On Sun, 20 Apr 2008 22:24:52 +1000, Mike Mackenzie
wrote:
>G'day Coop,
>
>That was a great write-up of a wonderful air show at, probably, the
>world's best air show location. Sorry I missed you there, but there
>were a lot of people in the Gold enclosure - and most seemed to be
>wearing blue jackets ;-) Anyway, you seem to have had a ball.
>
>We were on a package tour which stayed four nights in a pub in
>Queenstown, then bussed to and from Wanaka each day. I went by
>myself on Friday, and spent most of the day wandering around the
>static exhibits and pausing whenever there was something interesting
>flying. In spite of the cloud and a big hat I got a bit sunburned.
>
>Next day my wife came with me. Good choice. It had rained most of
>the night at Queenstown, and going to breakfast it was not only wet
>but bloody cold! Fortunately the rain mostly cleared by Wanaka, but
>it didn't get much warmer. We went straight to the Gold enclosure,
>and stayed there until it was time to leave - my lady spent most of
>the time in the marquee near a heater watching the show on CCTV, while
>I watched the action from the 'paddock'. Perhaps she was the smart
>one!
>
Funny 'bout that. She was probably sitting close to the Navigator at
least some of the time....
>Fascinated by the Polikarpovs (which can be seen flying only in NZ),
>and loved Jurgis Kairys and his Air Bandits, but the whole show was
>very professional and entertaining. Was told that neither of the
>Polikarpovs have wing-flaps, so their landing speeds are quite high.
>Also, the monoplane (the first one built) has no hydraulics so the
>gear has to be wound up by hand, and the handle is so low that you
>can't see where you're going while using it! Flying those would be
>something of an adventure.
>
>On the way back to Christchurch we stopped at Mount Cook where some of
>us flew to the top for a glacier landing in a Pilatus Porter. It was
>a beautiful sunny afternoon with almost no wind, so we were able to
>fly between and around the peaks without any turbulence. One of the
>best flights I have ever had.
Yep. Me and the navigator indulged ourselves in a similar fashion last
time we were in NZ. Very spectacular, but the sort of flying that
needs to be treated with respect, eh?
>The following day we spent a couple of
>hours at the Wigram RNZAF Museum - wonderful displays, and rather
>similar to the RAAF Museum at Point Cook.
>
>Altogether, a great trip. However, I discovered that my Panasonic
>DMC-FZ20 is hopeless for taking airborne photos at airshows. You
>really need a good optical viewfinder, and preferably an SLR. The
>digital viewfinder in my camera just does not cut it.
I've decided to leave it to Glenn..... took a few static shots but
most of my flying shots are specs on the horizon...
Coop
