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Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 31, 2012 17:05:40 GMT 12
We (John Fallon, his stepson Jared and I) stayed in Sanson last night after the forum meet. We arrived at the Main Gate at Ohakea at about 8.05am and sailed in easily, prepaid tickets scanned and straight into the carpark no issues at all. We seem to have had it planned well it seems.
A superb airshow with lots of aircraft types I have never seen before, and a lot of utterly excellent flying. Thanks to all the RNZAF staff and others who put in such a massive effort to arrange this airshow.
It was sad that Brendon's Spitfire appeared to have an issue, I hope it's not serious. Seeing FIVE HORNETS in one show was amazing, and I was massively impressed by the Texan II. Never knew they were so cool. Great to see jets at Ohakea like the Blunty, Vampire, Hunter, and even some Macchis in the hangar, and a very shiny Skyhawk too.
I loved every minute of it. I must apologise to a few people who apparently tried to phone and text me, it was so noisy I never heard the phone and only got messages later when we left. Traffic out the gate was not as bad as I'd thought it would be either.
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Post by Freighter5910 on Mar 31, 2012 17:09:09 GMT 12
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Post by fyl on Mar 31, 2012 17:18:01 GMT 12
Left the Wairarapa about 6am, got in the gate just after 8am i guess...followed the detour sign into Fagan Rd too, was a small holdup turning into the base, maybe 10-15mins of stop/start...otherwise no issues...
Excellent show...great aircraft, great displays and was a bonus having the NH-90 flying. And of course the Hornets...awesome...the four-ship and especially the single Hornet display...wonderful stuff...wonderful noise....and the Hunter to kick it all off...great display..but a bit short..
Definitely a shame that Brendon's Spitfire couldn't display, was looking forward to that one!!
Heh heh, that skyhawk was VERY VERY shiny....
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Post by spitfire14 on Mar 31, 2012 17:34:27 GMT 12
Did the Avenger fly? How was it seeing her flying at a New Zealand airshow again?
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Post by Deleted on Mar 31, 2012 17:41:10 GMT 12
I was quite excited to finally see a A-4K (kahu) skyhawk with my own eyes, was a little disapointed when it wasn't a kahu one. Anyone tell me the why this one wasn't upgraded? And also where were our hercs???
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Post by phil on Mar 31, 2012 17:46:22 GMT 12
So which Skyhawk did they have there? '57' presumably?
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tc64
Flight Lieutenant
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Post by tc64 on Mar 31, 2012 17:48:35 GMT 12
Left Waipawa (HB) at 7am, should have hit Ohakea at 9am. Reached the Fielding - SH1 intersection just before 9 and then the problems started. Reached Fagan Road at 11.45 & that was jammed, ended up turning around & parking opposite the Fagan road turnoff. Me & my kids are VERY disappointed, we've been waiting for months! BY then I didn't want to get in just to struggle to get out! CRAP traffic control, we ended up missing nearly everything  |
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Post by luke6745 on Mar 31, 2012 18:07:11 GMT 12
So which Skyhawk did they have there? '57' presumably? Yep. It had a very glossy new paint job too. |
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Post by phil on Mar 31, 2012 18:13:47 GMT 12
So which Skyhawk did they have there? '57' presumably? Yep. It had a very glossy new paint job too. About time, it was looking pretty sad last time I saw it after years of sitting out in the weather, first at the Ohakea museum and later being stored in the engine run-up pit. Anyone got any pics? |
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Post by phil on Mar 31, 2012 18:16:25 GMT 12
I was quite excited to finally see a A-4K (kahu) skyhawk with my own eyes, was a little disapointed when it wasn't a kahu one. Anyone tell me the why this one wasn't upgraded? And also where were our hercs??? I hate to break it to you, it's not even a real skyhawk. It's cobbled together from bits, and the vertical stab is fiberglass, the mold for which was taken off another A4. Part of it used to be a blue angels aircraft. And having just ckecked out the pics, it does not appear to be painted in the original Euro 1 colours now either. |
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Hoffy
Pilot Officer
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Post by Hoffy on Mar 31, 2012 18:19:32 GMT 12
Well at least we've finally finished talking about the traffic jams....
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Post by obiwan27 on Mar 31, 2012 18:59:30 GMT 12
Had a call from Baz just before dinner, sounds like he and Teresa had a great time. In the end it appears that a huge amount more people came than were expected. Lessons to be learned no doubt and a great shame for all the families that had travelled out too.
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Post by JW on Mar 31, 2012 19:23:11 GMT 12
The traffic to the airshow was horrible. A lot of people ended up parking their cars and walking to the show. Got into the airshow just after 1pm. Got to see everything that I wanted - the 2 Spitfires and the Avenger. Good to see the NH90 on display also.
A bit disappointed that the RNZAF 757 wasn't on display.
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Post by phil on Mar 31, 2012 19:33:48 GMT 12
That's a bit odd about the 757, it did a great display practice last week, I wonder why it didn't display at the air show.
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Mar 31, 2012 19:33:51 GMT 12
We set out from Wellington at about 6:50am, but a few kms up the road (near Tawa) we discovered we had left the pre-paid carload pass behind. So it was a quick trip back to Northland to pick up the ticket, then we finally left again at about 7:15am. We got caught up in the traffic jam, but were within spitting distance of the entrance onto the air base when the display started. We saw the Hunter display and the two Dakotas from the road, then we made it into the base and had the car parked by about 10:15am. It was a great day, but we got caught in a big traffic jam actually getting off the air base after the airshow, even though we hung around until after 5:00pm. We made it back to Wellington about 7:20pm.
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Post by JW on Mar 31, 2012 19:37:16 GMT 12
I didn't even see the Hunter or Vampire parked anywhere.
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Post by matariki on Mar 31, 2012 19:37:21 GMT 12
757 did display... was a good one too. Just wasn't on static and spent the day part up down the other end.
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Post by JW on Mar 31, 2012 19:42:26 GMT 12
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Post by beagle on Mar 31, 2012 19:46:50 GMT 12
I feel sorry for the families with the young kids who really wanted to be there to see the whole thing but lacked the experience of going to a huge event like this in the middle of nowhere.
Have been to things like this before and you have to pre, organise etc. Either be there the night before and camp or leave real early.
I heard that it is usually 45 min from palmy to OH and people thought it might take say 10 -15 minutes longer. Wake up, 50000 people going to the same place, lots of roads converging into only a few. I would have been parked up at the gate at 6AM.
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Post by obiwan27 on Mar 31, 2012 19:47:57 GMT 12
JW, you just beat me to it ;-)
Great to see and the right move, will not help ease the disappointment for many but here's hoping that a better traffic management plan is in place for next time.
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