Mosquito Spectacular

 The Mosquito Launch Spectacular the weekend before last was, well, spectacular.

-First display of a flying Mosquito in NZ since the 50's.
-The only display in NZ for this particular Mosquito after it's first much anticipated post restoration flight in 60-odd years a few days beforehand.
-The only flying Mosquito anywhere in the world.

So rare type, public debut, never seen before for a lot of people and attracting worldwide interest. This event was the most anticipated show I can ever recall among the NZ aviation community; if it were a concert it would be the sort of gig people would want to say they were at years afterward. Being held up at Ardmore aerodrome in Auckland meant a bit of travel for my lifelong airshow companion father and I, but it wasn't something we were going to miss.

The de Havilland Mosquito was a world war two legend, gaining notoriety for being a hugely successful despite the anomaly for it's era of being made of wood, in an effort to conserve strategic alloys. The resulting design was light, fast and lethally effective. While designed as a light bomber, the twin merlin engines allied to a slick airframe resulted in a top speed equal to or faster than many contemporary fighters (as well as making it sound awesome), and it went on to excell in a number of other roles. Being made of wood though didn't make for good preservation, so there are only around 30 left of the nearly 8,000 built.

The Mosquito is a significant type for New Zealand as well. They were flown with distinction by NZ aircrew during the war, including the movie-script spectacular (again) Operation Jericho, and a squadron of them were flown at home by the RNZAF after the war before being retired in the 1950's.

The only Mosquitos I had ever seen before were in museums. I'd never seen one fly, and given none had flown in NZ since the 50's, and none anywhere since the 90's, neither had most of the people at the event. It was an exciting prospect (if you don't get why, well, you just don't get it :) ) And it didn't let me down.  Having ditched the car due to the traffic jam of likeminded people we were still walking toward the airfield when it took off for its first flight of the day. At first a slim but recognisable silhouette disappearing into the distance it returned to flash between the trees ahead of us, presenting a plan view as it flew low across the road and creating both a lifetime memory and a grin from the buzz. For its second flight of the day we were on the field and another wow moment in a day full of them, the Mosquito flying straight at us from a moody sky, with the distinctive merlin growl suddenly increasing as the pilot throttled up before passing right over our heads. Awesome.

Later the Mosquito was joined aloft by a cousin in the form of a de Havilland Vampire from the same manfacturer. While one is a jet fighter (that replaced the Mosquito in the RNZAF at least) and the other a piston twin that look radically different from each other, they are actually a lot closer than they appear. They are only about five years apart chronologically, the Vampire has a significant amount of wood in it's construction, some of the same armament, and in the trainer version here even the same basic design for a couple of elements.

Another cool moment was when the Mosquito was joined by the other WWII fighters at the show, a Spitfire, Mustang and Kittyhawk, four Merlins and one Allison making beautiful noise.

The three Merlin bearers shown here were all in NZ or NZ related markings too.

 A section of unrestored fuselage was on show, both do demonstrate how it was put together and just how much work was needed to make it airworthy again. The entire fuselage wound up being built from new.

At the end of the day's flying an unusual thing happened. After all the VIP photos were taken, the barriers were dropped, and the crowd allowed to inspect the machine at close quarters. It's a rare privilege, and the crowd respected it. In a few months it will be in the US with it's owner (he put up the money for the restoration, NZ warbird restoration company Avspecs provided the skills), likely never to return here, and this was the only planned public outing for the aircraft.

It was a fitting end to a great day. I've been to a lot of airshows, and seen a lot of cool stuff, but this was right up there.

RNZAF 75th Part 3: Hunter

Finally getting around to posting some pics of the show itself. Rather than deluge a giant pic post, I thought I would try and go for theme or type posts. Since it opened the show, it seems only fair to start with the Hawker Hunter FR.74B.

