Over the fence at Ohakea

[furyfb11]

Whilst sorting out photographs for my Aussie Skyhawks and Triad 84 threads I got to thinking that over the years I have spent quite a lot of time leaning on the fence taking photographs at Ohakea. So I thought I might share some of them.No apologies for quality,many were taken when I was pretty young with poor quality cameras.

[furyfb11]

[/img]During the late sixties and seventys you could always expect to see Dakotas










Andovers replaced the Daks in 1977















And of course the stars during the seventies and eighties were the Skyhawks.









Plenty more to come

[kiwiscanfly]

some great shots! keep it up

[phil]

Great shots. Interesting zap on the tail of the blunty, looks like a 5 sqn seagull?

Out of interest, you wont be able to lean over the fence at the layby any more, it will be inside the new main gate and so not accessible by the public.

[furyfb11]

bugger

[davekiwi]

Mar 23, 2010 16:47:44 GMT 12 phil said:

Great shots. Interesting zap on the tail of the blunty, looks like a 5 sqn seagull?.

It is indeed. 5 SQN "were" responsible, or at least they were when I was mech in '84, for looking after the any visiting Blunties .. so not beyond the realms it got tagged. After all its nothing really more than a "P3 APU on wheels" ;D

[skyhawkdon]

Great photos David. That is a nice shot of NZ6253. It was lost in 1981 and the pilot John Dick killed. Any idea what year that photo would have been taken?

Got any more??

[Dave Homewood]

That is a superb collection of photos David, and this is a great thread. The highlights for me are the gorgeous photos of the Dakotas, especially the one in colour, and the No. 5 Squadron Strikemaster.

[kiwiscanfly]

NZ6253 was the A4k lost in Australia am i right?? a total of 4 A4K's were lost i belive real shame. The middle shot of the aircraft with the registration NZ1819, what it is?? i have never seen this aircraft before, looks slightly odd

[Dave Homewood]

NZ6253 crashed in the Ruahine Ranges near Taihape. You are thinking of NZ6256 which was lost off the coast of Australia, thankfully without the loss of the pilot, who is a member of this forum.

NZ1819 is a de Havilland Devon. They replaced the Avro Ansons and Airspeed Oxfords in the 1950's and flew in the RNZAF in the training and VIP roles till 1981. They were in turn replaced by the Friendship and Cessna Golden Eagle. There are lots of them still around NZ in preservation, in places like the Air Force Museum of New Zealand, Classic Flyers in Tauranga, etc, and some even still flying on the airshow circuit.

[sqwark2k]

Isn't the 5 Sqn bird an albatross?

[furyfb11]

Mar 23, 2010 18:52:09 GMT 12 skyhawkdon said:

Great photos David. That is a nice shot of NZ6253. It was lost in 1981 and the pilot John Dick killed. Any idea what year that photo would have been taken?

Got any more??

Thanks Don. I quite like this one too,taken a couple of seconds later. The date was 17/7/78.

[furyfb11]

A few more Skyhawk shots taken October 1984











On the 19th October 1966 President Lyndon Johnson arrived at Ohakea. Support aircraft included these two C141A Starlifters



and this HC-130P Hercules. Air Force One a VC137 can just be seen behind the white van.



Here is a Comet C4 of RAF Air Support Command taken 15/2/71

[beagle]

I see that HC130P had been in Aussie before visiting here with that kangaroo zapping on it

[aviator]

onderful photos, thanks for posting them, from one who there at the time and before

[phil]

Mar 24, 2010 8:28:36 GMT 12 sqwark2k said:

Isn't the 5 Sqn bird an albatross?

Possibly if you are on 5 SQN it is.

If you are on another squadron, it's a seagull...

[phil]

Mar 24, 2010 0:22:09 GMT 12 kiwiscanfly said:

NZ6253 was the A4k lost in Australia am i right?? a total of 4 A4K's were lost i belive real shame. The middle shot of the aircraft with the registration NZ1819, what it is?? i have never seen this aircraft before, looks slightly odd

A few more than four:

03, 07, 08, 10, 11, 53, 56.

[corsair67]

Great shots there from the good old days. Thank you for posting them, Mr Fury.

I think your photos of NZ6253 are about the only other ones I have seen, apart from the one in Brendon Deere's Military Wings Vol 1.

Out of interest, you wont be able to lean over the fence at the layby any more, it will be inside the new main gate and so not accessible by the public.

Not that there's anything interesting to see at Ohakea anymore........

[phil]

There will be next week.

[Dave Homewood]

The Spitfire, Harvard and Tiger Moth are pretty interesting Craig.