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Post by fletcherfu24 on Feb 6, 2010 12:15:37 GMT 12
Big buzz in Tauranga about it,a lot of people who wouldn't know a Spitfire from a sausage roll are talking about it and going,I would think huge crowd for Sunday.
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Post by ErrolC on Feb 6, 2010 12:47:48 GMT 12
R3egarding the airshow committee's wierd decision not to bother publishing a list of what's coming, and Bruce's comment that the general public don't care and it's only us enthusiasts who'd be upset about it, well I heard last night my cousin (a general member of the public) was thinking about going but was in two minds and probably won't because he has been unable to find a list of what will be there to help decide if it's worth the long drive. I suggest there will be many more in the same boat, and I think the committee's PR people have failed the public. the printed programme has aircraft bio's etc... |
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Post by corsair67 on Feb 6, 2010 13:19:14 GMT 12
Air show organisers are in a difficult position as far as advertising what is scheduled to make an appearance at an air show. If they don't mention what's due to appear, then we tend to think they are hiding something; but by the same token, if they list something as making an appearance and then it doesn't turn up for whatever reason, then they look really, really bad in our eyes! I hope that this show is a huge success, and that it leads on to many more and exciting air shows at Tauranga. I look forward to seeing the photos.  |
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Post by fletcherfu24 on Feb 7, 2010 17:07:24 GMT 12
Great day out,brilliant weather,big crowd and good flying displays to keep the masses happy.  |
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Post by philip on Feb 7, 2010 18:49:11 GMT 12
We had a great time at the show, got there just before 10 and left at 4. Very hot day but sno-cones made it bearable. Sights and sounds were awesome. We drove down as at the last minute wifey wanted to go.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 7, 2010 19:02:08 GMT 12
I had a splendid day today at the airshow. A very good line up of aircraft, and the usual terrific standard of display flying that we are so lucky to have here in New Zealand. What a great mix of acts too, it was interesting to see some of the light aircraft and some really unusual ones like ZK-SUN, designed and built for aerial photography and filming, and used by Discovery Channel in Africa, apparently. I really liked the Gyrocopters, and the glider acts were utterly superb. Derek Williams in his Fletcher was very precise and I was impressed with his very low turns. Phil Hooker deserves a mention too, he flew several displays throughout the day, all very good.
Dave Phillips was stunning as usual in his Tiger Moth display. He always leaves me with at least six heart stopping moments when I watch his act, yet I always know that he's so good that he knows exactly what he's doing. It was nice to see five Tiger Moths sharing the air.
This is the first show I have seen jets at for a while, and it was a pleasure to see and hear the Vampire, Dragonfly and Albatross together.
That Titan Mustang versus the Focke Wulf 190 replica was actually surprisingly neat. When the Titans turned up on the scene here in NZ I treated them as a bit of a joke but they grow on me every time I see them.
Bryan Gault did an outstanding display in the Thunder Mustang, which I for one really appreciated. I love that aeroplane, it makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up when it roars past. It was good to see Simon too, and a few other forum members.
There were many more great acts to see too, but the highlights for me, as always, were the Corsair, Spitfire, Mustang and Kittyhawks. I never get tired of these aircraft at our airshows, and I never take for granted how lucky we are to see these machines flying, and flown so well by awesome pilots. Thanks to the pilots and to the owners. We're very privilileged to see such rare and special aeroplanes. It was neat to see the Spitfire in the air with the Me108 again, which is always a favourite of mine. The flypast of the four-ship at the end (Corsair, Mustang and P-40's) was rather special too.
There were some stunning aerobatic acts too. A big surprise for me was the Sukhoi, I had not idea there was one of them in NZ. Brilliant!
The only negative comments I heard all day were a lot of people were moaning about the lack of a proper programme listing when the acts were happening, no-one knew what exactly was coming up, and when. I agree. And the other niggle is what the hell was the idea of putting huge tents spaced out along half of the crowdline? There were a lot of people there in the crowd and most couldn't see anything on the ground because of the tents. I don't give a damn about what the re-enactors do on the ground, but I do like to watch and film aircraft taking off and landing and all those corporate tents (largely empty!) made it impossible unless you were one of the lucky few who got a fenceline position (which I didn't till the last act when the crowd began to go home). I know corporate and sponsors tents are a necessary evil but why spread them out like that? Put them all in one place at one end and stick a car park behind them so no-one has to sit behind them.
