Just plane boring, wah wah wah....
Trip Start
Dec 04, 2006
1
30
106
Trip End
Jun 17, 2007
Gore,
New Zealand
Monday, January 15, 2007
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Okay, good, those two people left. Now, for the massive crowd into this sort of thing, Jeannie and I stumbled upon the most excellent place. In the middle of nowhere, which is saying something in New Zealand, there is one of the better known aircraft restoration specialists of old British planes, Croydon Air Services. When we went into one of their old hangers, three of the five employees were putting on the very finishing touches on a 1944 Beechcraft Stagwing.
A 1944 Beecher Stagwing
As we watched them, the American owner of the plane, who goes by Biff Windsock, came by to chat with us. He was delighted by having a younger guy envy his newest toy and a beautiful woman faking interest in vitage aircraft. Before you know it, we were getting the full tour of the place. It was amazing becuase much of what they do is by hand on older equipment from the 1920's and '30s. That, and they have people all over the globe scouring for old parts, so the place felt almost like a back room of the Smithsonian with old parts laying around with fountain pen labels attached.
The wings workshop
The eighty year old kiwi that started everything was originally a farmer that decided he would fix up a few old Tiger Moths.
DeHavilland's first aircraft (created from scratch
From there, he gained quite the reputation and now not only fixes up old planes but also vintage British locamotives. Needless to say, he isn't exactly a lazy man. In addition the the Stagwing, they were working on a Domine an Australian bought to fly his family around in, building a DeHavilland Comet racer from scratch, restoring the fusalage of the very first plane Singapore Airlines flew, and are starting a vintage aircraft museum.
Singapore Air's First plane and a new Comet
Some of of the planes Croydon has already restored
