A Wings Over New Zealand Special Video
On the 1st of July 2018 we reunited WWII veteran aviator Bryan Cox with one of the de Havilland DH82a Tiger Moths that he had flown in his Royal New Zealand Air Force training in 1943. Bryan learned to fly at No. 3 Elementary Flying Training School at RNZAF Station Harewood, Christchurch (nowadays the international airport). He then went on to advanced training in North American Harvards at No. 2 Service Flying Training School, Woodbourne, and Curtiss P40 Kittyhawks/Warhawks at No. 4 (Fighter) Operational Training Unit at Ohakea. And then he flew three operational tours in the Pacific war zone with No. 16 (Fighter) Squadron, RNZAF. After WWII he completed a further tour with No. 14 (Occupational) Squadron in Japan, also flying Corsairs.
Postwar he became an Air Traffic Controller, and then a prolific and very popular Flying Instructor at Ardmore Airport for decades, training many hundreds of pilots. He has also written four books, and these days has a website called Kittyhawks and Corsairs.
In January 2018 Bryan regained his pilots licence at the age of 93 after more than 20 years of not flying. In April 2018 Russell Brodie asked me if I could look through logbooks and records I have collected copies of to see if anyone had flown his Tiger Moth NZ1443 (ZKBRL, also known as Lily). The only pilot I was able to find at that time who'd flown NZ1443 was Bryan. This is where a scheme was hatched to get them back together, and get Bryan airborne again in the Tiger Moth he'd last flown almost 75 years ago.
We got Bryan down from his home in Tauranga to the Rangitata Island Aerodrome where the Tiger Moth lives. Bryan flew with aerobatics instructor Andy Love in the front seat as his safety pilot. The event was a huge success, and it was all made possible due to the awesome kindness of the Brodie family and all those who contributed to the Givealittle Fundraiser.
Apologies that the flying sequence is not perfectly filmed, they were quite distant and the camera I used was my stills camera which films decided to fall out of focus at the worst possible times, typically. But I hope this film gives a nice record of the wonderful event.
The music is "If I Only Had Wings" by Nat Gonnella and his Georgians