Email: gavin@findlostaircraft.co.nz

NEW ZEALAND

P: +646 222 6322

E: support@getgecko.nz

W: www.getgecko.nz

One thing I found very interesting was James, with his extensive local knowledge, demonstrated to us on the flight in, what he believed happened to ZK-AFB. He said that the cloud (as shown in the photographs) always sat in this valley at about where they were on this day (About 1500 ft). We flew just below them up the valley, keeping the river on our left.

When we got around the corner he said that Chadwick would have realised by then that he was in the wrong valley and he would have flown hard over towards the right hand valley wall and tried to do a reversal turn. James said that the ridge in front of us would have been in the “murk” and as we went into the turn James pointed and said, “Right there is where he would have hit!”

That spot is exactly where I have it on the 1965 aerial photo!

The next search in this area will probably only happen if I have more sophisticated equipment or at the least, a sniffer dog.

I’m planning on getting my own dog and training it to find old oil (as would be found in the crankcase of a buried engine)    Time will tell..… (Edited 2023: I got a beagle dog, and that turned out to be a waste of time as all she was good at was running away. Couldn’t risk taking her into the bush and end up spending all our time looking for her!)

Having a meal back in civilisation (Franz Josef)                    

PAGE 5