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Post by vgp on Jan 3, 2009 7:32:17 GMT 12
Air Force missing all the action 4:00AM Saturday Jan 03, 2009 When pilot David Turnock buzzed the Sky Tower on election night 2005, he proved the Royal New Zealand Air Force impotent. In many other countries Turnock - who was later sentenced to 27 months in prison - would likely have been shepherded out to sea, then promptly shot down. Instead, a nation waited with bated breath until the 33-year-old ditched his plane close to the shore of a city beach. The decommissioning of the Air Force's combat wing in 2001 meant frustrated fighter pilots could have done little more than poke broom handles at Turnock's commandeered Piper Cherokee from the windows of the Orbit restaurant. One can only wonder how the Air Force might cope with a larger, more hostile opponent. Herald inquiries have revealed private collections of military aircraft with firepower potential sufficient to leave the RNZAF a smoking ruin on the runway. There is already one airworthy World War II era Mk9 Spitfire in Auckland, and another one in Feilding that will "probably fly" soon, says Warbirds over Wanaka Community Trust chairman Garth Hogan. With its Rolls-Royce Merlin engine producing 1575hp for a top speed of 642km/h, the Spitfire could be on the spot and firing its two 20mm canons and double 12.7mm machine guns in no time at all. Both Spitfires would be ably backed up by two P51 Mustangs - top speed 710km/h - and a World War II Hurricane fighter capable of hitting 506km/h with the wind behind it. Panic stricken RNZAF pilots would barely have begun to peel the shrink wrap from the for-sale Skyhawk, s than the Wanaka-based Russian-designed Yakolev "Yak3" would appear out of the sun, or the two Auckland- and Masterton-housed P40 Kittyhawks come thundering out of nowhere. The ex-RNZAF Corsair fighter that lives in Masterton could provide a 667km/h softening up of the enemy, while awaiting the appearance of the Korean War-era Lavochkin LA9, joining the fray from Wanaka. Private collections boast both combat and support aircraft from all the main wars of last century. There's everything from triplanes to the legendary "Huey" helicopters made famous in Vietnam War movies. Aspiring fighter pilots could choose from a wide range of training craft, while anyone who has watched an episode of M*A*S*H will be familiar with the Bell 47 helicopter - a machine still in service with the RNZAF. www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10550312 |
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Post by Bruce on Jan 3, 2009 8:54:24 GMT 12
My thoughts entirely - the piece is no more than a space filler and is a shocking piece of journalistic trash.
If they wanted an armed response to the incident, I'm sure that the Eagle Police Helicopter could have picked up an Armed Offenders Squad sharpshooter and dealt with the issue far more simply than scrambling jet fighters (or Spitfires!)
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Post by vgp on Jan 3, 2009 10:03:07 GMT 12
TEMP reporter Hired to cover the Stat Holiday period maybe?
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jan 3, 2009 10:13:08 GMT 12
What was the Herald thinking by publishing this nonsense? Qantas should take back the award they gave them for Best News Website.
The RNZAF would never have escorted the aircraft out to sea and then shot it down even if they had the latest F-16's.
And implying that the New Zealand Warbrds might want to attack the RNZAf is ludicrous. Most of the pilots who fly those warbirds are ex-RNZAF themselves, and some are even current RNZAF.
What a stupid, stupid article.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jan 3, 2009 10:16:13 GMT 12
I'll also add that this reporter's fixation that a Skyhawk or a Spitfire should have been on the spot during the Skytower incident would in fact cause much more of a hazard to the public than leaving the aircraft alone. Imagine the sight of several Skyhawks buzzing a Cessna over Auckland city, it's bound to end in tragedy.
