Planes and some good walks

Every year, we try to catch up with old friends for a long weekend.  They live near  Wellington, our capital, some 650 km from our home and what we normally organise is a meet-up at somewhere different in NZ or the Pacific Islands; giving us the opportunity to see and do different things.  This time was at Mount Maunganui in the north island's Bay of Plenty.

Apart from the pleasure of catching up with friends, I was particularly keen to visit the Classic Flyers Aviation Museum at the Mount.  For some reason, it's not particularly well publicised but as a lifelong aircraft enthusiast, I was keen to see what they had on display.  To say that I was well-pleased is an understatement and we were all pretty impressed.

The museum consisted of a display hangar which was packed to the gunwales with aviation-related items, plus a restoration workshop which we didn't have time to visit.  Here are some photos to give a flavour of what they had on display.  

General view of hangar

Additional general view of hangar

Part of a B-17 fuselage mounted on a wall was particularly interesting.  It graphically showed how little protection there was for the crew from anti-aircraft fire or enemy fighters.  Seeing the bomb rack inside the fuselage was a sobering moment, if a stray round or two had penetrated the fuselage at that point.  Also, the lack of insulation and heating made things pretty unpleasant for the aircrew.

Bomb rack with bomb bay directly below

A couple of photos of B-17 anti-aircraft armament below:

Browning  .50 calibre machine gun

Ball turret

Stepping back to the early days of flight, Kiwi Richard Pearse was experimenting around the same time as the Wright brothers.  Here's a replica of his plane and some supporting notes.

The Pearse monoplane

Richard Pearse

Although many WW2 aircraft used the "shark tooth" insignia on the nose, the best known application is on the Curtis P40 - looks quite intimidating.  This version has the V12 Allison motor, not the Rolls Royce Merlin.

Curtis P40

The Catalina flying boat fuselage shown below is an interesting exhibit.  I wasn't aware that it had attachment points for jet-assisted take off (JATO) to reduce drag during take off on water.  There's still a flying Catalina in NZ which I saw landing at Lake Taupo about 20 years ago.

Consolidated PBY Catalina

The Harvard was a trainer used by the air force in many countries as a stepping stone to combat aircraft.  There are quite a few Harvards flying with the NZ Warbirds.

North American Harvard in USN livery

The Avenger was a WW2 torpedo bomber and I was surprised to see just how big it is.  Notably flown by George HW Bush in the Pacific theatre of war.

Grumman Avenger

The Skyhawk was the primary NZ Air Force combat aircraft when we first came to NZ.  My lasting memory of one was sailing in a coastal regatta when one flew fast and low over the fleet.  Loud as heck and we never saw it coming.  Turned out that it was being flown by a pilot who also raced in the same yacht class as us!  This exhibit was equipped with a rocket pod, Paveway guided bomb and canons.

Douglas Skyhawk

The De Havilland Vampire and subsequent Venom were early UK jet fighters. The vampire entered service in 1946 but the Swiss aircraft shown below was in service until 1990!

Swiss DH Vampire

DH Venom cockpit - rudimentary and small by today's standards

There were lots more exhibits inside which I've omitted for brevity but it would be poor form to leave out the pedal-operated models built for kids visiting the museum. A nice touch.

Recruiting future pilots

There were also a number of outside exhibits, some of which I photographed between passing showers.  These are shown below.

F86 Sabre

De Havilland Heron and Vampire

WW2 Dambusters bouncing bomb and Grand Slam penetration bomb

The "Mount" as it's referred to by Kiwis is an extinct volcano at the end of a peninsula.  There's a 3 km walking track round the base and for the adventurous, a track to the 235 metre summit. A brisk walk round the base taking in the sea views was sufficient rehab for my healing femur!

Mt Maunganui (file photo)

Jennie, Georgina and Mike about to start the walk

To the north of Mt Maunganui is the Te Puna Quarry Park, maintained by volunteers.  Covering about 35 hectares, it's a disused quarry with paths of varying elevation through all sorts of different plants, both native and exotic.  Another great venue for strengthening the leg muscles.

A park trail

Just one of the many species of plant in the quarry

About half an hour from where we were staying, there are the McLaren Falls and rapids.  Situated right by the road, no walking was required to enjoy the sight of the rapids which had a good flow thanks to recent rain.

McLaren Falls, Bay of Plenty, NZ

Great company, great food, lots to see and plenty of exercise - what's not to like?

