Luxury two day escape to Wharekauhau!

 ... and help Wairarapa Flying Tigers to restore Harvard 33!

How to enter? Super simple, just click here for the Trademe auction!

Easy as, and supporting the Wairarapa Flying Tigers to get an awesome historic aircraft back in the air is a good thing to do!

North American AT-6C Harvard, Wairarapa Flying Tigers

HBBPC 2020 - Various taildraggers

The HBBPC bring out a few less common types to compete, and here are a couple of them.

The first is a Maule M-6-235, ZK-MTP. This aircraft is registered to a Blenheim address. It looks great with those big tires on it.

Maule M-6-235, ZK-MTP

Second is this large and [awesomely] noisy North American Harvard. I didn't catch the rego, unfortunately. The fluorescent livery stands out really well!

North American Harvard

Wellington Aero Club is 90! (post 1 of 2)

Last weekend was Wellington Aero Club's 90th Anniversary celebration!

Celebration activities included our first open day in several years on the Western Apron, followed by a really nice dinner at the Rydges hotel in the main airport terminal.

Anyway, on to the open day. I'm not sure how many people came through, but it seemed to be a steady stream throughout the day which was good. It was particularly good to have support from Lifeflight and Westpac Rescue, Sounds Air, the RNZAF, Kapiti Warbirds [owners of ZK-END], BAC167 Strikemaster Ltd and airport rescue who all sent aircraft [and a fire engine] in to support the day.

I was a bit busy, so didn't take many photos. Thank you to Ron Edmands for most of these photos, as indicated.

North American Harvard 3*, ZK-END, operated by Kapiti Warbirds

Pilatus PC12/45, ZK-PLS, operated by Sounds Air

Cessna 208 Caravan, ZK-PDM, operated by Sounds Air

British Aerospace Jetstream J32, ZK-LFW, operated by Air Freight NZ on behalf of Lifeflight

British Aerospace Jetstream J32, ZK-LFW, operated by Air Freight NZ on behalf of Lifeflight

British Aerospace Jetstream J32, ZK-LFW, operated by Air Freight NZ on behalf of Lifeflight

Young Eagles trip to RNZAF Base Ohakea

Last Saturday, Wellington Aero Club and Kapiti Aero Club Young Eagles groups [plus a bunch of us older people!] were privileged to travel to the RNZAF's base at Ohakea for a visit. Most of us were able to fly in, with just two people having to make the trip by car. I flew three Young Eagles in, in Cessna 172S, ZK-CEO.

The flight up with a bit breezy and lumpy at times, but everyone had fun [and nobody chucked... yay! ha ha]. I have been to Ohakea once previously, but this was via a different route. This first image is my Avplan track of the flight. Look carefully and you'll see the planned arrival vs what we were asked to do. The red line is the plan, the green the actual route.

While there, we were treated really well by the personnel who greeted us and showed us around. After arrival, each aircraft was marshalled into place. I wish I had a picture of this - it's probably the tidiest gaggle of GA aircraft you've ever seen parked up :-)

After arrival, first off was a trip to the tower, followed by a visit to the 42 Squadron hanger, with its Beech King Air B350 aircraft, plus a couple of Harvard airframes [one being restored].

Beechcraft B350, NZ2353, operated by the RNZAF

A retired North American Harvard airframe, NZ1009, this one is for display only

Following this, we headed to 14 Squadron's Beechcraft T-6C Texan II's. These are awesome aircraft [specs here], especially when you think that these are the very first aircraft that many trainees get to fly!

Below are NZ1404 and NZ1407. What's not shown is there was an ejector seat beside NZ1404 that people could sit in [and pull the lever]. It was deactivated of course, so no new holes in the hanger roof! If I heard correctly, pull the lever and 4 seconds later you have a canopy over your head. A tight squeeze for me... I'd have to lose a bit of weight perhaps! Ha ha!

Beechcraft T-6C Texan II, NZ1404, operated by the RNZAF

Beechcraft T-6C Texan II, NZ1407, operated by the RNZAF

Beechcraft T-6C Texan II, NZ1407, operated by the RNZAF

Last up before lunch [which was very nice], was a visit to the Texan II sims. these are fixed based sims, with amazing visuals. I'm a little jealous that I didn't get a chance, but at least the Young Eagles did!

