New Zealand News

During the three-day show, about 60,000 people attended, some 15,000 on the day of the Chipmunk crash and many left soon after although the programme was modified and dedicated to Ian Reynolds. Sir Tim Wallis, the airshow organiser, broke down and wept at the death of Mr Reynolds. “We’ve lost a mate … we don’t often show our emotions … I’ve been through it in the helicopter deer shooting days ….” Sir Tim said Mr Reynolds and other pilots had practised the routine without mishap.

Mr Reynolds’ mother, Mrs Doris Reynolds of Nelson, said he probably died the way he would have wanted to. He had joined the Air Training Corps when he was about 13 and later joined an aero club in Auckland and got his instructor’s certificate. The Civil Aviation Authority decided not to hold a separate investigation into the Chipmunk crash because a Caa inquiry would not yield any additional benefit to aviation safety. The crash was investigated by David Graham, senior inspector with the Transport Accident Investigation Commission, said Ron Chippindale, the chief inspector of accidents.

The commission would attempt to determine whether the Chipmunk was airworthy before it took off and whether pilot error or malfunction was the cause of the crash. Kevin Ward, the Caa director, said three Caa officials were at the air show and had talked to pilots and the airshow organisers about the accident. “The show was being very professionally run, from what I’ve heard. There was no threat to the public — the crash was within the safety margin allowed”. The Caa is redrafting airworthiness regulations for warbirds. It was possible, added Mr Ward, that rules could be altered in light of the Chipmunk crash. Two Invercargill teenagers later brought flowers to Wanaka airport to lie on the runway where the aircraft crashed. Flowers were also placed at the entrance of the New Zealand Fighter Pilots’ museum in memory of Ian Reynolds.

Aviation Museum’s Staff Meet

Representatives of more than 60 aviation museums in the southwest Pacific recently met in Christchurch for a conference on preserving aviation history. They were told by the curator of modern history for Papua New Guinea national museum, Mr MacLaren Hiari, that an engine reportedly found in the jungles of New Britain and believed to be from a pre-Wwii Lockheed Electra, may hold the key to the fate of famous American pilot Amelia Earhart.

She vanished after taking off from Lae, New Guinea, in July 1937, on the final leg of a global flight. Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, were making for Howland Island in the central Pacific. Despite a massive air and sea search, no trace of the Electra or its occupants has ever been found. Mr Hiari said an expedition would go to the area in August to find the engine and other aircraft wreckage. The reported site is on the route that Earhart was flying after taking off from Lae. The curator told delegates from Australia, France and New Zealand that a secret attempt was made last year by a Royal Australian Air Force team to find and recover the engine, but it was unsuccessful. Meanwhile, villagers in east New Britain have been asked to search the jungle while the August expedition gets ready. The area is said by Mr Hiari to be “very rough — mud, jungle and very remote.“

At the aviation museums conference — hosted by the Royal New Zealand Air Force Museum, Wigram — Mr Hiari acknowledged that the engine sighting was in an area far short of Earhart’s last reported position. “It is about 2000 miles away but there is much about what happened on that flight that we do not know — about their radios, for example, and their navigation. One theory is that she went to Howland Island, could not find it because it is very small, and turned back toward the nearest land mass, which is New Britain.” He also said analysis of Earhart’s last radio messages supported the view the Electra was nowhere near where searchers expected to find it, and the failure to find a trace of Earhart or her aircraft in the last 57 years, despite several expeditions, supported the theory it was well away from the favoured crash sites.

The 1993 search was prompted by the memories of a wartime Australian soldier, Corporal Don Angwin, who in 1945 was on a patrol behind Japanese lines on New Britain when the soldiers found a radial aircraft engine. Mr Hiari said engine details were noted; the condition of the metal and the surrounding jungle indicated the engine had been there some years. It was later learned that the engine, a Pratt and Whitney Wasp, was identical with the type fitted to Earhart’s Electra. Don Angwin revealed his sighting to the Raaf after seeing a 1992 television programme that dealt with a search for the Earhart. The resulting Raaf search, code-named “Operation Angwin,” was secret and according to Mr Hiari, not even the Png Government was told in advance of the reason for the search of New Britain. The planned August search will be a Png government project under Mr Hiari’s direction.

