WONZ 328 – Martin Hedley of Pioneer Aero

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Guest: Martin Hedley

Host: Dave Homewood

Recorded: 2nd of March 2025

Published: 27th of June 2025

Duration:  32 minutes, 38 seconds

In this episode we hear the final presentation given at the WONZ 20th Anniversary Forum Meet at Ardmore. The presenter is Martin Hedley, foreman at Pioneer Aero Ltd., the warbird restoration company at Ardmore. And he is talking about the company’s current main project, the Douglas SBD-5 Dauntless dive bomber from WWII.

The Dauntless is being restored from a wreck recovered from Lake Michigan by Taras Lyssenko, General Manager of A and T Recovery, and combining it with parts from a second aircraft that had been a wind machine in the film industry. The project started at Pioneer under the ownership of Jerry Yagen, but he has since handed all his collection over to the care of his museum, the Military Aviation Museum, at Virginia Beach.

Quick Links:

• The Wings Over New Zealand Forum

• Pioneer Aeros Ltd.

• Pioneer Aero Ltd. on Facebook

• New Zealand Warbirds Association Ltd

• NZ Warbirds Association of Facebook

Thanks to Stu Russell for the recording. The music is Wild Flower by Joachim Karud.

Above: Photos from Martin’s presentation, taken by Phil Treweek.

The Dauntless when it was pulled from Lake Michigan. (From the Pioneer Aero Ltd. Facebook page).
Martin unwrapping the Dauntless when it first arrived in New Zealand. (From the Pioneer Aero Ltd. Facebook page).
The Pioneer Aero Ltd. team with the Dauntless fuselage in 2023, with Martin standing in the cockpit. (From the Pioneer Aero Ltd. Facebook page).

There is also a video version of this podcast below, thanks to Stu Russell.

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