WONZ 327 – Phillip Harrall

Guest: Phillip Harrall AFC, MPhil, FRAeS

Host: Dave Homewood

Recorded: 23rd of February 2025

Published: 15th of June 2025

Duration:  41 minute, 36 seconds

In this episode we hear an edited down presentation given at the WONZ 20th Anniversary Forum Meet at Wigram by Phillip Harrall, a former Royal Navy Observer. Phillip was born in New Zealand but his career took him into the Royal Navy, where his father was a pilot.

After his training, Phillip flew as observer in the Hawker Hunter as lead in to the Blackburn Buccaneer, which he enjoyed immensely till a medical issue saw him move to the Rotary Wing of the FAA. He ended up flying in the Sea King and the Westland Lynx helicopters for a lot of his career, on and off ships. He was involved in weapon development work, and when the Argentinians invaded the Falkland Islands he and a team working on the Sea Skua missile and other developments rushed them into service.

Phillip was deployed to the Falklands in command of a Lynx, and he ended up involved in several combat actions, which he describes.

He is Secretary of the Canterbury Branch of the Royal Aeronautical Society New Zealand Division, and Vice President of the RAeS New Zealand Division. And he is a volunteer at the Air Force Museum of New Zealand.

There is also a YouTube version of this recording so you can see the PowerPoint slides that Phillip used.

Quick Links:

• The Wings Over New Zealand Forum

• The Air Force Museum of New Zealand

• The Air Force Museum of New Zealand on Facebook

• The Royal Aeronautical Society New Zealand Division – Canterbury Branch

The music is Wild Flower by Joachim Karud.

Thanks to Allan Udy for his help with the audio recording. Thanks also to Phil Treweek.