Hello and welcome to my home page, My name is Philip Garmonsway. My interests are tramping, computer games, reading and model making. This page will be evolving over the next few months.
I am currently working as a Photographer in the RNZAF. I have been doing this since October 2001 (infamous DJ2 Day for those that know).
I used to be an armourer in the Royal New Zealand Airforce. My main job was servicing the Martin Baker ejection seats fitted to the Aermacchi MB339 CB aircraft. My career highlight so far has been the 15 months I spent working on 75 sqn. I have been in the RNZAF for seven years.
Most of the tramping I do is in the Tararua mountain range in the lower North Island. Both sides of the ranges are within one or two hours of Ohakea so we try and get out there as often as possible. Here is a photo of me taken on the top of Jumbo peak in the Tararua ranges. We were sitting on this exposed ridge in winds gusting about 100km/h and it was very hard to stand up at all. You can see how inflated my jacket is.
At the moment I am reading 'Sea Harrier Over the Falklands' A fascinating account of the Air war nearly 21 years ago (and I remember it, must be getting old!). I've finished reading J R R Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, which is a fantastic story. I have read it about five times now and with all the hype surrounding the movies, I thought I'd read it again.
As for my other interests - I make and paint 1/16 scale figures, either in resin (when I'm feeling rich) or plastic. I am keen on aircraft modelling, but I find it hard to finish anything! My long suffering girlfriend calls me a cardboard box collector, since I buy the kits then save them for 'later'. I have a few photos of my models, just click on the link at the bottom of the page.
Here is a photograph of me working on a seat component, taken in the seat bay at
Ohakea by Tim Jordan.
The background image is a photograph of an explosion at Kaipara Air Weapons Range. click here to see the original colour photograph.
Check out the RNZAF Armourers website! Now under new Management Click here