“Big Round Engines” and classic aviation topics...

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Are Turbines Ruining Aviation?



We gotta get rid of turbines — they are ruining aviation. We need to go back to “BIG ROUND ENGINES!”

Anybody can start a turbine, you just need to move a switch from “Off” to “Start” and then remember to move it back to “On” after a while. My computer is harder to start.

Cranking a BIG ROUND ENGINE requires skill, finesse and style. On some aeroplanes, the pilots are not even allowed to do it — it's solely the preserve of a flight engineer.

Turbines start by whining for a while, then give a small lady-like “poot” and start whining louder.

BIG ROUND ENGINES give a satisfying rattle-rattle, click BANG, more rattles, another BANG, a big macho fart or two, more clicks, a lot of smoke, and finally a serious, low-pitched roar. We like that — it's a MAN thing!

When you start a BIG ROUND ENGINE, your mind is engaged and you can concentrate on the flight ahead. Starting a turbine is like flicking on a ceiling fan.

Turbines don't break often enough, leading to aircrew boredom, complacency and inattention. A BIG ROUND ENGINE at speed looks, sounds and feels like it's going to blow up at any minute. This helps to concentrate the mind.

Turbines don't have enough control levers to keep a pilot's attention and to impress visitors to the cockpit. There's nothing to fiddle with during the flight.

Turbines smell like a Boy Scout camp full of Coleman lanterns. BIG ROUND ENGINES smell like God intended flying machines to smell.

I think I hear the nurse coming down the hall. I gotta go....

— Ex-“BIG ROUND ENGINE” driver....Captain Tony Ilyes, Air Nuigini.

[donquixotenz]

ember the patrol/torpedo boats the RAN had back in the late 50's thay had three big radial engines think they were hall scotts but dont back the bank on that as memory is a bit hazy so long ago but I can remember the things really could move when all three were at full tit I think we achieved in calm water something like 50 odd knots but a tracer would blow them to flinders as avgas was fuel and hulls wete double diagonal wood slat.
remember there was some protocol about releasing torps as possible to overrun on launch

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

War hero puts it all down in writing

By MATT STEWART - Wairarapa Times-Age | Monday, 1st February 2010



MEMORIES: World War II Royal New Zealand Air Force
wireless gunner Mel Stevens was thrilled to launch his
autobiography “This is My Life” among friends and
family at his Masterton home on Saturday afternoon.
— Picture: MATT STEWART/Wairarapa Times-Age.

Mel Stevens is as exhilarated about the launch of his autobiography as he was about dropping bombs over France at the end of World War II — if the grin on his face is anything to go by.

Mr Steven's book This Is My Life is a lovingly compiled chronicle that stretches from the 88-year-old's early years growing up on a Mauriceville farm to his escapades with the air force in North America, Europe, Africa and the UK during the war.

Mr Stevens is the second youngest — and last surviving member — of a clan of seven children and it seems almost certain he got some of his grit from his mother Laura "Eva" Stevens, a woman he describes as "strong and independent", who brought the siblings up alone after his father Walter died in 1923, when he was aged just 2.

The bereaved family had to move from the Mauriceville West dairy farm when it went bankrupt following the death and Mrs Stevens was determined her brood would all have a secondary education.

The family moved into a leased cottage in Oxford Street, Masterton, where part of the rent involved two of the siblings milking cows for the landlords.

As a teenager Mr Stevens studied at Masterton Technical School and began an apprenticeship with the Wairarapa Electric Power Board.

During this time he was "enlisted" by the other young men he was working with at the board and decided to join them in the war effort.

In 1942 the apprenticeship was over and the 21-year-old began his initial air force training with eight months of correspondence at Wairarapa College followed by three weeks of initial training at Rotorua.

Mr Stevens will always have a soft spot for his niece, Janet Cook (nee Tomlin) who accompanies him when the Times-Age visits because she was born the day he left for war around the time of the Fall of Singapore.

Setting sail for his eventual rendezvous with further air force training in Halifax, Canada, he remembers the troop ship that transported him there — and more specifically the fastidious captain.

The keen young men being shipped to battle learnt quickly of their captain's sartorial sensibility when they arrived to dinner in their summer uniforms of shorts and short-sleeved shirts.

"The captain insisted that we all wear ties."

So the soldiers all marched back to their quarters, dutifully changing into more appropriate attire — replete with the ordered necktie.

Mr Stevens said the captain's discipline later saved many lives when his squadron was trapped behind enemy lines in the Caribbean Sea — unsurprisingly, from that day forth, the veteran has taken pride in his appearance and said he wore a tie everyday throughout his long career with the power board after the war.

Mr Stevens said his most memorable mission was a daylight bombing salvo over France in 1944 when he helped batter the enemy into submission - as a wireless air gunner responsible for 14 guns in the B-28 aircraft.

