Vampire Month - WONZ 263: Tommy Thompson
Nov 4, 2022 13:12:02 GMT 12
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Post by Dave Homewood on Nov 4, 2022 13:12:02 GMT 12
November 2022 is "Vampire Month" on The Wings Over New Zealand Show. We are celebrating the de Havilland Vampire jet fighter-bomber in New Zealand service, fifty years to the month after it was retired. The first Vampire Month episode is WONZ 263: Tommy Thompson.
"Tommy" was one of the original RNZAF Vampire pilots and was the first postwar-trained pilot to fly the type in New Zealand. Following his conversion training and operational work up at Ohakea, Tommy left with No. 14 Squadron as one of the first pilots to deploy to the Eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus. He talks about life on the island, doing the Coronation tour of Africa in Operation Long Trek Two, exercises with other nations over Malta, etc.
Tommy also talks about incidents in Africa, Cyprus and New Zealand, including his baling out of a Vampire following an aerial collision.
cambridgeairforce.org.nz/WONZShow/2022/11/wonz-263-vampire-month-tommy-thompson/
"Tommy" was one of the original RNZAF Vampire pilots and was the first postwar-trained pilot to fly the type in New Zealand. Following his conversion training and operational work up at Ohakea, Tommy left with No. 14 Squadron as one of the first pilots to deploy to the Eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus. He talks about life on the island, doing the Coronation tour of Africa in Operation Long Trek Two, exercises with other nations over Malta, etc.
Tommy also talks about incidents in Africa, Cyprus and New Zealand, including his baling out of a Vampire following an aerial collision.
cambridgeairforce.org.nz/WONZShow/2022/11/wonz-263-vampire-month-tommy-thompson/