This isn't an RNZAF jet, but a civilian owned and operated jet warbird, which first started flying in NZ in 2000 before being grounded for cost reasons mid-decade (it's a high performance jet fighter, and thus not exactly cheap to run). It was reactivated for this summer's display season, and it is great to see it flying again.

The Hunter is a second generation jet fighter developed in the 1950's by the British, one of the best looking jet fighters ever built, and one of my favourite types. The RNZAF never operated Hunters, but New Zealanders did fly them on exchange with the RAF. This particular one was built in 1957 and had an RAF career before being refurbished and having a second career with the Republic of Singapore Air Force, whose colours it wears now. The Singaporeans retired it in 1992, and it came here a few years later.

It might be old, but it's no slouch. It's plenty fast enough to generate it's own vapour cloud on a high speed pass (500+ knots in this shot; it is in fact the fastest aircraft currently flying in NZ). If only the sun was shining on this pass it would have shown up the vapour better:

One of the things I've learned about airshow photography is anticipation is key. Knowing where the aircraft is going to be and what it might do is really handy. With that in mind I remembered seeing a picture of a couple of Swiss Hunters generating good vapour on a fast pass in a magazine a little while ago, so was hoping the morning air might be good to see the same here. I got lucky:

 

Again would have been awesome if the light was a bit better, but them's the breaks. The streaks over the wings are cool, but I particularly like the little bit of ectoplasm sitting right above the pilot :).

Like many high-performance aircraft of its era it uses a braking parachute to slow down after landing.

I used to love seeing this jet at shows in the early 2000's, and hopefully we'll see it around for a few more seasons yet. It's fast, noisy, graceful and full of character.

RNZAF 75th Part 2: Backstage Pass

As I mentioned in the earlier post, on the night before the airshow I was lucky enough to be part of a group invited by owner/operator Brendon Deere to spend a couple of hours in a hangar on the base housing his personal collection of flyable historic aircraft.

While we were waiting to be escorted on base, the recently refurbished gate-guardian Vampire FB.5 was looking good in the evening light.

Dominating the hangar is the recently returned to NZ Grumman Avenger. This aircraft used to fly here in RNZAF colours before heading to Australia about a decade ago. It isn't ex RNZAF itself, but it represents the Avengers the RNZAF did fly in WWII and the years after.

That's not an inspection hatch, it's an entry hatch. The Avenger is big, built around being able to carry a torpedo in an enclosed bomb bay, and enormous for a single engined aircraft. Comments about it's size on seeing one up close for the first time are quite common according to it's owner :). There is a legend that an entire fifteen man rugby team was once transported between RNZAF bases in one; looking at one up close it isn't hard to believe it might be true.

Having a look at this Avenger reminded me of the 1980's when I used to be able to go and explore a genuine RNZAF one near where I lived. The wings were stored on the ground nearby, and you could see where the paint had worn to reveal the original US Navy markings applied when it was built in 1943.

Photo credit Sean, via Wings over NZ forum

It was one of the first insights I had that these weren't just old aeroplanes; they had history and stories they could tell.

As well as the Avenger, the hangar is home to a pair of vintage trainers in the form of ex RNZAF Harvard, and Ex RAAF Winjeel.

The highlight for many though, was the presence of Brendon's Spitfire Mk.IX. Brendon was responsible for bringing this aircraft to NZ, and completely restoring it to airworthy condition. It wears the markings of his uncle Alan Deere, one of New Zealand's most well known WWII fighter pilots.

Like many surviving Spitfires, it has a varied history. Built in 1944, it served with the RAF,  Italian Air Force, Israeli Air Force and  Burmese Air Force before being retired in 1956.

In addition to all the other displays and artwork around the hangar walls, a nice touch is an original section of PV270's skin, bearing the colours and serial it wore in Burmese service.

I remember reading about this particular Spitfire in a magazine as a child while it was still sitting on a pole in Burma. As an adult to be walking around it and inspecting it in my own country as a fully restored and airworthy machine was more than a little surreal, and an enormous privilege. If you could have told me back then I would spend an evening like this in the future I probably wouldn't have believed you :).

