The first exercise with 14 Squadron to Whakatane in 1978

Whakatane's Civil Airport Building

In 1978 while serving on 14 Sqn as SNCO I/c of the hanger, all of the servicing that the Sqn undertook was my responsibly, it was mainly a paper shuffling job, but if things didn’t go as planned the buck stopped there.

The Sqn was tasked to go to Whakatane Airport and set up a tented camp for three weeks. This was three-quarter way through a ‘wings’ course, where the student pilots could learn to fly from a different airfield.

Official

We were to pick up the camping equipment from Waiouru Army Camp, where they had been using it for the proceeding couple of weeks by the Army.

As I had a heavy trade [truck] drivers license I got to drive one of the RL Bedford 3 ton truck from Waiouru to Whakatane.

It was decided that we needed a "Shotgun" rider with each truck to keep the drivers awake, I think.

We started out in two 12 seat vans heading to Waiouru, about an hour and a quarter away, well loaded with the paper war items that had to be "safe handed" by a couple of Officers.

About twenty minutes later one of the vans decided it didn’t want to play this game so it stopped. We left the driver with it and the other passengers were crammed into the other van.

Just as well seat belts weren’t a thing then, the guys on the floor wouldn’t have had one anyway.

We eventually arrived at the Army camp to pick up our trucks and get underway to Whakatane.

The RL I was given to drive was loaded with wet tents, the camp had almost been flooded in the previous week. This took the load from the desired maximum three ton to an estimated six to seven-ton.

image source

The canopy over the load also had a small, about six inch, rip in it near the front. I pointed it out and was told to ignore it. We were given sandwiches and a couple of plastic half gallon ex-milk bottle containers full of cordial.

The rear of the engine and the gearbox fit into the cabin separating the driver and the passenger.

There was a convenient spot just behind the cowling to put the cordial, and an “inbox” container on top of the engine cowl, perfect for the sandwiches.

We set off, about seven to eight hours drive to Whakatane, no sweat. Because I was the heaviest or the weakest truck I ended up in the rear of the convoy.

Before long the others had well and truly disappeared from sight. We carried on towards Taupo, almost halfway, where we were supposed to stop for fuel and lunch.

By the time we arrived the others had refueled, some had had lunch and were wanting to get away. Apart from being very slow up hills and disinclined to stop in a hurry, my truck was going well.

So we refueled and found a nice spot to pull off the road for lunch.

What a mistake we had made where we had put our stuff. The cordial was on the point of boil, and the sandwiches had almost melted out of the paper bags they were in.

Just down the road was a Dairy where we bought some lunch and drinks, we kept the receipts so we could reclaim our expenses later. Amazingly it worked and we were reimbursed when we got back to Ohakea.

We eventually arrived and everybody set to work erecting the tents.

All the other members of the Sqn had been flown in by Bristol Freighter and were still energetic.

There was a lot of joking about the flag we had been flying behind us, the small tear in the canopy had gone from the front to the back in a V when the truck stopped the canvas was down the back of the truck and a few feet behind on the grass.

As one of the few who could be spared from day to day running the flight line, and with a truck license I was used most days to go into Whakatane with the store's man [he had the order book to pay for things] to get our fresh rations, milk etc.

One of the calls we made was to the Recruiting center where I made friends with the Army recruiter who was based there, another Sergeant which helped.

The Army had a hall with a semi-separate room with some beds/bunks in it, that could be rented for a couple of weeks over holiday times, there was supposed to be a draw to see who was the lucky renter, but I managed to convince him that we should hold the draw for the Christmas break with only one name in the draw.

Strangely next day he said the draw had been held and I was the lucky winner, from Christmas day until about the fifth of January.

That trip is another story for later.

We finished the exercise, and it was decided that one lucky SNCO would go to Hobsonville to check the camping gear back into the store.

We loaded a couple of Bristol Freighters with the camp gear, turned the Army trucks over to the Army recruiter in Whakatane, The rest of the Sqn went home while I went to Hobsonville.

A trusty Bristol Freighter

We counted the gear into the store putting to one side anything that was damaged so it could be repaired or destroyed.

Strangely one of the collapsible metal tables was missing a nut, with a bit of persuasion this was declared ‘written off’ [destroyed] and sent through the store's system to Ohakea to be delivered to me.

A couple of coats of paint later and a new nut the table is still very usable.

With the correct paperwork, it was surprising what you could do legally.

Having spent some time in the store's system I knew some of the dodges that could be used.

With the right form, it is possible to convert, on paper, hanger coat, to hanger aircraft, and it is legal.