But that's just part of the story — if you want to find out more you'll have to track down a copy of This Is My Life.

• Anyone wanting to acquire a copy of Mr Steven's colourful patchwork of memories and memorabilia can contact him on [phone].

www.times-age.co.nz/local/news/war-hero-puts-it-all-down-in-writing/3909305/

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Wing walker promises thrills aplenty

By JOHN EDENS in Alexandra - The Southland Times | 5:00AM - Monday, 25 January 2010



ON A WING AND A PRAYER: German wing-walker Peggy Krainz will
be performing at Warbirds Over Wanaka during the Easter holidays.

A German wing walker has promised to deliver an unforgettable performance at this year's Warbirds Over Wanaka international air show.

Peggy Krainz, 39, will be looping and rolling at speeds of up to 240km/h attached to a Boeing Stearman aircraft piloted by her partner Friedrich Walentin during the pair's first visit to New Zealand.

Ms Krainz, in a statement, said she was not frightened during wing walks but was conscious she must stop when tired.

"During the display I move up on the wing and between the left wings — it is hard work for me.

"We will give the spectators some unforgettable moments," she said.

During the act the wing walker communicates with the pilot using hand signals and is attached to the aircraft by a safety cord.

The German daredevil has thrilled crowds with more than 600 aerial displays.

The Wanaka air show programme has not included a wing walker for more than 20 years.

This year's show runs from April 02 to 04.

www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/news/3258094/Wing-walker-promises-thrills-aplenty

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Warbirds and songbirds

The Press | 9:07AM - Monday, 01 February 2010



GROUND SUPPORT: Emily Trenwerth, of Frankie, acknowledges the fans.

A Japanese Zero from World War II and, probably, modern jetfighters from Australia will carve up Central Otago skies at this Easter's Warbirds Over Wanaka airshow. JILL HERRON reports.

The world's best carrier-based fighter, Japan's Mitsubishi Zero, when introduced into World War II service, had excellent manoeuvrability and long range. Zeros were used in the Pearl Harbour raid and later for kamikaze assaults.

Eleven thousand were produced between 1940 and 1945, but today only several exist in museums around the world, with just three airworthy.

After months of negotiations with its owners, a crated Zero is being transported from the United States and will be assembled at Wanaka Airport. It will be a centrepiece for 70 other aircraft at this Easter's international airshow Warbirds Over Wanaka and the first time that a Zero has flown in South Island skies.

Wanaka will host one of the greatest collection of warbird aircraft ever seen flying in New Zealand, including Kittyhawks, a Supermarine Spitfire, a Mustang, a Vought Corsair and a Catalina flying boat.

Lithuanian aerobatics star and world champion Jurgis Kairys will return to thrill his Kiwi fans, and German wing-walker Peggy Krainz will make her Wanaka debut.

And a contingent of modern Royal Australian Air Force fighter jets are "90 per cent" confirmed to roar across the Tasman and rattle the Upper Clutha, says event manager Mandy Deans.

A fresh focus by a determined new airshow management team is set to shape a broader future for the event that goes well beyond admiring lovely flying machines — much to the delight of show founder Sir Tim Wallis.

It is over 20 years since Sir Tim, aviator, entrepreneur and ideas-man extraordinaire, convinced the Wanaka Lions Club to give him a hand with instigating an airshow. Wanaka Airport boasted little else at the time, the only permanent residents being Sir Tim's Alpine Deer Group and scenic flight operators Aspiring Air.

Sir Tim's rookie airshow organisers were delighted when 14,000 people turned up to enjoy overhead warbirds and, on the ground, his brother George Wallis' vintage machinery. Over the following years the biennial show was interspersed with fly-in events on special occasions. By the mid-1990s, Warbirds Over Wanaka had established itself as an internationally recognised event.

Three-day shows in the last decade have attracted between 85,000 and 100,000 people, injecting millions of dollars into the local economy.

Internationally acclaimed acts and special guests are the norm, and that, combined with the Upper Clutha's mountain scenery, elevates it as a starring event in the world of warbird air shows.

Innovations for this year's event, says Deans, include more family-friendly facilities such as educational displays and a specific children's entertainment area with a creche.

"There will be face painting, a puppet show, inflatable Space rocket, bungy trampoline and lots more."

Dads will not be forgotten, she says, and will enjoy their own blokes' barn with an emphasis on hunting, fishing, boating, flying, eating red meat and other bloke-oriented pursuits. Also new on the ground will be an aircraft sales market and the Goodbars.co.nz Regional Wine and Food Expo.

Returning to provide 1930s and 40s entertainment are Frankie, of Christchurch. Their performances are described by leader Lois Trenberth as modelled "loosely" on famous American vocalists The Andrews Sisters, great boosters of wartime morale among the military services. The act also has ingredients from other entertainment stars of the era such as Vera Lynn and Ella Fitzgerald.

