It's been a long time between drinks

 I see my last post was in 2021 -and it is now 2024! That's a lot of water under the bridge, (carrying on with the water theme) so this will be catch-up time. And what a lot there is!

The second 'new' daughter has visited me/us twice from Hobart and we have visited her once. We'll be making up for that next year. What a delightful family they are, too -but with her genes, how could they not be? She has been instrumental in bringing out more of my background by enrolling me in a project where a number of questions are posed each week for a year -most of them I hadn't thought of for my original History which I'd begun mainly for the benefit of my grandchildren. The other beneficiaries are, of course, my two new daughters.

On the personal front, the body has undergone a few repairs: a new knee, and two cataracts removed. With a bit of luck that should see me last out my days! 

But the most important part of this blog is about XVI: it now has two new regular pilots and three more have been signed, having sufficient traildragger hours to satisfy the Insurance company. It participated in the 2023 Classic Fighters Airshow with rocket rails fitted but not the rockets themselves.

There was some reluctance about fitting them due to possible interference with the aircraft's handling. So it was a case of slowly adding one bank of rockets at a time until the final top bank (which was the major fear) was fitted. And the effect? Zilch! And here it is to prove it:

However, since the rockets are somewhat delicate, they will only be installed for public displays.

Here's another view:

To end this update, here's a photo of it (in an 'unarmed' state...) with its stable mate, a Nieuport XII:

Yet another change from the Nieuport -but not aircraft

 With the discovery of not one, but two daughters I never knew I had, I dipped my toe into the waters of Ancestry. This was to confirm what my father had already achieved (without the interweb) and maybe see what else was lying around. Having gone back in time on the direct line, I thought I'd see what some of the branch lines might produce. And came across a surprise!

A cousin twice removed (grandfather's nephew) had a newspaper clipping of said cousin wondering whether he would be entering his RAF BE2e in an aerial pageant -in Queensland, of all places! This got the juices excited so on the hunt I went. It seems not only was he an owner of the BE2e (how this 1915 era aircraft got to Ozzie I have yet to discover)but he was also a part owner of an Avro 504K fitted with an inline engine rather than the usual rotary. Even more excitement. Then it transpires that he, the pilot and a few others decide to set up a small airline (at roughly the same time as Kingsford Smith was thinking along similar lines, but after QANTAS had started) called "Queensland Air Navigation Ltd." in 1928. Like a lot of small companies at the time it didn't last too long and folded in 1931.

However with 'some help from my friends', I was presented with an article about the company complete with illustrations of the aircraft 'on the books'. The interesting thing for me was the colour scheme they adopted: black and white chequerboard on the tail. Which happened to be the same adopted by a NZ WW1 ace called 'Grid' Caldwell of 74 Squadron fame. And what else did I find? Another Caldwell was engaged as a 'promoter' of the venture! Whether they were related or not I have yet to determine. But wouldn't that be great for a co-incidence?

One mystery remains: the 504K is shown with the name of the company on its side (but no chequerboard pattern), but there is no record of it ever having been on the company's books. More searching is required!

A change from the Nieuport

It is now almost a year since the Nieuport last flew. That insurance premium really put a knock on my thoughts of flying it. Added to which our Test pilot has been busy on all sorts of other projects - and now COVID-19 has put us all in lockdown. I started this particular blog in April 2020 and it is now May 2021. COVID has changed our version of 'normality' and New Zealand has been fortunate in its stance of isolating ourselves from the rest of the world as long as possible to keep its citizens as safe as possible. We succeeded while the rest of the world struggled and continues to struggle to contain the pandemic -one not seen since the Spanish Flu of 1918.

However, to quote an annoying advert, "But wait, there's more!!": late in 2020 I received a phone call from a TV journalist wanting to see me about a family matter. Obviously with my curiosity piqued I had no choice but to say "Sure!". What transpired after our meeting was that a young lass (39 years old -definitely young to me!) was looking for her biological father -and he was me. This was not a complete surprise to me as I had been part of a sperm donor programme back in the late 1970s/early 1980s; although the parents of any issue were told that they were NOT to tell their children of their origins, people being people, some of them did. The advent of AncestryDNA and other such companies has made it a lot easier to find matches. The hard bit is tracking down the fathers. Whether they consent to making contact with said offspring is entirely over to them.

For myself, I have no problems in being contacted.

The upshot of all this was two days of filming in Blenheim,, a further two days filming in Auckland, getting to meet the (new) family and then waiting for the post production to be done and the show aired. I believe the show was a success in terms of bringing matters out into the open, not just about donor children but also adopted children. They can now see that it is possible -even if needing a lot of paper trails to follow- to find your origins if that is what you are searching for. Some may be quite content with not knowing; that is their choice. But if I have been instrumental in facilitating their searches and showing that secrecy is not necessary, then I have been part of a beneficial programme. What more could you ask for? Maybe another daughter, perhaps? Well, that is what has happened: I now have two daughters I didn't know I had -plus two extra grandchildren.

The rest of 2021 is going to be interesting!

Another Privilege

The great air-to-air photographer Gavin Conroy took some shots of the plane before the Air Show.  A suggestion was made that more shots could be taken once the vineyard leaves start to turn colour. That was arranged but it was also arranged that I would have a first hand experience of flying along side her in a Tiger Moth - what an experience! It gave me a much better appreciation of what those WW1 pilots had to put up with in terms of keeping the head moving to see just where the opponent might appear from. My photos are not as good as Gavin's though.  But here are my versions anyway:

An odd coupling: 1916 Russian Nieuport with a 1950s Chinese trainer (chase plane)

Now it has flown for the public!

And to prove it, here is a video of it with its sister ship (a bit wobbly at times -the camera, not the aircraft!- . but you'll hopefully get the message.

The Eagle has flown!!

On 19 March 2019, ZK-XVI finally flew in the capable hands of Ryan Southam. He was up for about 10-15 minutes, returned to put in a report -and promptly took to the air again for a further 10-15 minutes. Whoopee! Nine long years of work paid off in the end.

Just a couple of minor niggles: the right brake wasn't functioning properly and the ASI needs some investigation as it appeared to be over-reading, e.g. it showed the stall at about 50 kts whereas it should have been around 35-38 kts.

HOWEVER (there is always one of those, isn't there?) the 3rd party insurance costs for me to fly it are prohibitively expensive. How I go about that will be the next challenge!

A year has passed - but did I have fun?

I've always worked on the basis of "if there's nothing to say, then don't say anything" which accounts fro the fact that it is now over a year since my last post. So what has prompted this one? Well, believe it or not but the paperwork has been finally completed and we now have the go-ahead from SAC to do some test flying - YEE HAA!!

Part of that has meant the removal of the rockets (boo hoo...) but I do what the experts tell me so that was today's chore plus giving the ladies a good bath!

I was a little concerned that our test pilot (who is on the tall side) wouldn't be able to fit in out 7/8ths scale N17 but he assures me he can -and in fact our cockpit has more room than Graham's full size N11. There's a turn up for the books.

The next pictures I'll post will be when the flying starts so I won't bore you with repeats of what's already been published (and I haven't changed either...). Till the next time!