WONZ 324 – Rob Booth on the Sea Fury | The Wings Over New Zealand Show

Guest: Rob Booth

Host: Dave Homewood

Recorded: 2nd of March 2025

Published: 13th of May 2025

Duration: 30 minutes, 18 seconds

In this episode we hear a presentation given at the Wings Over New Zealand 20th Anniversary Forum Meet at NZ Warbirds Inc., Ardmore, by Rob Booth, a former Warbirds pilot and owner. He is talking about the Hawker Sea Fury FB.11 ZK-SFR, which he and fellow NZ Warbirds pilots Steve Taylor and John Greenstreet brought into New Zealand in 1986, and had restored to fly. Later Grant Biel bought into the syndicate when Steve and John dropped out.

The restoration was carried out at Ardmore by Bruce Coulter, who was assisted by Warren Denholm (then of Gulf Aeronautics, now much better known as owner of Avspecs Ltd.).

The aircraft was very popular on the New Zealand airshow scene through the 1990s, during which Rob was the main display pilot of the Sea Fury.

Hawker Sea Fury ZK-SFR over the Southern Alps. (Rob Booth collection)

Rob Booth during the talk at the WONZ 20th Anniversary Forum Meet, Ardmore. (Phil Treweek photo)

The Sea Fury while it as a Hawker Fury in service with the Iraqi Air Force. (Rob Booth collection)

Here is a video version of this presentation, filmed by Stuart Russell for the WONZ Show.

Quick Links:

• New Zealand Warbirds Association Ltd

• NZ Warbirds Association of Facebook

Here is a previous WONZ Forum Meet presentation by fellow Sea Fury owner-pilot Steve Taylor talking about the aircraft. https://youtu.be/chasI7W-tMU?si=SfDvyXVBaQ5R3bsm

Thanks to Stu Russell for the recordings.

Photos below are from Rob Booth’s collection, and show the aircraft when they purchased it, and the restoration and then when it was flying around New Zealand.