Over the last 2 weekends, some of the CAMS team have been over in Mapua (Nelson) helping with getting the DH Mosquito ready for transport to the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre. It will go on display in the museum after some tidy up work has been completed on the aircraft.
The Mosquito, like some of the other aircraft that the late John Smith collected over the years, it is a true time capsule. It is remarkable to see the amazing condition this aircraft is in for the years it has spent in a shed.
Once on display, the Mosquito will be joined by a Tiger Moth and the P40 – Gloria Lyons that have also come out of the collection.
The Tiger Moth is also a time capsule, showing how it would have been when it left the factory. The Tiger Moth even has all its blind flying equipment still fitted, this is normally removed, once they have gone through a rebuild at some point in their life after leaving military service.
Everyone that has been helping to prep the aircraft for relocation and help with bring parts from Mapua (Nelson) over to Omaka have been doing so as volunteers. The team that have been donating their time to help continue the preservation of these amazing machines have done an incredible job, but the work is not over yet.
There are still a few more things that need to be achieved on the Mosquito to get it ready for the trip over the hill to Omaka.
Once these jobs are completed the team from Avspec (based at Ardmore NZ) will come down to oversee the fragile job of taking the fuselage off the wing and load it all up into transport jigs. Once everything is back at Omaka the work will ramp up to start getting it ready for display.
The aircraft are all on loan from the Smith Family to go on display but the costs to relocate and get them up to display condition is for the museum to fund.
This is not a cheap job but something that is very worthy to continue to preserve these incredible machines, to honor the work and foresight of John Smith to save them to start with.
There is a give a little page to help with raising money to help to get them ready for the public to enjoy and appreciate. Here is the link if you want to help with the conservation efforts https://bit.ly/2YGltDw
We will continue to share photos as the work continues over the coming months with the intent that they will be ready for display at Classic Fighters Airshow over Easter Weekend 2021.
