109ROAMING
2nd Lieutenant
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
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