Air Force missing all the action

[Chairman]

From the Herald :

Air Force missing all the action
4:00AM Saturday Jan 03, 2009
By David Eames

When pilot David Turnock buzzed the Sky Tower on election night 2005, he proved the Royal New Zealand Air Force impotent.

In many other countries Turnock - who was later sentenced to 27 months in prison - would likely have been shepherded out to sea, then promptly shot down.

Instead, a nation waited with bated breath until the 33-year-old ditched his plane close to the shore of a city beach.

The decommissioning of the Air Force's combat wing in 2001 meant frustrated fighter pilots could have done little more than poke broom handles at Turnock's commandeered Piper Cherokee from the windows of the Orbit restaurant. One can only wonder how the Air Force might cope with a larger, more hostile opponent.

Herald inquiries have revealed private collections of military aircraft with firepower potential sufficient to leave the RNZAF a smoking ruin on the runway.

There is already one airworthy World War II era Mk9 Spitfire in Auckland, and another one in Feilding that will "probably fly" soon, says Warbirds over Wanaka Community Trust chairman Garth Hogan.

With its Rolls-Royce Merlin engine producing 1575hp for a top speed of 642km/h, the Spitfire could be on the spot and firing its two 20mm canons and double 12.7mm machine guns in no time at all. Both Spitfires would be ably backed up by two P51 Mustangs - top speed 710km/h - and a World War II Hurricane fighter capable of hitting 506km/h with the wind behind it.

Panic stricken RNZAF pilots would barely have begun to peel the shrink wrap from the for-sale Skyhawk, s than the Wanaka-based Russian-designed Yakolev "Yak3" would appear out of the sun, or the two Auckland- and Masterton-housed P40 Kittyhawks come thundering out of nowhere. The ex-RNZAF Corsair fighter that lives in Masterton could provide a 667km/h softening up of the enemy, while awaiting the appearance of the Korean War-era Lavochkin LA9, joining the fray from Wanaka.

Private collections boast both combat and support aircraft from all the main wars of last century. There's everything from triplanes to the legendary "Huey" helicopters made famous in Vietnam War movies. Aspiring fighter pilots could choose from a wide range of training craft, while anyone who has watched an episode of M*A*S*H will be familiar with the Bell 47 helicopter - a machine still in service with the RNZAF.

[victor_alpha_charlie]

I think that author needs a holiday and a new job. So Tim Wallis is a weapons crazed criminal now? Some people deserve to be shot.

[Chairman]

You what ???

Where does it say anyone is a weapons crazed criminal ? Sure it's taking the #### out of the RNZAF for not being able to cope with a rogue Piper Cherokee and for the fact that a group of private collectors have a far more effective strike wing than they do, but that's nothing compared to what Uncle Helen took out of them ...

Here, have a beer and some (weapons crazed) nuts

Gary

[Ian Warren]

Great post Gary I always said Sir Tim Wallis should have been our PM , a man who can run a successful bissness and owned his own private air-force ........... well time gos on

[Vegetableman]

That was a shocking article I thought.
As well as pointless the writer manage to spell Woodbourne Woodburn, you'd think he'd at least look it up to double check.
I'm not defending the airforce. I think the low budgets and therefore lack of useful ability is pitiful.
I do however feel that the standard of reporting for the herald is terrible.

[Yak52aholic]

Yea, the spelling is horrible, I would prefer it if there was a V in Yakolev and maybe a few hyphens wouldn't hurt.

Not that any of those planes' guns work anyway...........

[beaufighterguy]

QUOTE (Vegetableman @ Jan 3 2009, 08:25 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I do however feel that the standard of reporting for the herald is terrible.

Yeah I'd say I always love it how the news papers seem to know everything about anything.

[Area51]

In addition, the article neglected to mention the L29's and L39's dotted around the nation.

[deaneb]

"shepherded out to sea and shot down" - does anybody really think that NZ would accept that as an outcome, just because he buzzed the skytower ?? Even if we had Skyhawks, to respond to that kind of threat would take a couple of hours, so it would be all over before any body could respond.

[Vegetableman]

Not to mention I'd love to see Skyhawks target a Cherokee.
It'd be like that episode of the simpsons where sideshow bob steals the old plane to hold bart hostage, the airforce come along in whatever aircraft they have "Target is moving too slow for a lock... suggest we get out and walk".
I guess the whole thing is meant to be a joke but it's just not funny.
Funny thing about those skyhawks... the cockpits filled with water over the very wet winter we had down here. They've had the canopies open most days trying to dry them out, not to mention a bunch of avionics removed and sent to auckland for repair.
D'oh.

