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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Apr 1, 2014 9:19:51 GMT 12
Friday 16th, Saturday 17th, Sunday 18th January 2015. Tickets are now on sale and they are offering a %15 discount on ALL tickets (including Gold Passes) purchased before 1st September. • Wings Over Wairarapa 2015 - TicketsPlus they are having the usual draw for two free Wings Over Wairarapa Gold Passes at the upcoming Warbirds Over Wanaka. |
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Post by machpants on Apr 1, 2014 13:32:01 GMT 12
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Post by Dave Homewood on Apr 1, 2014 16:14:28 GMT 12
And a P-40 in RNZAF colours!  |
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Post by ZacYates on Apr 1, 2014 17:06:54 GMT 12
Plus a Mosquito?
I'm looking forward to seeing the Pearce replica fly, will have to come down now.
EDIT - hang on, it's April 1 today...
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Post by Mustang51 on Apr 3, 2014 10:21:30 GMT 12
Machpants, technically sopeaking, I think that there was an F.15 at the last Wings........I believe it was a model that ended up in the grass on the southern side of the main runway.... perhaps it was an F.16...
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Post by machpants on Apr 3, 2014 16:54:40 GMT 12
Haha technically speaking a model is not an F15 no matter what it looks like!
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Post by thebrads on Apr 3, 2014 18:42:50 GMT 12
Re F-15 or F-16, It was neither, it was this:   |
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Post by machpants on Apr 4, 2014 18:39:01 GMT 12
Aha, a Blah Jet. So known on the Tornado from all the old (ex-toom) crews "When I was on the Phantom blah blah blah" "Well a Phantom can do this blah blah blah" And a Tiger Tiger 410 OCU CF-18, tho AFAIK they are Cougars, not Tigers? Very confusing  EDIT: ah a bit of Googling says this was a North American Tiger Meet (which covered all big cats)! Not a proper NATO Tiger meet "Hard to be Humble" |
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Apr 9, 2014 17:45:36 GMT 12
Dambusters pilot at Wings Over WairarapaThe Dominion Post | 5:29PM - Wednesday, 09 April 2014THE last surviving pilot from the famous Dambusters raid on Germany during World War II will help launch the next edition of a popular air show tonight.
Former Lancaster pilot and squadron leader John "Les" Munro, 95, of Tauranga, is the last pilot alive from the dangerous bouncing bomb attacks on German dam walls, immortalised in 1955 film The Dam Busters.
Alongside Positively Wellington Tourism chief executive David Perks, he will speak to about 100 businesspeople at the launch of the 2015 Wings Over Wairarapa event at the Copthorne Hotel and Resort in Masterton tonight.
Munro, who went to England last year to take part in 70th anniversary celebrations of the raid, was enlisted as a technical adviser on an upcoming Peter Jackson remake of the 1955 film.
A biennial event since 1999, Wings Over Wairarapa will be held at Masterton's Hood Aerodrome over Wellington Anniversary weekend next January, with the theme "Experience 100 years of aviation".
It will feature vintage aircraft from World War I and World War II and flying displays.
Highlights of the 2013 event, which attracted more than 24,000 people, included a rare de Havilland Mosquito fighter bomber, a World War I biplane, the DH5, and a DH Vampire jet.
Next year's show would have particular interest since 2015 is the 100th anniversary of New Zealand's participation in the Gallipoli campaign, Wings community trust chairman Bob Francis said.
Wings manager Jenny Gasson said tonight's launch would focus on the benefit to Wairarapa businesses from getting involved in the show.
Regional tourism organisation Destination Wairarapa's credit-card data showed an 8.2 percent increase in spending by visitors from around the country and overseas during last year's event, she said.www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wairarapa/9922338/Dambusters-pilot-at-Wings-Over-Wairarapa
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Post by machpants on Apr 9, 2014 18:50:31 GMT 12
I didn't get an invite  Maybe I should gate crash  |
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Apr 9, 2014 19:26:22 GMT 12
I gatecrashed the "after" party for airshow workers following the Sunday at last year's Wings Over Wairarapa 2013.