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Post by Kenny on Jan 3, 2009 10:59:52 GMT 12
What a idiot. Do any of the aircraft he even mentioned have working weaponry?? Not to mention ammo costs and im sure if anyone even attempted to plan this the police would probably know about it  So he mentions that the RNZAF still use the Bell 47' Lawnmower but hes forgotten also they have Hueys... so not only private collectors have them.. i mean c'mon we had all 14 of em in the air last month. The worst part of it all.. Is that someone out there will read that article and take it all in, believing every word  |
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Post by 30sqnatc on Jan 3, 2009 11:40:07 GMT 12
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Post by phil82 on Jan 4, 2009 9:51:29 GMT 12
To The Editor : Aunty Herald
I fully appreciate that, at this time of the year, there is a need to publish complete and utter nonsense in order to fill the pages of newspapers, more so perhaps in the case of the Herald which is of course aimed largely at Aucklanders, but whoever wrote the piece "Air Force missing all the action "Saturday Jan 03, 2008 should be banished to the comics for which he usually writes. On matters aviation you need some level of expertise, and that needs to be somewhat more than that generated by someone who probably thinks Biggles was real, and is alive and well and living in Ponsonby, along with Elvis and the Dalai Llama. You cannot impart knowledge of a subject without actually knowing something about it. It is ludicrous to suggest that the RNZAF, or any air Force for that matter, has pilots sitting 24/7 in a fully armed aircraft just waiting to be ordered to go and shoot down some nutter flying around the Skytower. It didn't happen when the twin towers were attacked,with the world's largest air force available, and wouldn't happen in any other country. In addition to that fact, this particular nutter had knowingly breached a number of regulations already in order to be where he was, so he was hardly likely to follow any instruction from an RNZAF pilot to, "please follow me out to sea so I can shoot you down". The references to the number of Warbirds in New Zealand, while very much tongue in cheek is of course utter nonsense. Despite "Herald enquiries". It is illegal in this country for such aircraft to be armed. Besides, you'd never get the [mostly] former air force pilots out of the bar at that time of night.
Humorous fill-ins aside, [and I imagine whoever on the editorial staff accepted that last piece sincerely hoped that it was], you might be better trying to contribute more light than heat to the subject of RNZAF teeth being pulled by Helen Clark for no real reason other than she was a protestor when the Skyhawks arrived and never lost that will to see them removed, thus contributing enormously to the technical expertise of other air forces, to which so many of our people went. Her arguments were facile and based entirely on the assumption that insurance bought and paid for had never been used and therefore was no longer required. I've never had a fire in my house either, but I'm not planning on cancelling my insurance anytime soon. That is the sole preserve of politicians who, apparently, can see into the future.
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Post by nige on Jan 4, 2009 10:21:19 GMT 12
If nutter boy had flown into the Sky tower, even with 75 SQN still active there would have been no time to get every one in from home, prep the ammunition and get it to the hangar, dispatch the aircraft and fly to Auckland. Thinking back to the 70's when I heard this (correctly or incorrectly?), didn't at least one A-4 be kept on 24 hour standby? If so, was it fully armed (20mm canon & sidewinders?) and ready to "scramble"? And when did this practice end, perhaps after the ANZUS breakdown or after the Cold War ended? (Or up to the disbandment)? |
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Post by paddy on Jan 4, 2009 10:57:52 GMT 12
If nutter boy had flown into the Sky tower, even with 75 SQN still active there would have been no time to get every one in from home, prep the ammunition and get it to the hangar, dispatch the aircraft and fly to Auckland. Thinking back to the 70's when I heard this (correctly or incorrectly?), didn't at least one A-4 be kept on 24 hour standby? If so, was it fully armed (20mm canon & sidewinders?) and ready to "scramble"? And when did this practice end, perhaps after the ANZUS breakdown or after the Cold War ended? (Or up to the disbandment)? Not during my time (74 to 79) Ammunition was stored unbelted in the bomb dump as were unassembled rockets. I was Duty Armourer on many occasions and could not have provided this ammunition. In fact Duty Armourer was mainly there for security and loading flares for SAR DC3 Flights. I suspect most of the after hours duty crew was rostered for SAR. There was no dedicated A4 Duty crew. You probably could have rounded them up after hours but what state they would be in I shudder to think |
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Post by FlyNavy on Jan 4, 2009 11:11:06 GMT 12
phil82, good letter. Did you send/e-mail it to the paper? Great stuff. ;D
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Post by hardyakka on Jan 4, 2009 11:11:35 GMT 12
Wasn't this the plot of an early Clive Cussler novel? Didn't some evil genius in a fokker biplane shoot up a USAF base and destroy all their high tech machinery because he was too low and slow to be picked up on radar or something?