Texan II sim!

That's all for this post - there's another one with helicopters up in the next couple of days... then maybe another surprise after that :-)

For now, a huge thanks to all those that made the day possible and very, very interesting! The RNZAF of course, as well as Young Eagles coordinators at Kapiti Aero Club and Wellington Aero Club. Thanks guys!

Ex-military aircraft on display

The airshow included a small number of ex-military aircraft both in static displays and in the air. This post covers many of them. I'm not putting much info about them in the post... just a bit rushed. Enjoy anyway!

North American Harvard

Douglas DC3

Grumman Avenger!
 

The Devon

Spitfire!

Wings Over Wairarapa: North American Harvard 3*'s

In the post I have a few photos of the North American Harvard 3* aircraft at the air show. I guess these are not my favourite airshow aircraft [I like the jets more], but they still put on a good show. What follows are just a few representative photos from those that I took.

Smoke on!

 Disappearing into the smoke of the leading aircraft

Formation of Harvards and Yak52's

Wings Over Wairarapa: Old and not as old

Here are a few photos I didn't have a better space for :-)

I did not get many photos of the WWI era aircraft this time around. A combination of being busy and in the wrong position to get photos was quite limiting, but such is life. In fact just about the only photo worth publishing follows:

Three WWI era biplanes

Nord 1002/ Messerschmitt BF 104, ZK-WFI

Lineup of North American Harvard 3*'s

Avro 652A Anson Mk 1, ZK-RRA

Wings Over Wairarapa: Cool Piston Fighters

This posts contains a few of the really cool piston-engined fighters from WWII. I know that the term "cool" is rather subjective but I think you will agree with me.

Supermarine Spitfire Mk.IX, ZK-SPI

Supermarine Spitfire TR IX, ZK-WDQ

Yakolev Yak-3M, ZK-VVS

Goodyear FG-1D Corsair, ZK-COR

North American P51D, ZK-TAF

Grumman TBM-3E Avenger, ZK-TBE, NZ2518

Grumman TBM-3E Avenger, ZK-TBE/ NZ2518

Wings Over Wairarapa: Intro post

Yesterday was spent at the biennial Wings Over Wairarapa airshow, held at Masterton airport [ICAO code: NZMS].

As usual it was extremely hot [up to 30 deg Celsius according to the official Metservice website] which is something I am definitely not cut out for, but there was still plenty of interesting stuff happening. The main purpose of the visit was to assist at the Wellington Aero Club stand where we had one of our aircraft on display and were giving out a bit of info about the Club.

While I remember, WAC does have a new website. This provides for online purchases of trial flights, so if you're in Wellington, NZ and interested in your first flight lesson, you can order one now or phone or visit us for more info. T's & C's apply [including of course, you'll need to fly from Wellington International Airport!].

Anyway, back to the airshow! As usual, there was a good mix of civil, ex-military and current military aircraft as well as the usual ground-based activities. The following series of posts wil cover it off in more detail, but here are a few highlights.

First up is the WAC stand with a couple of Club members chatting with a potential customer [Sorry Amy... had to get at least one of these in!]

North American Harvard 3* as part of a race... more photos in a later post.

de Havilland DH112 Venom, ZK-RVM

British Aerospace Jetstream J32, ZK-LFW, operated by Lifeflight as an Air Ambulance

Inside of ZK-LFW

Bell UH-1H, NZ3807, of the RNZAF. This will be the last year that these helicopters are displayed as they are to be retired in a couple of months. The RNZAF is replacing them with the following...

NATO Helicopter Industries NH90, NZ3301, the last helicopter in the RNZAF inventory [alongside the A109 LUH]

What airshow would be complete without some pyrotechnics to end it all? Very few, I would suspect :-)

Lastly, you can get a full lists of Wings Over Wairarapa 2015 posts by clicking here. The results of this search will increase as I add more posts over the next few days!

Brussels Air Museum - Jet fighters

No aviation museum with a military flavour would be complete without some jet fighters. Here are just a few of the jet fighters at the Brussels Air Museum!

Top to bottom are:

Dassault M.D. 450 Ouragan [yes, I also thought this was a MiG at first glance...]
North American F86F Sabre
Dassault Mirage 5
McDonnell-Douglas F4 Phantom II
General Dynamics F16