PLANE SPEAKING

Today I watched the 3 Orion aircraft (P-3K2 Orion) from The Royal New Zealand Air Force fly over Whangarei Heads. 

The three planes are to be retired soon as per this STUFF news item:

Many North Island centres had a last chance to get a glimpse of one of the Air Force’s venerable workhorses on Tuesday.

The Royal New Zealand Air Force performed a flypast of the last three P-3K2 Orion aircraft as the fleet retired after more than 55 years of service.

No. 5 Squadron commanding officer, Wing Commander Glen Donaldson said it was a “bittersweet moment” for the Air Force.

“Where we have to farewell a faithful old friend who has looked after not just our crews for nearly 60 years, but all of New Zealand and our friends and neighbours in the Pacific,” he said.

Since the mid -1960s, the squadron’s six Orions have flown 150,000 hours of service.

This has included such notable missions as the search for flight MH-370 which disappeared in 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and the Queen’s Birthday 1994 search and rescue in which they assisted several vessels caught in a huge storm during the Auckland to Suva yacht race.

One of the Orions was the first aircraft to provide reconnaissance after the more recent Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha’apai eruption.

The Air Force farewells the P-3K2 Orion fleet with a North Island formation flight before at Whenuapai in Auckland.

They took part in countless missions after cyclones devastated Pacific islands, counter narcotics, anti-piracy, and anti-smuggling security missions in the Middle East, and security patrols for the UN in the East China Sea to counter smuggling activity to North Korea.

“That life-saving sound of a P-3 overhead, heard by many, will be gone. But for all those people who have had any sort of interaction with the aircraft, she’ll always be in our hearts and memories,” Donaldson said.

Tuesday’s flight route took the fleet over Waikato and central North Island with a close-form flypast over Ōhakea and Wellington Harbour.

The formation then travelling up the East Coast, over Napier, Gisborne, Tauranga, the Coromandel Peninsula, Great Barrier Island and Whangarei, before returning to Whenuapai via Auckland Harbour 

The final flight of two P-3K2 Orions to RNZAF Woodbourne, where the retired fleet is being stored, would be on January 31 with a close-formation flypast over the South Island.

Four P-8A Poseidon maritime surveillance aircraft would replace the Orion fleet based at Ōhakea. The first of the new Poseidon aircraft landed in New Zealand last month.

“This is certainly a historic time to celebrate the long service of an amazing aircraft, but also an exciting time as we transition to a new era of maritime patrol,” Donaldson said.

It was a memorable occasion and, given that I'm so bloody old, adds to the many memories I have of life in New Zealand. When it comes to aircraft though my ears prick up. I've always had a fascination with planes, particularly war planes and, from an early age read of the exploits of  famous pilots. An uncle of mine served in WW2 as a pilot based in UK (seconded to RAF) and flew Typhoons I think. Another uncle (in-law) was English and flew with the RAF and was a pilot with the The Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, the Red Arrows. I was a member of the Air Training Corps (ATC) in Wellington when I was in the third and fourth form (3P and 4P) and we used to assemble for 'parade' at Shelley Bay air force base on Tuesday evenings, fully kitted out in uniform. We used to go to Ohakea RNZAF base in school holidays for training and got to fly in air force planes (not the Vulcan bombers and Vampires though but we did get to sit in the cockpits of these). I've got links to posts I've written about this:

HERE

HERE

HERE

AND HERE

For those who bothered to click on those 'links' you'd know that I'm just pulling your leg  ...... but, I have written posts on this ..... feel free to ask and I'll send you the links.

Later on, in the late 1970s I undertook flight training at Rongotai airport in Wellington and flew little Cessnas (not as exciting as Spitfires I'm sure) but didn't complete training because of the stupid aviation laws at the time that forbade pilots from flying if they needed corrective lenses for eyesight (since changed).

I also  did some parachuting at Kapiti airport and  for many years I (and The Old Girl) went to airshows in Marlborough, Hawkes Bay, Auckland and Wanaka, watching aircraft from the WW 1 era through to modern days fly, perform, break down and crash. We saw the last flights of the outstanding Skyhawks down in Wanaka and an exhilarating performance by the C-130 Hercules which demonstrated how it could land on almost a postage stamp and then reverse back and take off again all in the space of virtually seconds. This is a damned big plane and very much impressed The Old Girl.

She was fascinated to the point that she took no interest in the Spitfires, Hurricanes,  Messerschmitts Yaks, Zeroes, Mustangs and many other WW2 exciting planes. She just wanted to look at the Hercules. We 'visited' the plane and crew when they had finally landed and secured the plane and checked it out. She was impressed by .... I think the plane but she might have been checking out the young men flying it:

Anyway, for a few years after this I tried to secure a flight on a C-130 for her birthdays, trying the Antarctic flight organisation at Christchurch, RNZAF and even some damned Americans - all with no success. The best I could do was get her a C-130 Hercules official cap which she was well pleased with and still has. See this pic I took tonight:

I love planes and am proud of what the New Zealand airforce has done with limited resources over the years and am certain that the organisation and the dedicated personnel will make best use of the replacement P-8A Poseidon maritime surveillance aircraft and save lives, help neighbouring countries as well as our own people and have a proud history like the P-3K2 Orion crews, support people, administration and government has.