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Wigram air force museum today

noelekal
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A most excellent series of photographs!

I love stuff like this so appreciate the "tour" you've provided.
 
X350 XJR
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Cool, thanks for sharing!
 
ghce
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It's really a good museum, I've mostly shown the bigger exhibits but there is a wealth of live set peices and memorabilia.

Not a super large exhibition space as it's all indoors but they still have managed to squeeze in some fairly big military and support planes.

It's well worth the visit for military and aviation buffs.

I've been here a few times as it's local to me but normally accompanied by my young kids and wife so no time for decent pics but today is a school day and the wife who is attending a school had a visit there so I tagged along but with no hangers on hence the photos.
 
Spruce
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Really great thread - great photos
 
DoctorEvil
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Thanks for the tour. Appreciate it. My favourite aircraft in that lot would probably be the A-4 Skyhawk. Such a small aircraft but so capable.
 
Foo2rama
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Some interesting birds in there.

wierd early 2 seat A4.

nice TBM and Warhawk.
 
pkaye6
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Thank you for sharing, seems like and educational and enjoyable place to spend some quality time. 😀
 
ghce
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DoctorEvil DoctorEvil
Thanks for the tour. Appreciate it. My favourite aircraft in that lot would probably be the A-4 Skyhawk. Such a small aircraft but so capable.

NZAF ditched the Sky Hawke fleet, never replaced them quite a few years ago and basically gave up on any offensive Jet aircraft capabilities, extremely short sighted political decision but I am sure the bean counters were overjoyed.

Now given the geo political turmoil the world and in particular the southern hemisphere is going thru with foreign countries aspirations at political and military expansion I am hoping that NZ will start to remediate past bad decisions and reintroduce a fighting wing to the air force.

NZ airforce capabilities are quite frankly an embarrassment due to past and current Government policy.
Edited:
 
Foo2rama
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ghce ghce
NZAF ditched the Sky Hawke fleet, never replaced them quite a few years ago and basically gave up on any offensive Jet aircraft capabilities, extremely short sighted political decision but I am sure the bean counters were overjoyed.

Now given the geo political turmoil the world and in particular the southern hemisphere is going thru with foreign countries aspirations at political and military expansion I am hoping that NZ will start to remediate past bad decisions and reintroduce a fighting wing to the air force.

NZ airforce capabilities are quite frankly an embarrassment due to current Government policy.

I had no idea they had no more defensive aircraft for their airspace.

I grew up next to one of the largest US Marine Corp stations in the US, and next to a large Helicopter base. So the last flying US F-4's (RF -4) wher common sights to see, along with the first F/A-18's for the Marines, A-6's and of course some of the last A-4's in normal US operations.

Oh the Helo's? Yeah I grew up with daily passes over my house of CH-53E's and the smaller CH-46's.

Oh and this happened lol https://theaviationgeekclub.com/the...anic-who-stole-an-a-4m-skyhawk-for-a-joyride/
 
ghce
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Foo2rama Foo2rama
I had no idea they had no more defensive aircraft for their airspace.

I grew up next to one of the largest US Marine Corp stations in the US, and next to a large Helo copter base. So the last flying US F-4's (RF -4) wher common sights to see, along with the first F/A-18's for the Marines, A-6's and of course some of the last A-4's in normal US operation.

Oh and this happened lol https://theaviationgeekclub.com/the...anic-who-stole-an-a-4m-skyhawk-for-a-joyride/

I do remember this! but didn't know all the contributory items to his stunt.

The Skyhawk is a great military plane when kept up with upgrades and the like but the govt found the cost distasteful and so scrapped the Skyhawk wing which to my mind was a grave mistake.

As said I am hopeful with the current geo political events and the arming of the Australian Navy with nuclear submarine technology that there may be a similar agreement with the US for the supply of current jet fighter planes at mates rates to help NZ fore fill it obligations as a global citizen and player in the south pacific.

These are indeed troubled times with no other recent precedent to follow other than that of what occurred in 1939.

What is particularly galling is that both vectors in the current situation were allies in the past and friends to NZ (and still are to varying degrees).

I hope moderators don't judge these comments to be political as now they are just the reality of a complex and insoluble worldwide problem which requires both political tact and military nouse to settle.
 
JimInOz
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A story about an RNZAF Skyhawk.

Back in early 1984 I was seconded to the RNZAF on an exchange program and my primary duties were armament systems maintenance.
One day I was supervising test firing of Colt 20mm Mk12 autocannons and exchanging stories with the troops over a brew in between firings.
One story that stuck in my memory was an example of "armourer ingenuity" 😉.

I'll use the words from Jim Barclay's website.

