Gavin Grimmer
Update 24 May 2012
On the 4th March 2012, I was contacted via email by Gary Soden who lives in Reporoa - north of Taupo.
As a result of this email and further emails, he was happy to take over the research of an all out search for this aircraft, with myself giving him a hand wherever possible.
I find having individuals concentrating on a single aircraft as the best approach, as I’m looking for so many missing aircraft now, that I have the danger of not being able to do any of them justice.
I’ve said in the past, “I hope I’m not correct in the assumption that ZK-AJV was in the Willowflat area” as per these searches recorded in these previous pages, as then there is still a chance of finding an answer to this mystery.
Gary is intent on covering the whole area between Taupo and the ranges west of Napier with letterbox drops of pamphlets that he has made as per the following:
What a great idea! To date he has had a great response although not the lead that he hopes to find. In saying this, from my experiences, it is still valuable information that eventually builds up to the final ‘picture’ and then hopefully success!
Gary has come up with a very realistic scenario, building on my belief that John Tacon attempted to fly down the Mohaka Valley following the Mohaka River to get out to the sea.
Gary used a Flight Simulator to attempt this flight at low level, and not knowing the area, took a wrong turn at the junction of the Te Hoe / Mohaka Rivers.
To confirm this, he and a friend rode their motorbikes over to that junction and were stunned to see just how easy it would be to make this mistake when you saw this junction in real life.
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