Small Victories

The content of this post might not seem much to most people but a series of small wins has made the world of difference to me. Having had both knees replaced due to accumulated sporting injuries and then snapping my femur in a mountain bike accident late last year has meant that for nearly 2 years, normal activities have been somewhat curtailed, not to mention varying levels of pain which is pretty wearing.  Although I generally have a positive outlook on life, physical restrictions also take their mental toll.

Today was a big step in the right direction with the first ride on my mountain bike since the accident. (HERE). That ride could have happened several weeks ago but psychologically, I kept putting it off as memories of the accident and rehab was still a bit raw and a mental block.  Time to put my big boy pants on today and get out there.

More nervous than I look!

It was only a 10 km ride, mainly on tar seal with just a bit of level gravel thrown in but the impact (perhaps a poor choice of word) was both confidence inspiring and wonderful.  The femur still niggled a bit but with a pre-ride warm up and taking it fairly easy on the ride, most of the pain had actually disappeared by the finish.  A sore butt and aching wrists due to ergonomic differences between the MTB and static bike aren't really relevant.  Heart rate was ok too on the hills although they weren't substantial gradients.  These should get even better.  Someone who is not me in our household has issued a dire warning about not riding gnarly off-road trails again.  This is on pain of death so good behaviour would be the safest bet.

Ride data - not too bad for a 77 year old geezer

Most people hate strange noises which they can't track down, particularly when it applies to their method of transport.  For over a week, we've had a buzzing sound in the MGB.  It only happened over a very narrow rev range and we couldn't agree where it was emanating from.  It was driving me nuts so I went for a drive with the express intent to track it down.  Anybody following would have wondered what the heck was going on with lots of body movement and head swivelling trying to pinpoint the noise.  It didn't seem to happen at the rev range whilst the car was stationary which made things more difficult.  The photo below was taken at one of the stopping points where this anomaly was discovered. It's actually quite a scenic spot where there is a working vintage gold ore crusher. (Details HERE)

Two vintage bits of machinery - one 100+ years old and the other made in 1972

It wasn't until nearly the end of the drive when the source of the buzzing noise finally revealed itself.  It was coming from the right hand fresh air vent on the dashboard.  The movable centre where the air direction can be changed vibrated against the outer casing at certain revs - some sort of harmonics.  Why it suddenly chose to start doing it is a mystery.

The solution was surprisingly simple.  I found a flat piece of clear plastic packaging medium in our recycle bin and cut a piece to slip between the movable component and outer frame.  The mild interference fit still allows adjustment and it's an invisible repair.  The photo below shows a tiny sliver of the plastic shim as it is being pushed into position at the left hand end of the right vent.

Another small victory!

The supply of potable fresh water around the world seems to be an increasing problem.  It's not only through drought but crumbling infrastructure (old piping or inadequate size) is impacting on the development of housing and commerce throughout the world.  The house which we now live in was built in the 60's as a holiday home on the edge of Coromandel harbour away from reticulated water supply in the village.  The only water source was rainwater collected in tanks.  Eventually, reticulated water was laid on our road but a permanent below ground connection to established properties was a major and expensive exercise because of the steep topography and vegetation.  We've occasionally run a hose to the reticulated water connector at the roadside after long, dry periods or lots of visitors but in the main, tank water collected from the roof has been just fine.

The problem is that with the house being old, filtration was pretty crude, particularly from a biological perspective. We've never got sick but maybe we were just plain lucky. Local tradesmen like plumbers are pretty good at their job but are a nightmare in getting them to turn up when they promise and good communications are rare. Because of this, we sat on our thumbs and did nothing, despite it being on our important task list.  Then lady luck shone on us with a flyer dropped in our letter box.  It was from a small specialist company dealing with rainwater systems who operated out of the Bay of Plenty and Waiheke Island - not a million miles from us (WEBSITE HERE).  To cut the story short, we met the owner, liked what we saw and he's just finished stage 1 of our upgrade.  New filter systems on the storage tank infeeds, biological and particulate filters on the feed to the house plus cleaning and sterilising the storage tanks. Some additional upgrades yet to come.  All completed in a day and a half with a very high standard of workmanship and quality components.  It's probably fair to say that he's cost competitive against local plumbers too because of his specialist knowledge.  I'd call that another victory!

An extremely tidy filtration system 

Storage tank with 2 stage particulate inlet filtration

Going back to the potable water problems in many parts of the world, I'm surprised that the relevant authorities don't encourage greater use of rainwater.  Ok, our storage tanks are old fashioned but new designs are relatively unobtrusive and can even be built into the walls of structures, just like a neighbour's house.  Food for thought?

To sum up, a series of small wins with good outcomes are definitely able to give a real mental lift!