The Gun-Bay Flash Fire – I carried a test flight on 16th May 1973 in RNZAF Skyhawk A4K NZ6202 that was fitted with the first-for-RNZAF ‘bent’ air refuelling probe. But the real purpose of the flight was something else – this was also the first flight for NZ6202 for about four months after some fairly major work had been undertaken to repair damage to the aircraft. How did this damage happen?
Well, while preparing the aircraft for a gunnery sortie to Raumai air weapons range, a keen young armourer filled the two gun bottles in the right-hand wheel-well of the Skyhawk with oxygen instead or nitrogen!!! By mistake he selected the trolley with oxygen bottles on it, but he soon found that the coupling on the oxygen bottles did not fit the aircraft’s gun-bottle coupling – so he ‘modified’ the Oxygen bottle couplings to fit! Job done, he thought.
The pilot flying NZ6202 at that time was firing the twin 20mm Skyhawk guns at Raumai range when he felt a ‘thump’, after which he saw the red ‘unsafe’ light illuminate in the undercarriage selection handle. He immediately aborted the sortie and returned to land at Ohakea. After landing it was found there had been an explosion (of the oxygen) in the gun bay (located in the right-hand wheel-well) and a flash fire had spread inside the bulkhead along the leading edge of the right wing. Twisted metal, charred paint and burnt wiring in the flash-fire area of the Skyhawk meant a big job ahead for the maintenance crew in the Hangar. That aside, this unfortunate incident could easily have resulted in the loss of an aircraft.
The irony was that on an earlier Air Officer Commanding’s (AOC’s) annual inspection of RNZAF Base Ohakea, probably done around late 1972, the AOC himself (Air Cdre ‘Mo’ Moss) noted that both the oxygen and nitrogen bottles were of the same size and colour (but the nitrogen bottle had a black band around the top). So, in order to avoid the possibility of any confusion, ‘Mo’ said maybe someone should paint one set of bottles in a different colour. But, ‘maybe someone’ didn’t get the message so the bottles weren’t painted and the young armourer proved that ‘Murphy’s Law’ prevailed – “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong”.

The only variation is that I was told the pilot had a gun stoppage over the range and he activated the nitrogen powered re-cocking system, however, it wasn't nitrogen, and when oxygen and oil/grease mix under pressure..........

PS: NZ6202 is now on display at Wheels and Wings Museum Wanaka.
Edited:
 
Pianotuna
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Great photos.
I presume the old ‘kite’ hanging from the ceiling is a Pierce?
 
ghce
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Pianotuna Pianotuna
Great photos.
I presume the old ‘kite’ hanging from the ceiling is a Pierce?

My thoughts too, must check it out Next time.
 
Aroxx
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Foo2rama Foo2rama
I had no idea they had no more defensive aircraft for their airspace.

I grew up next to one of the largest US Marine Corp stations in the US, and next to a large Helicopter base. So the last flying US F-4's (RF -4) wher common sights to see, along with the first F/A-18's for the Marines, A-6's and of course some of the last A-4's in normal US operations.

Oh the Helo's? Yeah I grew up with daily passes over my house of CH-53E's and the smaller CH-46's.

Oh and this happened lol https://theaviationgeekclub.com/the...anic-who-stole-an-a-4m-skyhawk-for-a-joyride/
4 months in the brig. Worth it. I’m surprised he was able to work for NASA with that discharge though.
 
Foo2rama
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Aroxx Aroxx
4 months in the brig. Worth it. I’m surprised he was able to work for NASA with that discharge though.
Did you watch the video in the article? He had a guardian angel...
 
Pianotuna
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JimInOz JimInOz
A story about an RNZAF Skyhawk.

Back in early 1984 I was seconded to the RNZAF on an exchange program and my primary duties were armament systems maintenance.
One day I was supervising test firing of Colt 20mm Mk12 autocannons and exchanging stories with the troops over a brew in between firings.
.
Jim, mention of your former career reminded me about an uncle of mine (long passed) who was an armorer during the War. I think he was based at Whenuapai, not sure. One day they’ve got a P40 with its tail up on a Jeep or truck towing it over to their makeshift gun range/bay (just an open sided box with lots of sandbags I think he said) to sort out a problem. Uncle is in the cockpit, mucking around with the stick doing his Walter Mitty impersonation, presses the gun button, and puts four shells through the CO’s office. They hadn’t checked the magazines were empty.

Not unreasonably my dairy farming uncle, possibly the most placid man I ever met, was on report and in the Base jail not long after. It was a hell of a shock to all who knew him. He was released after a hearing with a severe warning.
The upside was that later when he was organising the Base rugby side that played in the Auckland rugby competition in the war years, he had a certain notoriety as the man who tried to kill the CO, and no problems getting players to turn out.
 
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