Frankie, which will perform daily, includes Trenberth's daughter Emily Trenberth and niece Cher Hunter, and Nadine Hoskins, Catriona MacDonald and Anna Jack.

• Warbirds Over Wanaka 2010: April 02, 03 and 04 (Friday to Sunday).

• Further information and tickets available on the airshow website, www.warbirdsoverwanaka.com.

www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/lifestyle/3280233/Warbirds-and-songbirds

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Vintage flight treat

By JOHN EDENS in Alexandra - The Southland Times | 2:52PM - Thursday, 04 February 2010



IN STYLE: Bill Crooks, 88, and Southern DC3 flight attendant Gill Hall.
— JOHN EDENS/The Southland Times.

An ex-serviceman beamed yesterday as he stepped down the flight stairs of a World War II-era DC3 at Lowburn airstrip near Cromwell.

Bill Crooks, 88, was last on a DC3 in September 1945 from Invercargill to Dunedin for a honeymoon trip with wife Joyce.

A retired Waipango farmer and originally from Riverton, Mr Crooks lives at Ripponburn Hospital and Home in Cromwell.

He and daughter Mary Stewart were among 150 passengers who booked scenic flights on the vintage airliner's Central Otago leg. Mr Crooks brought his original return ticket — 1 pound and 15 shillings — along for the ride.

He was not long demobbed from service with a coastal artillery unit when he and his wife flew from Invercargill airport, a grass strip in those days. Yesterday's flight was great, he said.

"It was beautiful, I couldn't have got a better day or better pilots."



GRAND DAME: From left, pilots Chris Mehlhopt, Giles Goulden and Myles Coburn;
and a 66-year-old DC3 at Lowburn airstrip. — JOHN EDENS/The Southland Times.

Owned by the Southern DC3 charitable trust, which bought the plane for $500,000 in 2007 and aims to gift it to the Ashburton Aviation Museum, ZK-AMY is the only DC3 flying in the South Island.

Southern DC3 chairman David Horsburgh, a commercial pilot with more than 19,000 flying hours, said the trust was grateful for the support during the Heartlands tour of the South Island.

Money from scenic tours will be used to pay off debts incurred by the trust to refit the aircraft before it is gifted to the museum.

The Air New Zealand captain said flying a manual DC3 was a privilege and a departure from piloting a computerised Airbus A320. The aircraft was refitted with twin Pratt & Whitney 1200hp engines at a cost of $250,000, business class seats from a Boeing 737 and was "as new" for a 66-year-old bird, he said.

Passengers yesterday enjoyed half-hour flights in clear blue skies 304 metres above the Kawarau gorge, Nevis Valley and Lake Dunstan.

______________________________________

THE RUNDOWN: Southern DC3

• Built: Longbeach, California, 1944 as a C47A Skytrain
  
  
• Registration: ZK-AMY
  
  
• Wingspan: 29m
  
  
• Length: 19m
  
  
• Empty/max weight: 8641kg/12000kg
  
  
• Seating: 28 passengers
  
  
• Crew: four

www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/news/features/3293987/Vintage-flight-treat

---

DC3 sightseeing flight evokes fond memories

By SAM McKNIGHT - The Southland Times | 5:00AM - Saturday, 13 February 2010

The smells, sounds and feel of a flight on a vintage DC3 aircraft yesterday gave a Winton man so much more than a few snapshots – they brought back fond memories of a flight many years earlier.

John McDougall took to the skies yesterday on a sightseeing flight run by the Southern DC3 Charitable Trust as part of its Heartland Tour.

The excursion took the 70-year-old back 65 years, to the first scheduled fare-paying flight out of Invercargill to Dunedin in a Lockheed Electra.

Although only 4 years old at the time, his recollection of the event remains vivid.

It was November 7th, 1944, and the day was "beautiful", he said.

"The pilot was flying so low you could see the furrows in the farmland."

Mr McDougall has even kept newspaper clippings and the ticket for the Union Airways flight, which cost £1.15.

"It was still a fair bit back then."

There had been a flight the day before, but that had carried dignitaries, such as the Invercargill mayor, he said.

"From my understanding, they didn't pay a thing."

But yesterday's flight, which swept over Riverton, back across Invercargill and around to Bluff, also reminded him of his precious companions that day, his long-since deceased mum and dad.

"It was like I was a kid again but they weren't with me this time round. I'll never forget today."

The Christchurch-based trust has owned the aircraft since 2007 and aims to one day gift it to the Ashburton Aviation Museum.

