Seen at the airshow today

[KiwiZac]

Why does New Zealand have such a strong wabird scene, especially for early biplanes?

As far as Great War aircraft are concerned, three words: Sir Peter Jackson. The Blue Max is one of his favourite movies. He imported the replica Camel (photo six) in the late 1990s/very very early 2000s, which started his collection. He bought up replicas, then big lots of aircraft, photos and memorabilia, from around the world and brought them to NZ. Then he founded a company to build aircraft and engines (the chief pilot and head of TVAL, Gene DeMarco, came over to fly the Camel and stayed. He has a ton of experience at Old Rhinebeck) as well as a model company to produce top-notch 1/32 kits, and has a bunch of his artefacts and aircraft on display at a museum in Blenheim. A friend has created a spreadsheet of the publicly-known aircraft he has and it's massive - dozens of replicas, TVAL reproductions and authentic aircraft like the striped Camel and Avro 504K in my photos. In addition the factory is building 12 different WW1 engine types.

The original warbird scene was kickstarted by the retirement of the RNZAF's Harvards in 1977 and their disposal the following year. A bunch of ex-RNZAF pilots bought about a dozen and that formed the core of the NZ Warbirds Association.

It's a bad country to live in if you were an impressionable child living near an active airport with parents who bought you warbird magazines and airshow videos 

Great videos Zac ! I was scared watching buddy go right in for another spin...I'm sure he knows what he's doing but I'd rather wait a few seconds to make sure she don't spring to life !

You can't hear it on the video so well because of where I was standing, but they have good procedures in place to prevent amputation and decapitation by pretty props. Besides, hand-starting planes is fun! I used to know who to do a Tiger Moth, but I get the feeling that doesn't require so strong a swing.

"Aces High" was good too; again, haven't seen it for a very long time but I vaguely remember the a/c were pretty convincing.

I need to rewatch that. Malcolm McDowell's one of my faves! From memory they used scaled SE.5as, but they still look good.

[KiwiZac]

Just a bump - placeholder really: this weekend the Royal New Zealand Air Force is holding the 2017 Air Tattoo, a big airshow to celebrate the service's 80th anniversary. International visitors including F-15s from Singapore which arrived yesterday, an RAF Airbus Atlas, and a pair of USAF F-16s which will do demos. Very excited! Expect pictures Sunday NZT as I'm going for Saturday only.

[KiwiZac]

A couple of photos from Saturday at the 2017 Air Tattoo at RNZAF Base Ohakea:





















And finally, I couldn't resist taking a selfie with an F-16 at Ohakea.

[Captain Canada]

What a great show Zac ! Many and varied, both in nations and machines !Thanks for the pics.

[zenrat]

Thanks for sharing the pics.  It's all a bit 50 shades of grey though isn't it?
WW1 stuff is much better to look at - colour wise that is.

[DogfighterZen]

Great stuff, thanks! And you sure picked the right one for the selfie, i envy you, sir...

[NARSES2]

Some really nice shots there Zac.

Surprised to see the RAF bird down there though, about as far away from home as it could get. Any farther and it would be coming back !

[kitnut617]

Nice gathering you had Zac, now what are the RCAF doing down there right now ?

[KiwiZac]

Thanks gents! It was a fantastic day and the only issue was one of my own creation: forgetting my sunscreen. I was a very, very sore boy on the way home and yesterday.

As far as the Canuckistanis go, I think they came just to come and be part of the festivities. But, like the Airbus Atlas, the C-130J is in the running to replace our C-130Hs...

zenrat - true, but we don't get much in the way of modern material at our shows so for us it's actually a treat. It's only really been since about 2006 when the Aussies started bringing over F-111s, then Hornets and Hawk 127s, that we've had foreign military attendees. The F-15s, for example, are the first of their kind at a Kiwi show since 1984. And the F-16 was making its New Zealand airshow debut after not having been here since 1984...and what a debut. It was the best jet display I've ever seen. Ear-shattering, condensation-generating, G-pulling amazingness.

[Captain Canada]

Paint some teeth on the intake cover and you guys would look like brothers !

[DogfighterZen]

  LMAO, Captain!

[KiwiZac]

 

[KiwiZac]

Spent Friday-Sunday at Omaka Aerodrome for the biennial Classic Fighters airshow.

[PR19_Kit]

Some wonderful stuff there Zac. 

Do the WWI tanks actually rumble along?

[zenrat]

Looks like a good day out.
Thanks for sharing.