I agree with Turbo NZ – the show was absolute magic! Two days of perfect weather and amazing flying. It was fantastic to see the Breightling Fighters in action after reading so much about them and great to finally see the La-9 in action. There was a slight scare on Saturday as the rudder trim on the La-9 detached during a high speed pass – I had my handheld radio on the display frequency and suddenly heard John Lamont call “severe vibration in the tail” – the Hurricane was despatched for a look and to his credit John brought the aircraft down to a perfect landing despite a 15 knot crosswind. The Polikarpovs also managed to get down in the same conditions – the lead pilot advised the others to keep the tail up as long as possible and use the brakes with the tail still up – yikes! It was also great to see a Corsair in the skies over NZ after so long – NZ5648 was given a quick RNZAF repaint prior to appearing so all looked very authentic. Now I have two more years to wait……

Well done! Great feeling isn’t it!!! The next time you fly solo will seem almost routine. There is no replacing that feeling, to know that you have just flown an aeroplane yourself.

The Warbirds over Wanaka website specifically mentions the Corsair but says it is a one time appearance – so whether it is a permanent stay I’m not sure. It will be great to see a Corsair back in NZ skies, we haven’t seen one since the AFC example was sold. The website doesn’t mention any other OFMC aircraft coming over.

Met is simple – just remember that there are a lot of different rules, each of which is then completely contradicted by a series of exceptions. Also remember that every picture of cloud that you see in the textbook bears no resemblance to what is actually in the sky…!!!!!! My tutor put it all into perspective when we were discussing icing; his comment was that when a pilot notices his wings are icing up he doesn’t sit there and think about which of the 3 varieties of ice it might be, he just thinks about how to get rid of it!!!

Good luck.

TB863 lost its invasion stripes some time back however it still bears the same squadron markings. At the last Warbirds over Wanaka it was remarked as J-MC as a tribute to NZ pilot Johnny Checketts, who was a guest at the show. The picture shown earlier was taken immediately prior to WoW ’94, which was the only airshow that NH799 took part in. It is currently under restoration at Pioneer Aviation in Auckland.

robbelc – don’t let the tubulence put you off!! Like you I hated heights and was very averse to turbulence, but you would be amazed how quickly you get used to it. In my first month flying (started in April this yr) I was tense every time I flew and could barely bring myself to look down (flying a C152 there is no wing to block the view down either!) Yet now after five months I can sit in the circuit being bounced and bumped around and it doesn’t bother me at all – when you actually have to fly the plane you forget all about the weather. Likewise the height doesn’t bother me either. One of the biggest buzzes of learning to fly has been overcoming this. So if you are ever in the air and start to feel sick, just ask the pilot if you can fly for a while!

The review of airworthy Spits in Flypast a year or so back said that this aircraft held the record as having been owned by the same person for the longest time but had not flown for some years – does anyone know more of its history?