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Warbirds over Wanaka 1996

Warbirds Over Wanaka is a show which is run every two years (on even years) near the town of Wanaka in Central Otago, New Zealand. It has gained a reputation internationally as being one of the better warbirds shows and about 100,000 people attend each time it is run. Classic Fighters Omaka is also run every two years, on odd years, at Omaka air field near the town of Blenheim in the the north of the South Island.

A parade of some of the historic fighters flying individually and in formation with two Mustangs and Spitfires, a Corsair, a Kittyhawk, a Yak-3M and the Messerschmitt Bf. 109G-10.

The Messerschmitt Bf 109G-10 Gustav was one of the special guests at the show. It flew several displays during the day. This photo was taken on its last "farewell run" at the end of the day.

This shows two Harvards, which were part of the force "attacking" the airfield. Various aircraft, including Mustangs and Spitfires, were dispatched to repel the invasion. They were successful, but only after much strafing by machine guns and numerous explosions of the attackers' bombs.

Most of the aircraft were parked in an area where it was possible to examine them up close. This photo catches a couple of pilots discussing their flying exploits in front of a parked Kittyhawk.

This car raced a racetruck, Pitts aircraft and Hughes 500 helicopter several times over the length of the runway. It was an interesting contest: the aircraft could turn at speed at the ends of the runway but the vehicles had to slow almost to a stop. The car definitely had phenomenal acceleration and seemed to win the contest convincingly although the race was somehwat chaotic! The car had an even more awesome engine sound than most of the aircraft!

This is a Skyhawk flown by the New Zealand Air Force. Although these are old aircraft, they are fitted with quite modern avionics which bring them up to F-16 standard. The airforce also displayed their C-130 Hercules, Iroquois helicopter and various other aircraft during their display.|The Skyhawk flew at low altitude down the runway at 450 knots then climbed vertically for thousands of meters trailing smoke and releasing flares in all directions.

The AT6 Harvard isn't the greatest aerobatics aircraft in the world - it lacks a certain amount in the department of power, rate of climb and handling but the precision of this team make up for it as you can see from the photo.