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This section is contributed by Noel Crump Jr. (Son of Noel
Crump, former Signaler 5 Squadron) - who is second generation to the actual
machinery and very passionate about the old girls. A lot of people do not even know what a Sunderland Flying Boat is, nor have a lot even seen one. Noel Sr. mentioned that one of his flights was to display their aircraft at an
air show in South Canterbury and on their leg back to Hobsonville he asked the Captain to divert over his home town Hororata, which is a small country township just West of Christchurch. Of course that wasn't a problem and they ended up carrying out a couple of low circuits around the township. Apparently a lot of the locals were at the Domain playing cricket and
Noel Sr. reckons that from what he could see the majority of them had the look of near horror on their faces - what on earth,... attack from outer space, etc.
Noel's career in the RNZAF spanned from the early 1950's to 1990. He flew in many aircraft types, butthe flying boats were most special to him. He flew in the Catalinas and was involved in the ferry flights of the Sunderlands from the U.K. Out of interest;
he was a crew member of Catalina 4046 that ditched off the coast from Suva in 1952 as featured on page 230 of
"The Golden Age of NZ Flying Boats." He still has a copy of the cartoon Christmas message as shown on page 231.
At the time when the Sunderlands were to be replaced by the P3 Orions Noel was asked to compile a list of suitable Sunderland crew members to travel to the U.S. for conversion training.
This he did, but the C.O. couldn't convince Dad to add his own name to the list.
He wanted to "see the old girls out" and "wasn't interested in any land-based maritime patrol bird."
Noel flew for 26 years in the RNZAF and spent his last 10 years in Flight Operations at Wigram. He can recall many a tale from his flying boat days, both humorous and serious, some of which could be a bit
embarrassing to those involved he feels, such as;- floats being holed during gunnery
practice, and - the crew heading out onto a wing to weight the opposite wing up when a float had been damaged (or was missing completely - will need to clarify that one), but they went out onto the damaged side
 by mistake,... "You don't need to mention any names
Noel."
Mrs. Crump was also involved to a degree. She was a RNZAF nurse and I believe
that one of their duties was to man the launches. Of course,
one of the roles of the launches was to check for debris in the water in the alighting areas and to shadow
the aircraft (in case of a mishap, I suppose). She gives the impression that the launches were fairly
fast and we don't think she ever got her sea-legs judging by the way she describes it.
The last time I saw 4115 was about 1995 while up in Auckland on holiday. She was still sitting out in the weather, but someone had been working on restoring the interior. They had a long way to go, but the work that had been done looked very good. I just wish that they could get her inside and out of the weather because her exterior was looking terrible. The Solent and Lancaster had been beautifully restored and were sitting in a nice new hangar. I understand that the flight deck and turret of 4112 are at Ferrymead Museum in Christchurch. I am intending on going for a look in the very near future to confirm.
While at Wanaka for one of Sir Tim Wallis's infamous airshows in 1992 a couple of items caught my attention in amongst what looked like an area of scrap metal behind the Wanaka
Museum. On investigation I discovered that
they were the front turret and the framework of a rear turret of a Sunderland. On talking to the museum
owner he hadn't decided what he was going to do with them. I asked him if he would consider
selling them to me. He couldn't say and asked me to ring him at a later date. So I rang him back a couple of
years later and he was prepared to sell them, but wanted me to make an offer. I asked him to give me
a figure to work to and he stated "3 figures"! I am sad to say that that is where the story ends, but I
am intending on approaching him again.
              
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