A rather dark and early start saw nearly 30 cadets assemble at TS Taupo at 0630hrs for a quick headcount and to assign transport across the various parents cars before we all headed north for the Ohakea Airshow. The drive was easy until we were diverted around the 3 sides of Ohakea air base where we joined the long queue to enter the car park. To be fair our 30 minute crawl from joining the queue to exiting our vehicle in the car park wasn’t nearly as bad as others who spent an agonising 3hrs within touching distance of the planes in the traffic jam!
I hadn’t even turned the engine off before the cadets in the cadet van I was driving were jumping out and heading off towards the various aircraft that formed the static displays, with excited smiles and big wide eyes! Being only 8.30am we were able to check out the various static displays before the aerial displays started at 10am.
The weather for the day was pretty much perfect, with clear skies and light winds, the clouds were sufficiently high to not interfere with the aerial displays but they did offer the occasional shade from the sun – our only complaint would be it was too hot if anything in the middle of the day!
With aerial displays from bi-planes through to the stars of the show in the form of the Australian Air Force F-18 Hornets, the crowds were constantly entertained. I managed to catch up with some of the 41 Squadron cadets during the day, but others must have either been either avoiding me or just having that much fun that I just never saw them!
With around 30,000 people anticipated to attend but over 70,000 actually turning up it’s no surprise that the queues for the various food and beverage vans were long and rather slow moving, but with them being directly in front of the runway it meant all those queuing had a great view of the aerial displays as they waited. The large crowd also explains why the cell phone networks crashed for much of the day, taking out pretty much all of the mobile EFPOST machines at the various stalls!
At just before 4pm the American Air Force C-17 Globemaster took off and commenced the final display flight of the day, not being as manoeuvrable as the other much smaller aircraft that proceeded it, it still made an impressive sight as it completed a gravity defying slow fly pass! Coming in to land at the end of it’s display proved the perfect opportunity to show off the C-17’s short landing ability, throwing the engines thrust into reverse and stopping in an unbelievably short distance before reversing backwards up the runway – very impressive!
Unfortunately back at the van I discovered I’d left it’s lights on when we arrived – a combination of no alarm from the van when the keys are removed and door opened when the lights are still turned on, and the excitement/distraction of the assembled planes that were calling me over! Luckily one of the neighbouring cars had a set of jump leads and after a short search to find both the vans engine and battery (under the front passenger seat!) we were back in business, which allowed us to move the 10 feet or so to join the long queue of people tying to exit the car park. It only took us 1½hrs to do around 500yards, in fact we moved so slowly that my passengers disembarked for both food and toilet breaks multiple times and still managed to return to the van before I’d moved more than 20 feet!
Luckily since the car park was the grass apron around and in between the runway and the taxi ways, we were able to admire the static displays as we inched forwards and at the same time admire the various aircraft that departed the show long before we did. It was after 7pm before we arrived back at Ngatitoa Domain, but all the waiting had been worth it – a brilliant day and happy 75th birthday to the RNZAF.
Pictured:- 1. Spitfire, 2. RAAF C-17, 3. F-18 Hornet, 4. Air NZ 777, 5. NH90, 6. Air NZ 777 engine, 7. Air NZ 777 underbelly, 8. P-51 Mustang, 9. Model planes, 10. Old school in action, 11. A109, 12. Mash chopper, 13. NH90, 14. Iroquois, 15. Abseil from Iroquois, 16. Car drop, 17. Harvard aerobatic team, 18. Red Checkers display team, 19. F-18 Hornet taking off, 20. & 21. F-18’s in action, 22. F18’s break, 23. & 24. F-18’s taxi, 25. & 26. Kiwi Blue parachute team, 27. & 28. C-17 Globemaster
Videos:- 1. Solo F-18 Hornet waves at the crowd, 2. F-18’s fly passed in formation, 3. Helicopters in action, 4. C-17 Globemaster taking off