Tauranga Airshow 2010

[slackie]

I took a few photos, but unfortunate forgot my spare camera batt...that gave out in the early afternoon!!!

A selection of mine are available at picasaweb.google.com/nzslackie/2010TaurangaAirshow# best watched in slideshow.

I particularly enjoyed Yoshi's performance in Rob's Sukhoi...rolling loop on departure is pretty cool!

[Dave Homewood]

Excellent photos Mike, well done.

[slackie]

And why was this gentleman watching the Yaks so intently???

[Bruce]

Great to see the photos guys - I didnt see much of the show.
It definitely has become a warbirds show, and in some ways SAA let this happen as they didnt think of the consequnces before "selling thier soul". The airshow wouldnt have got where it is today without SAA starting it off, and in some ways we have regarded it as "our" show. However Airshows are not our core business so we quite rightly passed that away, however it seems we got trampled in the eagerness of the new players to make thier mark. It is more than just physical separation (about 1km!!) of the SAA stuff, but the incompatibility between a multi-day airshow and an SAA programme of seminars and fly - aways. I found it impossible to get SAA members to man the stand on certain times on Saturday as there were important seminars running that everyone (including myself) wanted to attend. My opinion (based on the front line as it were) is to move our SAA national fly-in to a separate weekend / location and to be at Tauranga as participants only. Just waiting to see our 30 pieces of silver for selling out...

[corsair67]

Great photos, guys.

So, does this show have the potential to eventually become the Warbirds Over Wanaka of the North Island?

[Marcus]

Hi all

Colin, I think your photo of the Spitfire is stunning!!!!

Here are some of my pics...

[Gavin Conroy]

This would be my favourite photo from the weekend.
Always good to see WW2 fighter pilots still getting together.



The aerobatic displays flown by Richard, Doug, and Yoshai were very polished indeed.

[Dave Homewood]

Craig, I don't think any airshow in NZ has the potential of becoming another Wanaka. There's nothing quite like Wanaka in my opinion. I think the potential is that this is intended to become the big Warbirds airshow that they used to be able to achieve regulalry at Ardmore before all the nimbys and noise haters and traffic congestion and all those other problems that Auckland manifests for its popular events forced Ardmore to scale down to smaller open days. The plan is for overseas aircrfat to be invited to the next Tauranga show apparently so there are plans to go bigger. They probably won't bother telling us what's coming from overseas though, if this year is anything to go by.

So, where were all the SAA planes parked? I never saw them at all apart form the kitplanes that flew. I never even got a chance to look in the SAA hangar regretably, or at any of the other merchants' tents, as I nevber knew what was coming next (thanks to the shit idea they had for a printed programme) and so stuck near the front so i didn't miss anything I wanted to see.

[Gavin Conroy]

Keith was in fine form as usual

[Dave Homewood]

Great shot Gavin.

[ErrolC]

Feb 8, 2010 21:00:35 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

Craig, I don't think any airshow in NZ has the potential of becoming another Wanaka. There's nothing quite like Wanaka in my opinion. I think the potential is that this is intended to become the big Warbirds airshow that they used to be able to achieve regulalry at Ardmore before all the nimbys and noise haters and traffic congestion and all those other problems that Auckland manifests for its popular events forced Ardmore to scale down to smaller open days.

When I responded to a question on the medieval re-enactors board about Jousting near Auckland with a tongue-in-check prediction that it would be so much easier with a nice efficient super-city in place, I got the expected howls of derision

The plan is for overseas aircraft to be invited to the next Tauranga show apparently so there are plans to go bigger. They probably won't bother telling us what's coming from overseas though, if this year is anything to go by.

I'm sure that isn't right - it is fairly clear that it was a conscious decision not to tell us, rather than merely not being bothered.

So, where were all the SAA planes parked? I never saw them at all apart form the kitplanes that flew. I never even got a chance to look in the SAA hangar regretably, or at any of the other merchants' tents, as I nevber knew what was coming next (thanks to the shit idea they had for a printed programme) and so stuck near the front so i didn't miss anything I wanted to see.

On Saturday they were in front of the hangars to the left of the control tower and terminal, past where the Dak and Catalina where. I know this because I saw some out the window of the Dak.

[Bruce]

The main SAA aircraft park was at the far end of the airfield past the Aero club. This was to allow the aircraft to depart on the various fly - aways over the weekend (This was based on the assumption that Saturday would be only a Practice day) The HQ for the SAA event was the aero club. The aircraft were supposed to taxi en masse to the front of the crowd line before the start of the flying display, but it was blatantly aparent that no provision was made for this (it was a stupid idea anyway...). With a lot of annoyance surfacing from our members and confusion amongst the public, I made the call early on Sunday to requisition the apron in front of the display hangar (encouraged by the hangar owner) and arranged for about a dozen aircraft from the SAA park to be brought down. Without doing this we would have faced even more embarrassment. I never consulted any airshow organisers as none could be found. Essentially the two programmes (SAA and the 2 day airshow) were incompatible with each other, and I am making serious efforts in my position on the SAA National council to sort the mess out before the next one. I'm not too concerned about the way the airshow itself was run, but SAA's credibility has taken a hit and I am not pleased.

