NZFF

" The Ardmore based New Zealand Warbirds Association wants to pickup a Skyhawk - but only for static display.

General manager Peter Horton said he believed it would be uneconomic to fly any of the ex-RNZAF Skyhawks.

"You can fly anything if you have got enough money," he said.

"The economic thing to do, if you wanted to get a flying Skyhawk, would be to buy one in the States, where they have many stored in proper conditions in the desert."

He doubted the New Zealand Skyhawks had been properly stored and suggested their engines might be beyond repair by now.

Mr Horton added that while the airframes were very old, the New Zealand Skyhawks contained electronic weapons packages that were modern and could not be removed from the planes.

This would probably mean the US would not be keen on having them flying again.

Warbirds, who maintain a big livery of aircraft in South Auckland, would be keen to have a static Skyhawk in their hangers as a representative model of an RNZAF plane.

Mr Horton said he was sure that now the sale deal was falling through, other major New Zealand museums would want Skyhawks for static display.

He knew several large Australian museums would want them as well, partly as the RNZAF Skyhawks were, for a long period, based in New South Wales.

Warbirds, and the others, would not want to buy them.

"We've been asking for years for one for free, and we'll get the letter out again and send it in," Mr Horton said."



Full article here, some entertaining uniformed comments posted below on the Stuff.co.nz page

Andy , Exactly the aircraft in Wigram Air force World Museum is an old A4F with hump given to us by the US Navy , painted up it looks the part off mid 1970s .

Several years ago (c2003) I was a senior staff member at the Tech training school at Woodbourne. We tried very hard to get at least four A4's as training aircraft for technician training, but the whole disposal was stitched up by MOD and outside of RNZAF's hands. I recall saying to quite a few at the time, what a waste, I can't see them selling and it would be a shame to see them scrapped. I also said it will happen probably- one day you will get some. Looks like that day might just come, the training school will hopefully do well out of this.

It was incredibly short sighted and costly of Labour to turn thir backs on the F-16, but to have mucked around for 9 years over this sale has just added insult to injury. For me, the biggest issue was the detrimental effect this had on the Air Force, particularly as the whole fiasco is totally outside their control.

17 birds - plenty to go around huh !!

could always ship in a new engine and parts from amarc to get them airbourne perhaps seem they go for under $500k usd for a full version now. just checked average hourly operating cost and it sits around $2400nzd per hr so it wouldnt be much of a jump from the l39 or spitty to run per hr

h290master wrote:

QUOTE (h290master @ Sep 22 2010, 01:27 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

just checked average hourly operating cost and it sits around $2400nzd per hr so it wouldnt be much of a jump from the l39 or spitty to run per hr

Where did you find that out? Campbell Live says a full tank for a Skyhawk at current fuel prices is $16,000 for interests sake, which would get them to Sydney.

Here's some Skyhawks for sale in the States if you want a flyer...

http://www.raptoraviation.com/aircraft%20s.../A4%20Shep.html

Current scrap metal cost - about $NZ3000 ... Graham Bethell said it ... New Zealand have now become the scabs off the Pacific , my personal feeling is the No.75 history and for what it stood for should have been kept ! , Wigram , cut the knees off .. what would have happened if the Earthquake here in Christchurch was busy city time , all the rescue - police and would have gone to a higher state ..