Tom Williams was giving me a couple of side-ways glances (we know each other) because he would have known I wasn't meant to be there.
However, I ran into him in the street a couple of weeks later and we were chatting about this & that; and he never brought up me being at that party, so I guess he wasn't too worried about it.
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Post by machpants on Apr 9, 2014 20:12:37 GMT 12
Gatecrashing parties is a time honoured aircrew tradition. I think our best blag was not a party as such, but getting into the Aerospatiale chalet at Farnborough. The wine and canapes were exquisite. EDIT: and I wasn't at the airshow in an official capacity. I was there with a buddy on leave from IOT |
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Apr 11, 2014 14:32:06 GMT 12
from the Wairarapa Times-Age....Final mission for dambuster heroBy ANDREW BONALLACK | 6:58AM - Friday, April 11, 2014 DAMBUSTER: Les Munro, pictured here in 1943, flew 57 bombing sorties over Europe during
World War II and put his survival down to “Lady Luck”.IT'S the last official speech from the last ‘Dambuster’ pilot.
Squadron leader Les Munro is tall, robust and authoritative, and commands an attentive audience, even at age 95.
The former King Country farmer, now living in Tauranga with his long-time partner Christine Ross, had been coaxed to Masterton as guest speaker for the official launch of Wings over Wairarapa 2015 at the Copthorne Hotel and Resort Solway Park on Wednesday night.
Mr Munro, who flew in the Dambusters mission in World War 2, said his speech in support of Wings over Wairarapa will be his swansong after years of official engagements and public speaking. As Ms Ross put it: "he's 95 — how long do you want him to go on for?"
But Mr Munro easily strode to the stage and, armed with a laser pointer and a PowerPoint presentation, he reminded the audience of around 100 people that 617 squadron was notable for more than just the 1943 Dambusters mission, which he flew at age 25.
"The dam raid seems to have captured the imagination of authors around the world — God knows how many books have been published," he said.
"But there's insufficient recognition for other operations carried out by 617 squadron."
He said the squadron's involvement in the sinking of the German battleship Tirpitz in 1944 was "a classic example ... of endurance and determination".
But in his opinion Operation Taxable, a series of feints by numerous bombers across the Channel a day before D-Day, was the most important mission the squadron carried out.
"Not because of bad weather, not because of the risk of enemy action, and not measured by any visible result."
"But very exacting requirements in navigation and flying."
After his speech, Mr Munro told the Times-Age he had been involved in public speaking for many years, and admitted the demands on his time with engagements and autograph hunters had become "rather stressful". Wings over Wairarapa airshow director Tom Williams asked him out of "retirement" to lend his name to the official launch.
"He's been very good, flown me to each of the airshows — I felt indebted to him," said Mr Munro.
He attended the 2013 Wings over Wairarapa, which included a guest seat in the cockpit of a De Havilland Mosquito fighter bomber as it flew a demonstration flight to Wellington.
Ask whether he would attend Wings over Wairarapa 2015, he said, "I may well be — depends on my health".
The airshow has a budget of just over $1m, said Wings over Wairarapa trustee Bob Francis.
The Trust is organising sponsorship, corporate tables, stall sites and ticket sales.
The three-day show over Wellington Anniversary Weekend attracted over 24,000 people and an estimated credit card spend of $4.6m, says Destination Wairarapa.
Mr Francis said they are looking at making it a four-day event next year.
• For more information see Wings.org.nz.www.nzherald.co.nz/wairarapa-times-age/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503414&objectid=11236316
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Post by machpants on Apr 11, 2014 16:20:29 GMT 12
When I read the title in Stuff, my heart dropped! Not an ideal title when talking about a 95 year old gentleman.
