Local Warbirds

[Ianab]

This is good photo page of a recent warbirds show here in NZ. While not the biggest, they do have interesting planes, and I'd like to see it sometime. Just it's in the other (South) island, so a serious road trip. 

Of note is the Blue Yak 52, a local plane flown by the daughter of the now deceased original owner.  The DH Mosquito is one of only 5 airworthy examples, and completed restoration 2 weeks before the show. It's now being shipped off to an air museum in the US, as they were able to afford the restoration costs ($mil). Avspecs have another in progress, and another "restoreable" one waiting for a buyer, The plane is mostly wood, and after ~80 years the balsa and ply isn't exactly "structural" any more. Avspecs built new moulds from original blueprints and can rebuild the the whole airframe from scratch. 

The flyby with a Mosquito, a Spitfire, a Yak3, 2 x  P51 and a Corsair must have been pretty cool. 

US air force even sent some planes (from Japan) to add some modern jet excitement. 

https://vintageaviationnews.com/airshow-news/warbirds-over-wanaka-2024.html

[Ianab]

Talking to a USAF pilot about what it was like to fly to NZ and perform the airshow. 
I guess they put it down as training for deployment to the ends of the Earth (Middle Earth?)

The logistics of getting the planes to an airshow in NZ are pretty cool, They bought the KC135 tankers with them to refuel on the way, and even top them up of the airshow events. 

But I bet when they asked for volunteers to fly to NZ for an air show,. they got plenty of hands. 

https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/central-otago/pilot-used-scenery-whizzing

[WV Sawmiller]

Ian,

    Interesting topic. My BIL would love to see it. He retired from FAA in Anchorage Alaska and spends most of his days working in the Aircraft museum there. They go out and retrieve war planes from under lakes and such and restore them and when he comes south to visit he often visits contact here in the lower 48 who machine special parts they need to restore planes. In many cases it is easier for them to recover planes that crashed or went down on tribal lands than ones in National Parkland because it is easier to get releases from the tribal officials than US Gov't politicians and such.

[Ianab]

A lot of Avspecs early work was buying WW2 wrecks out of Russia and rebuilding them. So they rebuilt a lot of 40s Yaks etc.  Now they basically have a waiting list to get planes rebuilt. 

When you think about it, there is nothing "magic" about those old planes. With some skilled techs and CNC machines you can recreate any component that's needed. 

The Mosquito rebuilds are the most interesting to me, as they were mostly wood, and a unique construction method. So they basically had to rebuild the moulds from the original blueprints, but once you have the moulds, you can make multiple airframes. Metal parts can be reused or new ones cast / cnc'd etc.