[Peter Lewis]

On Sunday there were quite a number of light aircraft parked outside the Aero Club - this was supposed to be 'SAA aircraft parking' but a lot of them looked suspiciously like Cessnas, Pipers and Tecnams to me, on the run from the south-side remote visiting aircraft parking area.

Even further down, past the Adventure Aviation island-hoppers, among the swamps blowflys and mangroves and alongside the active runway threshold were what I would term the real SAA aircraft. When I got that far at around 3pm (take some native bearers and a packed lunch!) there were probably about 30 of these present. Wether any had departed before the airshow started at 10am I don't know, but there were certainly far less than at the last Tauranga SAA event.

My habit at airshows is generally to skulk around the hangars and back alleyways to see what is hidden away, rather than gaze fixedly at the few aircraft that are actually active. You can find interesting seldom-seen items that way. There were possibly another 20 SAA-type aircraft in the byways.

The problem, as I see it, is that SAA aircraft are generally small, low-powered and not particularly agile. Contrast that with the Warbirds which are generally large, powerful, noisy and testosterone-fueled. Frankly, SAA aircraft do not make a crowd-pulling event in themselves.

SAA events in the past have been about owners proudly showing off newly completed projects, people in the throes of building seeking information, feedback and reassurance, and a very small number of members of the public who are either genuinely interested in light aircraft or who just might be tempted into starting a build themselves.

The flying part of such an event was generally low-key exhibition flying, and was not really intended as public entertainment.

So either they stage a ballyhoo event with lots of loud noise and excitement to bring in the crowds or provide a low-level event designed to inform, educate and entertain the knowledgeable few. A crate of Lion red or a glass of chilled Chablis.

You can't do both at the same time.

[Bruce]

My current thinking exactly Peter!

[corsair67]

But wouldn't it be possible to both have your cake, and eat it?

Saturday would be scheduled as both a practice day AND the SAA day - with the greater part of the day set aside for events and displays by/for the homebuilders and their fans throughout the day.

Sunday is then set aside as the main airshow day for the display of the 'heavy metal', with ground displays in a suitable publicly accessible area for the SAA to show off their wares.

Could this work; or am I simply dreaming?

[fletcherfu24]

a ballyhoo event with lots of loud noise and excitement

Thats what brings the punters in,talking to non aero types today who went yesterday,they all want more warbirds and muscle planes.Comment was a lot of people left early because there was no real programme.Sadly the SAA planes dont display well to the unwashed masses,maybe they need a big flypast or something if they continue at the show.
Feeling was for $30 entry on the day people want more noise,they will have to up the ante for the next show or I think they wont pull as big a crowd.
I enjoyed the day,but realistically it was almost the exact same programme they had at the last show for three times the entry fee.

[hardyakka]

I quite enjoyed the SAA contribution to the show. The Glasair III was smoking and the Furio looked slick (though once again it had a landing gear problem that Giovanni had to fly away to fix). I've always liked the AirCam as a concept as well.

The hard-core aerobatics were well worth the watch. I was a bit annoyed that Richard Hood had music to accompany his act but the commentators just kept talking over it.

However, I do like the noise and power of the warbirds as much as the next petrol-head. You just can't beat them for spectacle. Jack Stafford's comment about having a "one-oh-nine up your arse" raised a laugh. Unfortunately my photos aren't anywhere near the quality of other posters but here is one I liked because it gives the feeling of an air-to-air photo even though it was taken from the ground.


Thanks, Slackie for showing my good side... - and, "Yes" I do have a number of styles of "Yak Driver" T-shirt. The white one shown was an early prototype.

[Dave Homewood]

I saw the handful of SAA aircraft in front of the hangar as I came in, and i stopped and had a chat with Nev Hayes besaide his Cricri (neat to see a second example present too, but sad that Nev had an issue and couldn't display his neat little twin).

I have no idea where the Aero Club is, not being too familiar with Tauranga airport, so would never have found the SAA park at ay rate. The last show I went to there was 2006 and all the aircraft, warbirds and SAA, were displayed really well where people could see them, but not in front of the crowdline. I've just realised I didn't see the hundreds of classic cars that were promised too, where were they hidden? I saw an old wartime style fire engine taking rides at the end, but that's it.

[hardyakka]

The Tauranga Aero Club is waaaaayy down the eastern end of the airfield. You would need to know to use the stile to cross the fence from the public area into the airport terminal car-park then walk about 400m down past the various hangars to end up at the aero-club. I had lunch there on the Friday (as well as snaffling a snag or two from Hooks' BBQ at BayFlight).
The classic cars were parked up in the north-western corner just across from the glider hangars. My mate the car nut had a good time in amongst them. They all seem to know each other (as do aviation people I suppose).
Did anyone on the forum have a Gold pass? It looked like their view would have been first-rate (from the back row of the grandstand, anyway).
I ended up driving in with a family group and although it took a long time to get in to the car-park in the a.m., getting out in the afternoon was a breeze.

The kids in our group enjoyed the bouncy-castle-water-slide thing and if I had brought my togs I probably would have joined them for a refreshing hose-down during the heat of the afternoon (while still watching the skies of course...)

[hardyakka]

Forgive the repost but I think the Spitfire looks even more authentic in sepia with a bit of film grain. Now only the pilot's modern bone-dome breaks the illusion of being airborne in the 1940s...