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Jul 7, 2014 13:32:06 GMT 12
from The Dominion Post....Rewriting aviation historyBy JESSY EDWARDS | 5:00AM - Monday, 07 July 2014 RESTORED CRAFT: Wings Over Wairarapa airshow director Tom Williams shows off the Chipmunk
aircraft at the George Hood Aerodrome in Masterton.HISTORIANS might need to rewrite the books if a reproduction of a Kiwi-built 1903 plane achieves lift-off at the 2015 Wings Over Wairarapa airshow.
Airshow director Tom Williams has confirmed the appearance of an exact reproduction of the plane that South Canterbury farmer Richard Pearse built, and possibly flew, in March 1903 — eight months before the Wright brothers.
"If it does fly then it lends credibility to the story that Richard Pearse may well have been the first person to fly in the world," he said.
The plane is currently being built and has not yet been tested.
"The big question is will it fly, and my view is it will," Williams said.
Wings Over Wairarapa recently won gold at the Wellington Gold Awards in the Event, Hospitality and Visitor Facilities section, and is continuing to build its brand with the next show featuring planes from 100 years ago, and into the future.
"Representing the modern era we're hoping to have a full scale rocket that does work, and we're hoping to have the Martin Jetpack ... and then we go into the drones effectively — there will be a significant display of those things here," Williams said.
He said most of the drones are small vehicles that carry cameras and have "enormous application in rural New Zealand".
"For example farmers use them to monitor their stock, grass growth, use them for security looking for poachers and things like that," he said.
Wings Over Wairarapa kicked off in 1999 after Williams had a suggestion from Tim Wallis, a friend and founder of Warbirds Over Wanaka, as they sat on a plane to Korea.
"He said, ‘Tom, you should run an airshow’, and so we [the New Zealand Sport and Vintage Aviation Society] ran our first one in 1999."
"The vision was to get a few dollars so we could preserve our vintage aviation and fly some of our old aeroplanes, but it's grown exponentially," Williams said.
Nine thousand people showed up to that first event, which had a budget of just $12,000.
"The entrance fee then was only about $10 so it wasn't a massive capital outlay, and it's grown from that time up to where we are today — the flying budget has gone from $12,000 to $400,000," Williams said.
The event attracted crowds of more than 24,000 over Wellington Anniversary weekend last year, making just over $100,000 profit.
Event organiser Jenny Gasson said Wings Over Wairarapa normally makes just over their budget of $1 million, with two-thirds of revenues from ticket sales and the rest from corporate hospitality, merchandise, and a trade show.
"We aren't a profit-making event, that's not our driver, but our driver is to take our profits and put them back into the community," she said.
But the big planes have pulled big spenders to the Wairarapa, with credit card data showing people swiped more than 105,000 times over the 2013 event, spending almost $4.6m, up 8.2 percent from in 2012.• WINGS OVER WAIRARAPAwww.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/10238499/Rewriting-aviation-history
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Jul 7, 2014 13:34:01 GMT 12
Yeah, I know....that old Richard Pearse can-of-worms/myth just got dragged up again.
All I did was to format the article for posting at this group and repost it word-for-word.
I guess either the reporter was showing her ignorance, or else Tom Williams is merely using the Richard Pearse myth to drum up publicity for next January's airshow.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 7, 2014 13:56:47 GMT 12
I wonder what sort of rocket they plan to have there. Sounds interesting.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 10, 2014 22:05:19 GMT 12
Thinking about the replica of the Pearse "aeroplane", even if they can get it to fly it does not prove that Pearse ever flew his one, because I am sure this replica will have an experienced pilot attempting to fly it. Whereas Pearse had never flown before and was not a pilot.
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Post by suthg on Jul 11, 2014 14:04:25 GMT 12
And another major criterion was for it to be a "controlled" flight to differentiate between his flight and that of the Wright bros where I'm not sure he was able to control his direction, but they were.
Sent from my GT-I9300T using proboards
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Post by errolmartyn on Jul 14, 2014 16:19:58 GMT 12
from The Dominion Post....Rewriting aviation historyBy JESSY EDWARDS | 5:00AM - Monday, 07 July 2014RESTORED CRAFT: Wings Over Wairarapa airshow director Tom Williams shows off the Chipmunk
aircraft at the George Hood Aerodrome in Masterton.HISTORIANS might need to rewrite the books if a reproduction of a Kiwi-built 1903 plane achieves lift-off at the 2015 Wings Over Wairarapa airshow.
