RNZAF 75th Airshow: Arrival and various photos

Yesterday was the Royal New Zealand Air Force's 75th anniversary airshow. Thankfully the weather dawned fine [ok, a bit of low cloud around Wellington, but otherwise perfect], so a plane load of us jumped in the Club's C172, ZK-FLT, for the trip up.

The trip went smoothly, except for the fact that a 50 minute trip turned into about 1 hour 40 minutes with huge hold times outside of Ohakea. The controller was working very very hard, but I guess that there are only so many aircraft you can get in, in such a short period of time [and at least we arrived in plenty of time, and were not driving!].

The airshow itself was good, with plenty of photos in the next few posts. The Australians, Singaporeans, French and Americans turned up, along with a very large contingent of civilian aircraft. More on them later!

For this post, I just have a few taster pictures. Top to bottom are:

Boeing 757-200, NZ7571, RNZAF
Kaman SH2 Seasprite, NZ3603, RNZN
McDonnell Douglas TA4K, NZ6257, RNZAF
Papa 51 Thunder Mustang, ZK-TMG, Kiwi Thunder Group
Boeing 777-319ER, ZK-OKQ, Air New Zealand
Panoramic shot - you'll need to click on this to see it in more detail

Wings Over Wairarapa 2011: Post 9 - Thunder Mustang

One of my favourite aircraft is New Zealand's only Thunder Mustang, ZK-TMG, named Tiger's Blood. It's an awesome machine, and has been used to set a couple of world speed records [click here for details]. They are a nice bunch of guys that fly it also, and Simon did a great job showing this machine off to the crowd.

All the details of the aircraft and the people are on their website [which has been recently upgraded]. Someone mentioned that a syndicate share might be available. I'm not sure if that's true, but a nice thought [anyone want to give me a lot of money?] :-)

The only problem with the aircraft is that it is so darn fast that it is hard to get a decent photo of it flying past! Well, here are the better ones. Enjoy!

Another World Record!

A HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to the Kiwi Thunder Mustang syndicate, and especially to Rob and Chris on another World Record! This time the record involved a trip from Auckland International [NZAA] to Norfolk Island [YPNF] and back in their Thunder Mustang, ZK-TMG.

An awesome job guys!

I hope to have more details in the next few days, and maybe a picture or two :-) In the meantime, check out the official website, http://www.kiwithunder.com/.

Again, congrats!

Auckland Quick Visit #3: Thunder Mustang

Third in this Auckland Quick Visit series, and my second big stop was to catch up with Rob Burns in Kiwi Thunder's hanger at Ardmore. Rob Burns is one of the record setting pilots who set the Auckland to Christchurch speed record in its class last year. I left Auckland about 2.5 years ago, and this has been my first opportunity to get up and personal with this stunning aircraft.

Even after a couple of years flying this aircraft looks immaculate in all respects. In many ways, it could have just come out of the showroom. Obviously, being hangered helps a lot with this, although I imagine that they must also have an attitude of [almost] no expense spared.

Rob allowed me to sit in the cockpit, and this was the first big challenge - how do I get in? It's a snug fit [to say the least], but still very comfortable. I was surprised by the visibility from the front seat [Rob says that the back seat vis is even better]. You'll see from the cockpit shot that everything is well laid out. BTW - that hole at the bottom of the panel is the hole for the GPS.

The second big challenge was to avoid looking stupid when my photo was taken. The helmet didn't help... Well, I got into the cockpit ok :-)

All in all, a very good evening, good drink and great conversation and catchup! Thanks Rob!

Auckland Quick Visit #1: Overview

As noted in my previous entry, Monday was a statutory holiday. In recognition of this :-) I arranged to take the rest of the week off also. A couple of weeks ago, I was speaking with a mate from Auckland ["hi Craig"] and he suggested coming up for a visit, which I did. Don't ya just love cheap airfares?

I also got to catch up with a couple of other friends, and it turned into an aviation holiday in several ways. Below are samplers of the coming photo series. This series will have titles similar to Flight Experience, Thunder Mustang, The Mighty Grumman [and Jase the instructor], and Auckland International. Not bad for 1.5 days in Auckland [with about 8 hours combined at Auckland and Ardmore airports!].

Anyway, here's the intro pictures, with much more to come in the next few days. Apologies for the scary picture of me in the Thunder Mustang [at least I am wearing the helmet!]!

World Record certificate

Back on 22 March 2007 two intrepid pilots set a New Zealand speed record, flying the amazing Thunder Mustang, ZK-TMG, from Auckland to Christchurch in only 1 hour and 36 minutes, for an average speed of 465km/hr. Well done guys! Click here for the official Kiwi Thunder website.

The original newspaper report from the NZ Herald is here....

I received word today from another mate that the certificate proving this feat was presented recently. Here's some photos. Firstly Rob Burns [left] and Chris Bromley and the certificate. Second and third are pictures of the engine and the panel. Thanks to Craig Pearce for the photos.

Ohakea Open Day # 14: Leftovers

"Leftovers" may be the title of the post, but "leftovers" can often taste good when reheated the next day :-)

These are a few pictures that remain from the series of pictures that I took on the Ohakea Open Day. These pictures include a Titan T-51 Mustang replica [actually a microlight category aircraft], one of the Kiwi Blue parachute display team, the Hughes 369 helicopter which performed an awesome display early in the day, the Kiwi Thunder Mustang taking off prior to its display, an Army LAV [Light Armoured Vehicle, not shorthand for Lavatory...!], and two more pictures of the Australian F-111 performing two passes, one with the wing in the swung back position.

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

Tigers Blood!

Tigers Blood is a stunning example of a Thunder Mustang, a 3/4 scale replica of the original P51Mustang! This one is owned by a syndicate based in Auckland and is seen here at the Wings Over Wairarapa airshow last Saturday.

I would have like more photos of it flying, but I only got one clean and crisp one - the rest were blurred.

I strongly suggest you visit the syndicate's official website (www.kiwithunder.com) for all the details on this awesome machine.

A couple more WOW pictures!

Gavin has very kindly sent me more of his pictures from Warbirds Over Wanaka. The first is the Corsair and the second is the Thunder Mustang. Thanks for the pictures!

Can we do it? Yes ICANN!

OK, it's a corny title...

I managed to spend a couple of morning at the recent ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) conference in Wellington this past week. Nothing too exciting as I was manning a display rather than attending presentations and so forth...

One very good point however was that Domainz [www.domainz.net.nz] were giving away free ".geek.nz" urls - free for a year anyway.

Needless to say, I picked up a couple. Now when you enter www.dnc.geek.nz or www.nzl.geek.nz [nz.geek.nz was taken...] you will automatically come to this site. Nice! I'll see over the next year whether I want to keep the domains or give them up.

I've got a plans for some cool things to do with them, but we will see what eventuates. Any suggestions are most welcome!

Actually, I'm also looking for a cheap host for the web sites - leave a comment if you have any ideas.

Anyway, a post would not be decent without a picture. This one is of New Zealand's AWESOME Thunder Mustang. Check out the official web site at www.kiwithunder.com. Well worth a look!