Hiya all, its been a while since i posted anything, but its Warbirds Over Wanaka time again down here in NZ, and this year is a bit special, star of the show is the Hispano Buchon of ARCO in the UK which like most of the survivors was a star in the classic movie the Battle of Britain, this 109 is in the colors it wore in the movie, and is amazingly well flown by owner John Romain.The other cool thing this year is the participation in the flying display of 4 different airforces, The Royal New Zealand Airforce have their segment, showing off their new NH-90 & Augusta A109 helicopters, new Beech T-6 Texan II's and our venerable C-130H. Cool fact, our first 3 C-130H's delivered in 1965 were the first 3 off the Lockheed production line, and 51 years later are still in service and not expected to retire until into the 2020's.
Also returning is the Royal Australian Airforce with their Hawk 127 trainers. The French Airforce return with their CASA CN-235 for the second show in a row, but this time it is being displayed. The 4th Air Force is the USAF with a C-17 from the 535th Airlift Squadron at Hickam Field in Hawaii, unfortunately the C-17 cant land at Wanaka, not due to the length of the runway, there is plenty there for a Globie, but the runway wouldnt handle the weight of the C-17.
On the warbird front, we have a P-40 based here in NZ that has live .50cal guns, and live fires are performed with all 6 50's loaded with blanks, and the worlds only airworth Avron Anson Maritime Patrol Bomber/Trainer flying, and dropping bombs from its bomb bays....
Show day one was a big day, with some waiting in the queue to get into the show for over 3hrs, tomorrow is the final show day, and another big crowd expected.
Some pics will follow, just got to sort through the 3000 odd pics from today and yesterday.
Comment