Saturday, April 25, 2009

ANZAC Day 2009

April 25 is ANZAC Day in New Zealand. The name ANZAC means Australian and New Zealand Army Corp, and recognises the special bond that New Zealand and Australian troops have had over many years, particularly from Gallipoli. For the official version of things, check out this New Zealand Government ANZAC website.

Dawn parades and other ceremonies are a feature of Anzac Day, often with various current and former military aircraft participating in various ways. Today at Wellington I saw a UH-1H Iroquois departing and a P3K Orion performing a pass down the main runway on its way to or from a ceremony somewhere. One thing I had never previously noticed on the P3K was what apears to be a FLIR or camera mount on the bottom of the fuselage under the cockpit. Not at all surprising [considering the aircraft is used for maritime survelliance and search and rescue]... but is it me being paranoid, or is the camera pointing at me in both shots??? :-) [click on the images for the close ups]

Also, Brendon Deere's awesome Supermarine Spitfire Mk. IX landed at Wanganui and the locals were able to get out and around it for a short time. A resident spotter in training ["Hi Dad!"] managed to get a few pictures of this also.

2 comments:

PD said...

That spitfire looks awesome. Good to see that its able to fly for the ANZAC flypasts. Must be a awesome sounding engine.

zkarj said...

The FLIR turret has been there for many years. I recall getting a demo at Wellington Airport many, many years ago courtesy of the AHSNZ (and of course RNZAF). I also got a look at the inside at Whenuapai in March.

I also saw the Orion this morning and it gave us a bit of a fright as it roared over the hill behind our house at VERY low level! We saw the Iroquois going over too and I will soon upload some shots of it arriving in Wellington yesterday.