Weihe GAE at German Hill about 1970

Photo and notes by Peter Miller, Taranaki Gliding Club

The glider is about to be launched, the under-carriage dolly clearly visible. The owner, Harry Smith is walking away, having briefed the pilot, Bob Struthers and/or, having hooked up the rope. Harry's son, Murray who was (nominally) a co-owner is at the extreme right of the photo.

The aircraft was damaged in an undershoot on the N/S vector at German Hill (some irony there in the origin of the glider and the airfield name!) and then declared a write-off by Carl Perham who advised that the aircraft was beyond economic repair because of glue failure (casein) and that the airframe has been extremely likely to have failed during flight and that the crash was quite fortuitous. I can still hear Harry's cry of despair as the glider plunked into and between the rocks and pongas. Not long after, the club's Olympia was damaged in almost identical circumstances at the same spot. So we lengthened the airstrip!!

The glider was for many years stored in the hangar at German Hill but was later taken to the Norfolk airfield. The fuselage was stored in a hangar, but the wings were left in an open trailer in an adjacent paddock. That the trailer was "open" may have been because the trailer cladding had fallen off. Either way, this was not a good thing.

Phillip Wills rescued this Weihe from Germany after the war from the likelihood of being destroyed by the occupying US forces, so as the CO ( I think) of the British ATA he used his DC3 to get this Weihe and maybe another back to England.  I understand the wings had to be shortened a bit to fit!  Later, Wills was to fly the Weihe to 30,000ft out from Mt Cook, having taken a winch launch from Simons Hill. Incidentally, there is a National Film Unit production entitled "Skylarks over Simons Hill", filmed in the late fifties which I remember seeing at a cinema. Doug MacIntyre may have the original tape. This was of the Canterbury GC Christmas camp there with John Messervy, Dick Georgeson and others.