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05-03-2009, 09:06 AM
| #1 |
| Senior Member  Join Date: May 2008 Location: New Zealand
Posts: 4,994
| DONE: RNZAF F4U-1D P/O Brian Barstow of NZ5517-No.16 Sqdn Group Build My small tribute to a man yet to be found (Hope to oneday change all that!) A short history(yeah sorry)- NZ5517 piloted by Brian Barstow was lost on a flight over the southern alps heading from his home town of Westport to Harewood on 11/11/44.Flying with 3 other aircraft .Leading the flight was F/O Ernest Robert Reynolds in NZ5502 following were P/O Barstow in NZ5517 ,P/O Norman Reeve in NZ5521 and P/O Peter Sheppard in NZ5522 flying the No.4 position.At around 5000ft P/O Sheppard reported trouble with his engine and was given permission to return to Westport .Continuing up to 9000ft Flight leader Reynolds then decided it was best to keep the flight intact so decided to return to Westport-In the turn NZ5517 was to the right of Reynolds and held it for half the turn -slowly falling out of formation he was never seen again..... Having lost sight of Barstow ,Reynolds radioed him with the correct bearing to return to Westport -he didn't reply although both Sheppard and Reeve could hear him.After scanning numerous VHF channels Barstow didn't respond and Reynolds assumed he'd continued on to harewood and contacted the CFCC (Central flying control centre)to try and find him. By 1.00pm no word had been received that P/O Barstow had turned up at Harewood.With visibilty dropping to under a mile all hopes of an aerial search that afternoon were dashed (West coast is well known for bad weather) A ground search was considered but being heavy bush country and not knowing more of its possible location nothing was attempted.Over the following days bad weather continued and some searches were made without success.Numerous searches and reported sightings over the years have occured but yeilded nothing.Some hunters have sworn they've seen it and one said he stood on the wing of it.Nothing to this day has been found or NZ5517 or Brian Barstow .No.16 squadron were about to go on a tour in the solomons hence some people thought there was a possibilty Barstow had faked his death -This is now highly unlikely as a 1947 aerial photo shows NZ5517 in the hills somewhere northwest of Refton .Although this isn't confirmed as the photo isn't too clear and a search was recently carried out on its apparent "Exact" spot but nothing was found-I'm hoping to go in after winter I need HELP!! I got no idea on personal markings (No noseart) just the numbers on it -Help would be forever appreciated-Better yet a photo as so far I've been led to think one doesn't exist Heres the build so far I've also included a map with a bulleyes on where it is-I know roughly its location
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05-03-2009, 09:09 AM
| #2 |
| Senior Member  Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: A Swede living in Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 15,141
| Wish that I could help Daniel! Looking forward to your progress...
__________________  JAN "Felicis Tredecim" "I´m going back to the front to relax" "THE BLACK CATS FLIES TONIGHT" "Find your enemy and shoot him down - everything else is unimportant!" "When you're out of F-8's... You're out of fighters!"  |
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05-03-2009, 09:17 AM
| #3 |
| Senior Member  Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Adelaide Sth. Aust.
Posts: 12,511
| Interesting story Daniel...be real nice if both the pilot and aircraft could be located.....good luck with your build mate! 
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05-03-2009, 09:17 AM
| #4 |
| Senior Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: New Zealand
Posts: 4,994
| Cheers Jan and Wayne! Whats done so far: Detailed cockpit and painted -still abit to do.Joined fuselage and removed alierons for a more inflight look -complete mess (will be following Wojtek's advice and getting a razor blade in future) Also removed Elevators again for a more inflight look .Wings joined .Gear doors slammed shut (surprised with the fit) also carefully cut the 1 piece canopy so will be finished open -while trying to fit that I %&%$% it up but Evan' offered me a replacement-Thanks mate! also-its 1/72 and its the hasegawa kit- will be using Aeromaster decals -need to find out more though
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05-03-2009, 09:23 AM
| #5 |
| “Archive”   Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 4,852
| A great idea Daniel and intersting story. Makes you wonder how many more went missing this way!!!!
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05-03-2009, 09:36 AM
| #6 |
| Senior Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: New Zealand
Posts: 4,994
| Cheers Paul!  and Thanks for stickying the threadIt does indeed make ya think, this aint the only Corsair missing in New Zealand either! one somewhere up north -numerous birds around the country as well .What scares me is the what happened to the airmen ,espcially this one, with more than one hunter claiming to of scene this bird also the guy who said he "Stood on the wing" ...no mention of P/O Barstow anywhere....scary to think of where he could be right now
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05-03-2009, 09:37 AM
| #7 |
| Older Than Dirt  Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Virginia Beach, Virginia
Posts: 7,309
| Good luck on this build, Daniel. Interesting story, too... Charles
__________________  I can only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow doesn't look good either.... |
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05-03-2009, 09:46 AM
| #8 | |
| “Archive” Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 4,852
| Quote:
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05-03-2009, 09:49 AM
| #9 |
| Senior Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: New Zealand
Posts: 4,994
| Ohhh  Thanks Dan!  also Thanks Ccheese!
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05-03-2009, 11:24 AM
| #10 |
| Senior Member  Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Posts: 4,293
 | Looking forward to this one!
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05-03-2009, 11:27 AM
| #11 |
| Senior Member  Join Date: Aug 2008
Posts: 9,062
| Nice work Daniel, and good background info. It would be great if you could find the wreckage. There are about 20 to 30 wrecks within a 10 mile radius of where I live, mostly from WW2, on the high ground of the Peak District, although most have either sunk into peat, or were burnt out when they crashed. There's still some 'big bits' left here and there, although it's years since I made the trek into the hills to look at them.
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05-03-2009, 12:20 PM
| #12 |
| Senior Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: New Zealand
Posts: 4,994
| Cheers Corey and Terry! Interesting Terry ,I've read of numerous planes simply buried both here and in England to get rid of them (Spose you've heard of "6 buried lancasters in a field" I find it hard to beleive but it maybe true .Over here there was a rumour there was a number of Rolls Royce Merlins boxed up and buried under my local international airports runway! (There must be millions of these rumours around)Also once got told that RNZAF airbase "Woodbourne" was named after the burning of all the Mosquito's that were simply burn't on river beds -Although I'm pretty sure this is incorrect-Evan can you confirm it? .This photo I've got shows it relatively intact but that was in 1947 only 3 years after it was lost .Apparently in 1969 there was a large earthquake in the area and its thought to of been buried -anyone got a metal detector they can let me borrow? Also I agree Paul -There was a helicopter pilot said to have seen it and upon investigation by the RNZAF there was nobody with the name claiming to of seen it.....now I've been told that the RNZAF aren't too interested in finding it (bloody pathetic I know) so its up to private parties to raise the funds needed to search for it  Sad
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05-03-2009, 01:04 PM
| #13 |
| Siggy Master  Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Poland
Posts: 13,972
| Anyway it is a very interesting story and good luck on the project Daniel.
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05-04-2009, 01:08 AM
| #14 |
| Senior Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: New Zealand
Posts: 4,994
| Cheers Wojtek!
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05-04-2009, 01:13 AM
| #15 |
| Senior Member  Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Queensland
Posts: 4,543
| Nice choice for the GB Dan. Good luck mate!
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