Some time ago I found an old wiro notebook in a drawer. A scruffy wiro bound notebook with a photo of 2 men in a kayak with a bear on the front cover. In that notebook I found terrible sketches drawn in pencil made while travelling in 1991. One sketch leapt out at me. It was a rough pencil sketch of Mt Ararat from a backpacking trip to eastern Turkey. The sketch really surprised me – it was a very basic pencil sketch, drawn using a .5mm technical pencil on a cheap notepad. The sketch is just black and white… To my surprise the sounds and smells of the day came flooding back. Meeting some Kurdish goat herders and their flock near the base of Mt Ararat, about 10km from the Iranian border on a bright sunny but cool, alpine day. Along with memories of driving across the mountain steppe in an old Renault 19 and the smells of chai and coffee in a Doğubayazıt pasta solunu. It all came back come flooding back! Why did it evoke such vivid memories? I’m not really sure to be honest. Maybe t...
It's the Short Sunderland at MOTAT again! I know I've drawn this beast before here but I'm drawn to the idea of flying into Pacific atolls way back in the days before proper airports. How cool would that be!
This plane did just that for decades with the RNZAF right up until 1966. One of only 5 left worldwide, it could land anywhere loaded with the personnel, accommodation and kit to keep an air force running far from home. It even had a galley with the ability to feed a big crew. The last flying boat I drew was the TEAL Solent in the main aviation hall, here.
And here's the workshop hanger, jammed with interesting old planes and paraphenalia, like a Lockhead Lodestar, various wings, fuselages, airframes, even a Huey being done up for Westpac rescue helicopter training. If you ask nicely the old blokes in there will show you around, and they're pretty knowledgeable too, some of them even having worked at TEAL, NAC, and Air New Zealand.
This plane did just that for decades with the RNZAF right up until 1966. One of only 5 left worldwide, it could land anywhere loaded with the personnel, accommodation and kit to keep an air force running far from home. It even had a galley with the ability to feed a big crew. The last flying boat I drew was the TEAL Solent in the main aviation hall, here.
And here's the workshop hanger, jammed with interesting old planes and paraphenalia, like a Lockhead Lodestar, various wings, fuselages, airframes, even a Huey being done up for Westpac rescue helicopter training. If you ask nicely the old blokes in there will show you around, and they're pretty knowledgeable too, some of them even having worked at TEAL, NAC, and Air New Zealand.
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