RNZAF 75th Airshow: Yaks, Harvards and a Trojan

Yakolev Yak 52's, North American Harvard's and Trojan are common sights are airshows around the country.  The New Plymouth-based Yakrobats and the Roaring 40's Harvard teams always put on a good display [even if I am a bit over the noise of the Harvards!].

The Trojan, ZK-JGS, is one of my favourite warbird aircraft - a large aircraft, tricycle under-carriage and an awesome sound. It really "looks the business" :-)

First two pictures are of the Yaks, next the Harvards and finally the Trojan.

Wellington Aero Club Open Day 2010 #4: North American T28C Trojan

OK, I was only going to put up a couple of posts this evening, followed by some more tommorrow... I obviously have little self-control :-)

In this post is a North American T28C Trojan...! The aircraft uses callsign "Trojan 63" and is registered ZK-JGS.

This is an impressive aircraft! While only a 2-seater it is a large aircraft with a big engine and an impressive sound. The pilot [sorry - didn't get his name] was showing people in and around gthe aircraft. The pictures include a cockpit shot I toook while sitting in it, followed by one where I was standing along the wing [yay!].

The final shot is of the departure.

One thing that struck me was the logical layout of the panel and other systems. It almost looked "familiar", even through I had never been in this cockpit before.

Wellington Aero Club Open Day 2010 #1: Preview

The Wellington Aero Club's annual Open Day for 2010 has come and gone, and as expected it, was an absolutely stunning day, and complete with a couple of surprises.

We had a wide variety of aircraft, from our basic trainers through to gyrocopters, helicopters and some pretty flash warbirds! Last, but certainly not least, the Club annouced the winners of the Flying Scholarship [including an award of $5000 worth of flight training!]. My intention is to put together a series of posts, mostly concentrating on one or two aircraft types at a time.

I won't give everything away just yet :-), but here are a few sample pictures of the visitors. Top to bottom are:

Cessna 208, ZK-TZR, registered to Sounds Air
Pacific Aerospace CT4/E, NZ1991, registered to the RNZAF
Airport Fire, fire engine and rescue boat
North American T28C Trojan, ZK-JGS ["Trojan 63"], of the Trojan 63 Syndicate
Consolidated Vultee PBY-5A Catalina, ZK-PBY, registered to the Catalina Company

Ohakea Open Day # 11: Ex-Military Piston/Rotary

Further to my last post, there were also a good range of other ex-military aircraft on display. Being more plentiful than the jets, they always take up a sizable portion of the display time, and never seem to disappoint. Unfortunately, I was somewhat distracted with some of the other [ground] activities and so did not manage to get as many display pictures as I would have liked to. The DC3 was also doing scenic rides on the day.
Top to bottom are:
DH82a Tiger Moth
Yak52
'Yakrobat' formation display team
Harvard
P40
Corsair
Trojan [x2]
DC3 Dakota [x2]

Ohakea Open Day # 5: Apron: Civilian Aircraft

Continuing with my walk on the apron, here are some of the civilian aircraft on the apron. As you'll see, most of these are ex-military types, several of which have been operated by the RNZAF in years gone by. It took a while but we managed to drag ourselves into the public area in about 30 minutes [and well before the displays started] :-)

Top to bottom they are: Thunder Mustang, Yak 52, Harvard, Harvard Flightline, Hughes 369, Dragonfly/ L39 Albatross/ Vampire, L39 Albatross, P40/ P40/ Corsair/ Trojan, BF108 Taifun