The DC3 will be in Invercargill for two more flights today, at 10am and 11am, before heading to Gore tomorrow for flights at 10am and 1pm.

www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/news/3323431/DC3-sightseeing-flight-evokes-fond-memories

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Passengers get taste of bygone era

By JOHN BISSET - The Timaru Herald | 5:00AM - Thursday, 18 February 2010



HAVING FUN: Chris Mehlhopt at the controls of the visiting
Southern DC3 over Timaru and below, Pat and Brenda Healey
celebrate their fourth anniversary with a plane ride over
South Canterbury. — JOHN BISSET/The Timaru Herald.

She's 66 years old, but the old girl still has plenty of get up and go.

Indeed, the 1944 Southern DC3 was able to lift the spirits of more than 120 passengers yesterday while in Timaru as part of a southern tour.

Four flights around South Canterbury gave passengers a nostalgic trip from a bygone era when aircraft were flown entirely by pilots, with no help from computers.

Poor visibility meant the two morning flights were postponed until later in the day. Although the skies were grey the air was smooth. "It was like a magic carpet ride," said one passenger as they left the aircraft.

On board celebrating their fourth wedding anniversary at 130 knots airspeed were Pat and Brenda Healey of Temuka.

"It was fabulous, just out of this world," said Mr Healey, who used to watch DC3s flying over his home town in the 1950s.

"We could not have asked for a better anniversary. It was comfortable and very smooth and I could have stayed up another half an hour," Mrs Healey said.

Former Timaruvian Chris Mehlhopt is one of many pilots who voluntarily fly the plane, which was the world's first successful commercial airliner. He first flew solo with the South Canterbury Aero Club in 1977 and has since flown helicopters, Aermacchis, Strikemaster jets and CT4 air-trainers for the air force. He currently flies an A320 Airbus for Air New Zealand.

According to Mr Mehlhopt, flying the 1940s aircraft is a real challenge. "You have to fly, and continue to fly it at all times. It's an old plane which has no automation, computers or stability control of a modern aircraft. For that reason, it's fun to fly."

"It's a fantastic aircraft that has stood the test of time, and could still be flying at 100 years old."

The DC3 left Timaru last night for Ashburton.

www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/news/3342752/Passengers-get-taste-of-bygone-era/

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Chatham Islands' historic lifeline comes together

By KIRAN CHUG - The Dominion Post | 5:00AM - Monday, 22 March 2010


JIGSAW PUZZLE: Gary Downs is recovering
parts of the flying boat and reassembling
them to put on display. The task is helped
by each piece being individually numbered.
— ROSS GIBLIN/The Dominion Post.

More than 50 years after the Chatham Islands' lifeline to New Zealand crashed, an ambitious restoration project to preserve history has begun.

A Short Sunderland — one of only five remaining flying boats of its kind left in the world — is being pieced back together after the dramatic crash that ended its flying years in 1959.

Air Chathams pilot Gary Downs, who lives on Chatham Island with his wife and four children, embarked on the project six months ago, enlisting the help of friends and spending every spare moment on what has become a labour of love.

At first he knew little about the plane and its crash, until learning of the wreckage, which was on farmland on the island's northeastern tip.

The more he learnt about the plane, the NZ4111, the more he realised it was an important part of the islands' history. "It was a big deal for people living here when it was used."

Operated by the Royal New Zealand Air Force, the plane was used to carry supplies to the islands about three times a year after World War II.

On November 04, 1959, it was carrying three passengers when it crashed on takeoff in Te Whanga Lagoon, which makes up about a third of Chatham Island.

The passengers and crew were rescued, and the air force immediately salvaged the removable parts and returned them to New Zealand. The following year the rest of the wreckage, which was 70cm deep in mud, was removed from the water and a farming family moved it on to their land.


CRASH LANDING: The Sunderland after hitting a rock in Te Whanga Lagoon in 1959.
Behind is the plane sent to rescue passengers and crew.

When Mr Downs found the wreckage, "strewn all over the farm", including the cockpit being used as a greenhouse, he enlisted the help of friends with cranes and the farm machinery to shift the pieces to a central field.

"All of the parts were numbered, so I've been putting the jigsaw puzzle back together," he said.

Once the plane is reassembled, people will be able to walk through its fuselage and into the two-storey cockpit.

He plans to line the walls with reports and anecdotes from those who remembered the flying boat when it was in use — or when it crashed.

The attraction is being rebuilt at the farm of Jim and Sally Muirson, who, along with neighbour Colin Barr, also have plans to restore a historic church and a whaling station on the land.

Mr Downs said the projects would help preserve the islands' history and he was undeterred by those who believed reassembling the plane's remaining parts would be impossible: "The more people say it can't be done, there is more motivation to do it."

______________________________________

The Short Sunderland Mark V

• Maximum speed: 341kmh.

• Could fly for 1312 hours.

• Weighed 16,783kg empty or 29,484kg loaded.

• Wing span of 34m, length 26m, height 10m.

• Carried a crew of nine: three pilots, two navigators, three signallers and two engineers.

www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/national/3483518/Chatham-Islands-historic-lifeline-comes-together