On the plus side - We did the park and ride by the way and it was superb, no hassle at all. As we arrived easily on the bus my mate Mike and I saw many people cueing to get into the car parks and we knew we'd made a good move.
We also hung around and watched Johnny Love singing for a bit. I'd never heard of him but Mike had, and he was very good. A pity there were only about ten of us watching the concert!
The commentary team were also very good. Well done Grayson, Ian and John, and all those who sat in. It was great to hear Jack Stafford's commentary for the Harvard display!
Overall, well done to the organisers, it was an excellent show and a very enjoyable day. I'm looking forward to 2012!
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Post by fletcherfu24 on Feb 7, 2010 19:08:32 GMT 12
One of mine too,they had a tent on the crowdline about 30metres long with old ladies doing beading....now I love old ladies,don't get me wrong,....but do they need to be right infront of all the peasants trying to watch the planes taxy out etc?....doing beading!!!!!.
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Post by Gavin Conroy on Feb 7, 2010 20:02:39 GMT 12
Loved it, great weekend with a great bunch of people and some lovely aeroplanes. Took way too many photos of some very good display flying. Lots to sort through so here is just three for a start.   Good times with the roaring 40s, got a great set of photos from a full on 50 minute flight as we went through a practice over the beach and then a display over the field.  |
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Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 7, 2010 20:25:00 GMT 12
That's a lovely shot of the Harvard, Gavin. It was neat seeing the team displaying with the bright new scheme on ZK-WAR, it really stands out against the blue sky.
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Post by Peter Lewis on Feb 7, 2010 20:59:18 GMT 12
We got down there OK in ZK-DXQ, Bill flying down and me flying home. A bit late getting away from WP but that's normal. I think we were the last aircraft to arrive into the visiting aircraft park - away in the never-never  Had a good poke around the tented displays in the morning, I agree about the scrapbooking and quilting tents on the fenceline, that's not good. Dropped off my chair with Bruce, did a bit more wandering and catching up with a few guys then nature calls. Queues for the port-a-loos were miles long so brilliant thought - how about the airline terminal? Nice and cool in there, hardly anyone around, even the cafe was open and it's seating was almost empty. Real coffee in a real cup, sit inside in air conditioning or outside in the viewing area in the shade with a table and chairs. Too good to leave, so spent most of the afternoon sitting there in style, chatting with a 77 year old who used to fly Cats, Daks and Bristols just postwar. Good view of the aircraft, couldn't hear the commentary but that's never a great loss. Highlight for me was the Brendon Deere Spitfire.  Did a tour down around the SAA aircraft area later in the afternoon, then got away about 6pm after the buzzing crowd had left. 2.3hrs point-to-point. Not a bad show - But, if I was SAA, I'd be a bit peeved. This is no longer an SAA event. As a non-participant I'd be surprised if any of the general public knows of their involvement. Things may have been different on the Saturday, but certainly today was presented as a Warbirds day. From what I saw of the relatively few SAA aircraft, tucked away right down the far end beyond the Aero Club, they were very much on the hind tit. |
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Post by Bruce on Feb 7, 2010 21:53:17 GMT 12
A good number of the SAA contingent are peeved - we were supposed to put our aircraft on the display line after our Saturday fly away was completed, but there wasnt any room. With the generous assistance of the owner of the hangar we were using, we rapidly set up a small outdoor static park for a collection of our aircraft, which probably worked better than the original plan would have anyway. we learnt a lot and changes will be made SAA wise before the next one. Its quite aparent the Museum are wanting to remove sport aircraft from the mix and promote the military aircraft side - hence no SAA logo on any promo material (even though we are "partners" in the show) and only one representative on the airshow committee.
anyway, I've only just got in and I'm completely stuffed! Not a bad weekend despite the niggles.