Rememberance Day Airshow

Some shots from The Vintage Aviator Ltd's rememberance day show at Masterton on Saturday. Despite it being spring the weather put a dampener on both flying and photography, with low cloud, cool winds and passing showers.

Airfield Rabbit Control Manager
The low cloudbase meant the resident Corsair stayed on the ground, which was a pity since the damp air could have made for some great vapour effects like these.
I see things like this and think, "this really is the future". I like the technology contrast between the 1910's and the 2010's:


Triplane vs Triplane (Sopwith and Fokker):

Plane Favourites

Listening to: Mark Kermode movie reviews on Youtube

Another favourite shot of one of my favourite aircraft. An RAAF F-111C on a hot late summer afternoon, starting a display by steaming in at low level and high speed (albeit not even close to as fast as it could go), approaching near silently but about to surprise the hell out of anyone who didn't see it coming:
Taken at RNZAF Ohakea in March 2008. I have other more spectacular shots of this display in particular, but I like this one because it was an aspect of the thing I really enjoyed (this would be the last time I would see an F-111 fly). Knowing it was out there somewhere trying to sneak up on the crowd, and usually noticing it before most other people, then watching and waiting for the reaction of those caught unawares. It is a bit like being in on a practical joke, especially if the commentators deliberately prime the crowd to look in the opposite direction (they can be wacky like that. If you are ever at an airshow and someone on a loudspeaker tells you to look in a particular direction for the very noisy aircraft arriving any moment, do yourself a favour and look the other way first).

Thanks to the magic of youtube, here is what the pass looked and sounded like a few seconds after I took the picture:

Blue Photo Contest / Plane Favourites

Listening to: Dynamite Steps - The Twilight Singers (2011).

I've been meaning for a while now to post some of the favourite aircraft photographs I have taken over the last twenty years or so, and talk about the background behind them and why I like them. It was originally going to be a top 10, but I couldn't decide on 10, so it will more likely be an occasional thing.

A post at Adventures in the Underground about another blogger's blue theme photo contest seems a good way to kick the series off.


When I thought of images I had taken that could fit the theme, one in particular came to mind. Now taking pictures of aircraft as a hobby will mean there is a lot of blue sky I can choose from, but this one stood out. It would have been in the top 10 (click to enlarge):
It is an Australian FA/18 showing off at the RNZAF Whenuapai Open Day in 2009, launching into the sky just after take off, undercarriage still retracting, tail-planes well deflected for the climb, full afterburner (and full noise) and moodily underlit due to the patchy cloud that day.

To get an idea of what the aircraft is doing, here is video from further down the crowdline of the take off. I took the picture somewhere around the 0:05 mark, and yes it was loud, the kind of loud that makes your insides vibrate, activates car alarms, frightens small children, and makes me smile for some reason:


I like it because it evokes the power and agility of aircraft like this, and the way they can seem to bludgeon gravity into submission by sheer performance. I also like it because it is a decent snap of an aircraft not seen in NZ too often, and because it was the start of one of the best combat aircraft displays I have ever seen. It was a cool moment.

Wings over Wairarapa

Some of my shots from the Wings over Wairarapa airshow two weekends ago, shot on the practice day and the show day. The weather was terrible for photography both days, dark, lots of glare and high contrast skies and often wet, but I think I got some okay pics. Click to enlarge.

MX-2 take-off

RNZAF Iroquois
Harvards

Yaks

RNZAF Iroquois

RNZAF Herc

RNZAF CT-4

P-40N Kittyhawk

P-40E Kittyhawk

How to tell the difference:

The E is an earlier model than the N and has a shorter fuselage. On the E the leading edge of the fin lines up with the leading edge of the tail-planes. On the N the fin is further back.

Corsair and Kittihawk

Corsair