Getting to the age when you start losing your grandparents is not easy, and recently, I have said goodbye to two.
However, I never got to meet my mother’s father, James (Jim) Sullivan , who died before I was born.
Saying farewell, and getting the chance to revisit the memories I had, made me want to learn more about the granddad I never got to know.
Growing up, I had always heard stories about him and the type of man he was: national president of the New Zealand Vintage Car Club and the Automobile Association, the owner of many incredible vehicles, and simply an Otaio farmer.
A story I always wanted to know more about was how he and his friend David Diamond restored a World War 2 Harvard aeroplane from practically the ground up.
Thankfully, Mr Diamond, who still lives at Sutherlands, was more than happy to give a first-hand account of their aero adventures.
He said their eventual partnership began one night in the aero club.
‘‘It was the night of an AGM and there was an article in the paper about the Harvard being retired. There was quite the spread, as it used to fly near Timaru on a training circuit, and most people knew about it.
‘‘After the meeting, everyone was talking about it and I said I was going to keep my eye on the government stores board as they used to put stuff up on tender.
‘‘I told everyone I wouldn’t mind owning one of those and they all gave me the raspberry but when it settled down, Jim wandered over and said ‘I like that idea’.’’
The two had known each other for quite some time due to their involvement in the vintage car club, so they got to chatting and the first seeds were planted.
‘‘Jim had asked if I wanted a partner. He was pretty enthusiastic about it, like he was with everything.’’
As predicted, the Harvard plane eventually ended up going up on a GSB tender in 1978.
After discussing the potential purchase together, they went in but unfortunately missed out.
Mr Diamond looked into who had won and saw it was a company called Engine Support Inc. from Florida, United States.
‘‘They had bought five attrition air frames. NZ1025 (the Harvard) was one of them.
‘‘I sent them a fax and suggested that if they needed to get rid of any of the air frames they could contact me.
‘‘They rang me the day after they had taken the engine and propeller off 1025. I paid $500 for the airframe and I could’ve had five for that price.
‘‘After buying it, I called up Jim to ask him if he still wanted to be a partner and he just about near came down the phone line.’’
The plane was purchased and then picked up in Wigram, Christchurch.
He said it was quite an effort to bring the plane back to Timaru.
‘‘We went up in Jim’s Bedford truck and Holden. The Holden was lower than anything I had and I didn’t want the tail wheel too high.
‘‘I made a thing to drop the tail wheel inside the back of the ute and we towed it back like that.
‘‘The truck had the wings, tail, and all the other odd bits.’’
The partnership between the two was quite simple. Dave would do the mechanical work and maintenance and Jim would do most of the flying, as well as cleaning.
They built a hangar at the Timaru airport and got to work fully restoring what would become ZK-Echo November November.
The airframe was essentially a shell. Everything that it needed to fly had to be put in or on.
The engine cost $16,000 and Mr Diamond said if they were to have bought one today it would be around $140,000.
The project — including the hangar — ended up costing them $24,000 in total, which they split evenly.
After years of hard work, the plane was first started on July 23, 1980 and took flight for the first time on August 14.
They owned the Harvard up until late 1987, when it was sold to Auckland man John Greenstreet for $96,000.
In the time they owned it, the plane was flown in many different air shows, Anzac memorials and above and around South Canterbury, to the awe of many.
The eventual decision to sell was hard for both of them but due to health reasons and neither wanting to own it without the other, the choice was made.
On February 25, 1990, Mr Greenstreet fatally crashed ZK-ENN at the Ardmore Aerodrome in Auckland during an aerobatic display practice.
Mr Diamond said it was sad to see what happened to the Harvard in the end, but he cherished the memories he had made with Jim during their time bringing the plane back to life.
‘‘You’ve got to totally trust the other person. We never argued and we worked through a lot of things together.
‘‘We never worried what other people thought. We had our project and had our goal and away we went.
‘‘I never would have wanted to do this with anyone else and I’m sure Jim felt the same.’’
Getting the opportunity to learn more was incredibly rewarding. How many people can say their granddad was a civilian pilot of an ex-military plane?
Through talking to Mr Diamond about my granddad I do believe I got closer to him and learned to do what you are passionate about, not to care what other people say and to surround yourself with the best of friends.I hope to learn even more about him and his amazing life.
