake in the airline?

Corporation Gets Tough

Meanwhile, as the Airways Corporation moved to sue two bodies for failure to pay ttie claimed airways charges, there was a possible chink of light in the year long state of insurrection. According to the industry backed body called the Task Force set up to fight the new charges, the corporation had abandoned its stand off stance and was discussing proposals for a new charging system put forward by the Task Force.

No doubt testing the legal water, the corporation in March issued a claim through the courts for $16,168 in airways charges from the Wellington Aero Club and an unknown amount from a Palmerston North company, United Aviation and Engineering. Most operators have been paying at a rate they believe fair and equitable – usually about 20% of the corporation claim. If successful, the court claims looked set to send the corporation off on a widespread spree of legal claims.

The proposal made by the Task Force which was (at least) being discussed. It sets a scale of charges for various aircraft categories and according to how often they used Government provided facilities. At the bottom end of the scale for instance would be aircraft of less than 2,000kg which would pay $100 a year if they used Government operated airfields less than 50 times in that period. The rate would rise in blocks with increased use of Government facilities. It would also rise (quite steeply) and in similar steps with heavier aircraft-eg 2 to 7. 2 tonnes AUW, 7. 2 to 15 tonnes and machines above 15 tonnes.

Task Force leader and chairman of the Air Transport Division of the Aviation Industry Association, Mr Dennis Thompson, pointed out that this system would remove the worst dangers of the corporation’s system; the likelihood of small and private operators avoiding filing flight plans and electing. to fly visually when it would be safer to fly under instrument rules. It would also get rid of a massive amount of paperwork which the corporation’s excessively complicated system threatened.

Another meeting between the corporation and force was scheduled for early April. Among the disenchanted represented by the force is Air New Zealand. Ructions were building within the airline over the inaccuracies of the corporation’s billing and its reluctance to open its finance books to the airline.

Home Builders’ Quandary

Home built aircraft buffs are among those dismayed by the continuing efforts of the Airways Corporation to inflict a hideously costly regime of charges. Who’d build their own machine for the privilege of paying the Government 13 cents a nautical mile to fly it, plus landing charges?

Former Cathay Pacific captain John Connell owns one of four Lancair 235s under construction in the country. He is based at Rotorua; the others are at Levin, Hamilton and Auckland. Something of a race had developed among the owners to get the first of the ultra sleek Lancairs into the air. But now the vim has gone out of the contest and Connell fears he may never be able to afford to fly the aircraft.

The Lancair 235 kits, made by Neico Aviation of California, have grabbed the enthusiasm of local buffs with a yearning for long legged flying. Connell says he chose the type because it carried two, cruised at 200kts and had a range of more than 1,000 miles. He was particularly keen to make flights to his old haunts SE Asia, especially Hong Kong and (providing Civil Aviation approved) had planned the route through Norfolk Island, Cairns and Darwin. The Lancair is a composite aircraft weighing in at 300kg.

Briefs

• Malaysian Airlines announced in February that it hoped to begin talks with the Government soon over a bilateral agree­. The airline’s managing director, Dato Abdul Aziz Abdulrahman said informal talks he had with the Government had been very encouraging and the airline would like to add New Zealand to its 32 destinations.

• Died, in January, Captain Frederick Patrick Ladd, the witty and Irrepressible aviator known to thousands of tourists. In 38 years, Fred Ladd logged more than 21,000 hours, ranging from bombers to tourist catering amphibians and float planes. Fred was best known for his rhyming couplets of which he had an inexhaustible supply to meet every occasion (“Up, up and away, in a shower of spray”-as when flying Widgeon amphibians out of Auckland). One of Fred’s favourite tricks was to confront a group of would be passengers and ask them if it would be their first flight. If it was, he’d reply: “Mine too. But don’t worry, I’ve a book of instructions”. Fred voluntarily relinquished his pilot’s licence at the age of 69, in 1977 after a dizzy spell and spent the rest of his life trying to get it back. He failed, despite taking up parachuting, glider flying, marathon swimming and mountain climbing.