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Post by Kereru on Feb 8, 2010 7:41:49 GMT 12
A great show with a good sized crowd. My priority was to secure a fenceline position so it was a 4:30 wake up and on the road by 5:30 passing through the gate at just after 8:00 am and we were in luck just a few available spots and within 10 minutes the second row had started. Parking aircraft along the line does restrict the view at low level for take offs and landings but not much else they can do with available space at a premium. My only gripes were dust and kids and adults pushing in front of those that had made the effort to secure a good spot. I have no problem with kids coming up the front and encourage it but when they push in and misbehave then that is enough. (Grumpy old Bugger eh) Dust was a real problem and I am sure last time this show was on water tankers were running around wetting the ground in front of the crowd. Next time a gold pass will be on my budget so hope they expand on the one they had this time. I was expecting a long wait at the end and had planned to have a good walk around and catch up with other enthusiasts then but when we took our chairs etc back to the car I noted the traffic was moving quite smoothly out the gate so we decided to head for home and there were no delays with traffic moving all the time and once on the bridge we were off. A few pics. Masterchef Judge in a different role?  A few other shots.       Cheers |
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Post by kiwibeavers on Feb 8, 2010 8:06:25 GMT 12
Fantastic photos Gavin and Colin, as always. I gather the loader driver didn't have his mind on the job, what a mess  Glad the weather was good as was the turn out. Cheers. |
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Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 8, 2010 9:03:45 GMT 12
Not as big a mess as the pilot made, he dropped it all over the nice clean airfield!  By the way, I usually find parachute drops at airshows quite tedious, but the unusual stacking that they put in to the display yesterday was actually really quite interesting. I was also amazed how many parachutes kept falling, did they all fall out of the DC-3? It must have been crowded in there! |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 8, 2010 9:42:27 GMT 12
Looks like it was quite a show! No way in heck I could've made it as I've only just started my new job, and I work Saturdays. Sounds a really great line-up - the T-51 vs FW190 is something I'd love to see.
Does anyone know if a DVD is due? I would love to see the Fletcher and Spitfire displays.
Was there a Vietnam scenario featuring the local Hughes 500 masquerading as an OH-6A?
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Post by kiwibeavers on Feb 8, 2010 9:43:38 GMT 12
No doubt Derek has seen it before during his 30,000+ hour lifetime.
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Post by Andy Wright on Feb 8, 2010 9:48:09 GMT 12
Gavin, that Harvard shot over the beach is superb.
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Post by Naki on Feb 8, 2010 9:50:18 GMT 12
I was going to posts my gripes here too..but I would be reiterating what was said above.
No doubt some people came to the show to see a bunch of homebuilts and other light aircraft would of been disappointed that most of them were pushed away from everyone where you couldnt access or even see them.
I suggest that this show should perhaps become a warbirds show and the SAA move back to Matamata where you can wander amongst home built/sport aircraft. In many ways I miss the smaller personal shows that are less commercialised and aren't cluttered with trade tents etc, despite been a warbird fan.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 8, 2010 10:12:01 GMT 12
Zac, yes there will be a DVD, produced by FlightpathTV apparently.
It's good to see the photo of the police dogs. Most of us in the crowd had no idea what was going on during that display. It never ceases to amaze me why airshows arrange ground shows, where less than 5% of the crowd can actually see what's happening. If it were up to me I'd not bother with any of that stuff, police dogs, re-enactors, etc. Airshows are for aeroplanes. I never got to see the Audi car either, but who cares - there was a jet in the air and that's all I wanted to see. I wasn't too far back from the fence either.
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Post by ErrolC on Feb 8, 2010 11:12:43 GMT 12
Zac, yes there will be a DVD, produced by FlightpathTV apparently. There was a pre-order discount (no $5 P&P I think) at the show, which is good IMO. An indication of expected availability time would be nice. As you said in an earlier post Dave, we are lucky to have a high standard of air display in NZ, and the 'core' part of the show appears to have been done well. Our constructive criticisms should be seen in that light. I don't think these activities work well as 'programme fillers' for the crowd line, especially when the space restrictions mean that aircraft are parked in front of the crowd line. I note that some items at Whenuapai were also poor in this regard (skirmish a long distance from the crowd). Given the inherent limitations of the physical space, a seperate display area for ground activities should be considered (it may have, and been rejected for good reasons of course). The Tauranga show organisers should definately try harder to maximise general viewing 'frontage'. |
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