Obiwan27's 'Mission Impossible' Ohakea, 1984

[obiwan27]

It was 1984 and I was on my Cadet Force commissioning course at Ohakea. I had taken my camera with me and one day plucked up the courage to ask the boss if I could be excused during lunch so that I could wander into one of the hangars and take a few photos.
I'm not sure which hangar I wandered into but there was no-one around (I guess at lunch) to ask for permission to take a few pics so I felt decidedly secret agent as I clicked off a few shots for my album.
I had visions of being discovered as 'unauthorised personnel' and frog-marched off by MPs. However I was in and out of the hangar in about 5 minutes. A couple of the pics have been damaged in the album but are still viewable. Enjoy. ;D

[Ykato]

Nice Photo's Obiwan - Thanks for sharing - V Cool - Cheers

[kiwiscanfly]

that old blue paint scheme for the skyhawks is so ugly....... but apart from that great bits of history there. cheers

[oldnavy]

Great photo's Obiwan!

Funnily, I loved the look of and flying the light green and grey aeroplanes. (876 was a good jet!) So much more effective camouflage than the darker schemes, outside a mile or so it was almost impossible to see. To my eyes, the lighter shades are prettier.

Of course the darker, old fashioned camouflages were optimised for ground attack and less than ideal in any environment other than low level over jungle. They used to stick out like sore thumbs in combat (training). Everything turns black or white at 1.5 miles, and black is easier to see especially if the object was already dark...

[Dave Homewood]

Nice shots Ken, I liked that ex-RAN scheme on the RNZAF Skyhawks, it looks good on them.

[mumbles]

Oct 1, 2010 14:20:30 GMT 12 oldnavy said:

Great photo's Obiwan!

Funnily, I loved the look of and flying the light green and grey aeroplanes. (876 was a good jet!) So much more effective camouflage than the darker schemes, outside a mile or so it was almost impossible to see. To my eyes, the lighter shades are prettier.

Of course the darker, old fashioned camouflages were optimised for ground attack and less than ideal in any environment other than low level over jungle. They used to stick out like sore thumbs in combat (training). Everything turns black or white at 1.5 miles, and black is easier to see especially if the object was already dark...

Me too, I quite liked the RAN disruptive greys as an alternative to SEA, Euro or whatever the final green scheme was called. I have a feeling it has been answered before elsewhere on the forum before, but I was always curious as to why all-over green was seen as optimal; I would have thought a grey shade would have had more tactical utility in every respect, especially after watching grey FA-18's disappear on a clear bright sunny day at not very long distances earlier this year at Ohakea.

Last time I went through the GTW at Woodbourne I noticed a complete Skyhawk windscreen with RAN grey framing sitting in a corner by the way ( c. 2005-7 or so). There were still a couple of 300 gal tanks lying around at Ohakea in those colours as well around the same time (first seen in the AMS hangar when 'NZ6257' was being put together, last seen on the grounds of the base museum before it was disestablished).