[FlyingKiwi]

QUOTE (Yak52aholic @ Jan 8 2009, 07:34 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yea, the spelling is horrible, I would prefer it if there was a V in Yakolev and maybe a few hyphens wouldn't hurt.

Not that any of those planes' guns work anyway...........

Yakovlev has got to be the most commonly mis-spelled name in aviation, even in quite a few otherwise accurate publications. Another common one seems to be "Tupelov".

[ZK-MAT]

Surely you lot aren't reading this more than it a tongue in cheek pisstake?

[chickenman]

Yes Tim Wallis is a terroist!:

http://nzff.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...t&p=8209783

Remember how the US was sooooooo worried about the dual seat spitfire being exported as 'military hardware'?

I'd be more worried about what tim & his boys can do from a helicopter - damn they can shoot!

[Chairman]

QUOTE (ZK-MAT @ Jan 4 2009, 11:38 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Surely you lot aren't reading this more than it a tongue in cheek pisstake?

I think Tom's the only one who read anything more than that into it, everyone else is too busy getting angers about the bad spelling and quality of reporting these days.

Personally I think the standard of journalism has actually improved - 6 months ago that would probably have appeared with a file picture of a Qantas Airbus because it was about aeroplanes and they had that picture of an aeroplane handy ...

Cheers
Gary

[greaneyr]

Tongue in cheek or whatever, I get really angry when I read stuff like this. I'm SO tired of RNZAF-bashing. It was old about 6 years ago. Now, it's just sad.

Why can't we just cope with the change and move on? I think we've had long enough! I've not seen any other single issue in my lifetime cause more people to wheel themselves out of the woodwork and voice their opinion against it as Labour's disbandement of the air combat wing in 2001.

[CDTDAN]

QUOTE (greaneyr @ Jan 4 2009, 11:15 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Tongue in cheek or whatever, I get really angry when I read stuff like this. I'm SO tired of RNZAF-bashing. It was old about 6 years ago. Now, it's just sad.

Why can't we just cope with the change and move on? I think we've had long enough! I've not seen any other single issue in my lifetime cause more people to wheel themselves out of the woodwork and voice their opinion against it as Labour's disbandement of the air combat wing in 2001.

I agree. Our Air force isn't all bad, look to the future, brand new NH 90's and A-109's. I spoke to an man at Wigram open day, after I said I'd join the RAAF he asked, "Why?" I said, "We don't have fighter aircraft, and I want to be a fighter pilot. " He understood my point, but told me that an Air force doesn't need fighter aircraft when a country is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean (NZ). A fighter aircraft needs to take off, linger, attack, and come back. The only place it can do this is New Zealand, and the only time I've seen this happen was in Sleeping Dogs However, a P-3K can take off and fly to Fiji for example, linger, attack( P-3's can be equipped withe AGM-65's and AiM-9's [correct me if I'm wrong]) , and come back on a single load of fuel. Well that's what he told me anyway.

Dan

[Naki]

Sidewinders on an Orion??? I guess the Brits put them on a Nimrod but why would you want to.

[Alex]

I saw that article as well and read it a couple of times in the paper because I couldn't quite figure out what he was trying to say. Was he trying to say that these private collectors posed a threat? Perhaps it could be an encoded message; a 'call-to-arms' for pilots to rise up against the established order. I settled just on more air-force bashing and turned the page.

Alex

[Chairman]

Well, here is a question which I'm genuinely curious about. Even a dumbass like me can think of two possible answers so if you can't come up with anything better than "nothing" don't bother answering.

Given a situation of a Piper Cherokee buzzing around Auckland City threatening to smack into the sky tower, what could the RNZAF as it stands at the moment actually do about it ?

Cheers
Gary

[CDTDAN]

QUOTE (Chairman @ Jan 6 2009, 02:23 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well, here is a question which I'm genuinely curious about. Even a dumbass like me can think of two possible answers so if you can't come up with anything better than "nothing" don't bother answering.

Given a situation of a Piper Cherokee buzzing around Auckland City threatening to smack into the sky tower, what could the RNZAF as it stands at the moment actually do about it ?

Cheers
Gary

Both the Seaprite and the Iroquois have side gun capability? They could try gun it down... or they could have an aerial police chase with the new 'Police' Cessna