That's where this article belongs. Filed under speculative fiction and fantasy.
Admittedly, Garth Hogan did have operational .50 cals fitted to his P-40 at Wanaka this year. If real ammo could have been obtained it would theoretically be possible for that aircraft to have done some damage. After all I think the ammo used by those guns (M2s?) is still in common use by the NZDF aren't they? The Navy have them mounted on the frigates and I suspect that the Army has them on the LAVs (cupola guns).
So to recap, all you would have needed was the armourers from Warbirds over Wanaka to have hung on to those guns, slipped a few bucks to a crooked military quartermaster to flog some live ammo, find yourself a P-40 owner/pilot willing to take part and you could be in the aerial terrorism game. Simple really. Especially in a small country like New Zealand where nobody ever sticks their nose into anyone else's business and we're all perfectly happy to keep all that sort of nefarious activity away from the aviation gossip grapevine...
Yeah, right!
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Post by paddy on Jan 4, 2009 11:24:08 GMT 12
Don't ask how I know but 20mm ammunition was easy to obtain.
There was a person in Palmerston North that had a fully operational Vampire 20mm Canon.
He was just missing the Belt Feed Mechanism.
Empty cases for it (Brass) litters Raumai Range to this day.
Gaining ammunition is merely a matter of how much you wish to pay!
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Post by Damon on Jan 4, 2009 11:33:17 GMT 12
NZ Herald writer David Eames obviously has nothing better to do than write some fiction.How many will believe his story? We have all seen the MASH Bell 47 on TV but I doubt anyone is so familiar with them that they would hop in one and try to fly it. Todays Warbirds ,Hunter, A-37 etc provide war gaming for our NZ Navy. NZ Warbirds Harvards are still orindance carrying capable.None of these aircraft are threats today.
Go and find something better to write about David Eames .
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jan 4, 2009 11:37:57 GMT 12
Perhaps the journalist has just watched Iron Eagle III when he wrote this?
I never realised that the Dakotas did search and rescue work. Did they drop Lindholme rafts like their replacements, the Andovers?
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Post by phil82 on Jan 4, 2009 12:29:26 GMT 12
That is, indeed, a letter to the editor of the Herald, e-mailed. I doubt they'll publish it. It's an Auckland newspaper and not therefore given to irony or humour.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jan 4, 2009 12:45:33 GMT 12
I was told by someone trying to sell me a subscription a while back that the Herald now projects itself as a national newspaper and has regional versions for the other provinces. So you never know, it might get in. Hey, they published That Guy's very good tongue-in-cheek Air Force van article, so why not?
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Post by phil82 on Jan 4, 2009 14:07:18 GMT 12
I was told by someone trying to sell me a subscription a while back that the Herald now projects itself as a national newspaper and has regional versions for the other provinces. So you never know, it might get in. Hey, they published That Guy's very good tongue-in-cheek Air Force van article, so why not? To Cambridge dwellers Auckland might seem important, but I notice in a list of the best places in New Zealand to live, topped by Wellington, Auckland came 6th, after Ashburton... Auckland is also about to to be dragged kicking and screaming into becoming one city.....with one set of managers and councillors.. just like the rest of the world. |
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Post by baz62 on Jan 4, 2009 14:14:06 GMT 12
Perhaps you need to read this tounge in cheek? I doubt he was serious about Spitfires and Mustangs shooting up the RNZAF. But hey we haven't got a combat wing and I for one would like to have one! And at the very least its got us talking about it.
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Post by Brett on Jan 4, 2009 14:31:58 GMT 12
If he did, then he didn't bother giving me the credit for writing the original two articles.
Mind you, neither did any of the other people who copied and pasted them verbatim into various internet forums. ;D
Brett.
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