Air Nz To Help Restore 1941 Hurricane

Christchurch engineering staff with Air New Zealand are looking forward to a major challenge — restoring a Hurricane aircraft which crashed in Russia in Wwii. It is expected more than three-quarters of the Hurricane will be remanufactured by engineers, a spokesman at the airline’s engineering base, Christchurch airport, told Aa.

“To a layman, the Hurricane probably looks like a mass of rusting junk,” he said, adding that an early major task associated with the Hurricane’s restoration was compiling all the necessary data. The British Hawker Hurricane fighter’s fuselage is at the Wanaka base of the Alpine Fighter Collection. The wings are in the British Isles. Afc staff will work on the components and engine. It will be at least five months before work on a major scale starts on the Hurricane at the Air New Zealand engineering base. Sir Tim Wallis, who owns the Alpine Fighter Collection, is hoping the Hurricane will be back in the air by Easter, 1997.

Also destined for the skies again is a Messerschmitt 110 twin-engine fighter-bomber. This could be turning heads over Wanaka by 1998, says Sir Tim. The 110, also shot down over Russia more than 50 years ago, arrived in Christchurch just before Easter, bound for Wanaka. The restoration of each aircraft will cost several hundred thousand dollars. The 110 would be the only flying example in the world, says Sir Tim Wallis. He has three Me 110 wrecks and as well as getting one in the air, there are plans to restore another to display status. The Me 110 destined to fly again was shot down near Murmansk in March 1942. Its two-man crew survived and were rescued. Sir Tim Wallis has three Hurricane wrecks and the one selected for airworthy restoration will be worked on by a British engineering company as well as Christchurch engineers with Air New Zealand and Afc specialists.

Book On Nz Aviation Due

A 200-page book, entitled New Zealand Aviation Yarns, will interest many aviation-minded people on both sides of the Tasman. The author of “Yarns” is Roy Sinclair, a journalist in Christchurch. The 21cm by 13cm book contains 57 charcoal drawings. There is the story of an Invercargill draper, John Thomson, who had never seen an aircraft but who in 1913 wrote to Major Baden-Powell, suggesting that a weight be suspended “under the driver’s seat, hanging down 12 or 15 feet, or whatever may be best,” to stop aircraft getting out of control. Mr Thomson enclosed a cardboard model to illustrate his idea.

In his reply, Baden-Powell replied that “in progressing along, especially on meeting a head puff, the machine would be dragged downward by the weight pulling on the front cords, and I think pitching would result”. He urged the draper to “try making one of your models glide rapidly. It won’t do it!“

Roy Sinclair’s book also contains several stories about Charles Kingsford Smith, co-pilot Ulm and their visits to New Zealand. One involves a boy of 15 who was one of an estimated 35,000 people to see the Southern Cross make aviation history by landing at Sockburn after flying the Tasman. Bevan Napper’s father, Sidney, had trained with Kingsford Smith at an officers’ training school in England and the two pilots met again in Christchurch in 1928. Kingsford Smith took Bevan for a flight; also on board were the mayor of Christchurch and several other passengers.

While on the topic of pilots and airfields, the Christchurch City Council has asked people to register their interest for the use of the Wigram base. A Task Force has been established to assess the viability of alternative uses for the base when the air force leaves in 1996. The Wigram Airfield Development Support Group is still working to keep Wigram as an airfield with a runway. More than 16,000 people signed a petition in support.

Briefs

• For Sale — 1942 Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk — Pacific Aircraft Ltd, Auckland, has been advertising a Kittyhawk for sale. The Curtiss P-40 is being restored at Pacific Aircraft.

• Flights Popular with Tourists — Scenic flights rank as the fourth most popular activity with overseas tourists. In a 12-month period, 145,000 passengers took scenic flights; this number was 10% of visitors to New Zealand. This figure is expected to reach 400,000 by the year 2000. The average cost of a scenic 30-minute flight over the Southern Alps is $NZ200 a person.

• Book Well in Advance — Travellers have been warned it is essential to book aircraft seats months in advance for international flights. The Travel Agents Association here has expressed concern about a serious shortage of seats on the South Pacific and other routes out of Auckland. The warning comes after Northwest ended its three-per-week Los Angeles/Sydney services.