Airshow director Tom Williams has confirmed the appearance of an exact reproduction of the plane that South Canterbury farmer Richard Pearse built, and possibly flew, in March 1903 — eight months before the Wright brothers.
"If it does fly then it lends credibility to the story that Richard Pearse may well have been the first person to fly in the world," he said.
The plane is currently being built and has not yet been tested.
"The big question is will it fly, and my view is it will," Williams said.
Wings Over Wairarapa recently won gold at the Wellington Gold Awards in the Event, Hospitality and Visitor Facilities section, and is continuing to build its brand with the next show featuring planes from 100 years ago, and into the future.
"Representing the modern era we're hoping to have a full scale rocket that does work, and we're hoping to have the Martin Jetpack ... and then we go into the drones effectively — there will be a significant display of those things here," Williams said.
He said most of the drones are small vehicles that carry cameras and have "enormous application in rural New Zealand".
"For example farmers use them to monitor their stock, grass growth, use them for security looking for poachers and things like that," he said.
Wings Over Wairarapa kicked off in 1999 after Williams had a suggestion from Tim Wallis, a friend and founder of Warbirds Over Wanaka, as they sat on a plane to Korea.
"He said, ‘Tom, you should run an airshow’, and so we [the New Zealand Sport and Vintage Aviation Society] ran our first one in 1999."
"The vision was to get a few dollars so we could preserve our vintage aviation and fly some of our old aeroplanes, but it's grown exponentially," Williams said.
Nine thousand people showed up to that first event, which had a budget of just $12,000.
"The entrance fee then was only about $10 so it wasn't a massive capital outlay, and it's grown from that time up to where we are today — the flying budget has gone from $12,000 to $400,000," Williams said.
The event attracted crowds of more than 24,000 over Wellington Anniversary weekend last year, making just over $100,000 profit.
Event organiser Jenny Gasson said Wings Over Wairarapa normally makes just over their budget of $1 million, with two-thirds of revenues from ticket sales and the rest from corporate hospitality, merchandise, and a trade show.
"We aren't a profit-making event, that's not our driver, but our driver is to take our profits and put them back into the community," she said.
But the big planes have pulled big spenders to the Wairarapa, with credit card data showing people swiped more than 105,000 times over the 2013 event, spending almost $4.6m, up 8.2 percent from in 2012.• WINGS OVER WAIRARAPAwww.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/10238499/Rewriting-aviation-history I sent following Letter to the Editor to the DomPost on Monday 7 July in order to correct the silly statement attributed to Mr Williams. Unfortunately it has not been published, so I present it here for the record if nothing else. Little wonder newspaper circulation is in steady decline these days! Errol Dear Editor, Contrary to the report in your issue of today (Monday), I’m afraid historians will not be rewriting any aviation history to suggest that Richard Pearse was ‘the first person to fly in the world’, even should the ‘exact reproduction’ [sic] of Pearse’s first aeroplane take to the air at the Wings Over Wairarapa air show in 2015. There is no such thing as a replica or ‘exact reproduction’ of Pearse's first aeroplane invention, for the simple reason, his 1906-1907 patent notwithstanding, that no drawings, photographs or detailed technical information of the machine he actually built survives upon which such a creation could be based. Further, Pearse himself stated quite clearly to a Timaru Post reporter who interviewed him on 16 November 1909 that he had done ‘nothing practical’ until 1904. It was six years after the Wright brothers famous flights of December 1903 before Pearse even completed his machine and began trials, all of them unsuccessful. See Chapter Eight of my A Passion For Flight - New Zealand aviation before the Great War: Volume One - Ideas, first flight attempts and the aeronauts 1868-1909 for further details, including the aforementioned 1909 interview with the man himself that had been overlooked by previous Pearse researchers. |
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