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Culture:

Warbirds Over Wanaka 2010 : a paradise for aviation photography. 02/04/2010

 

Warbirds overWanaka 2010 ..,

As reported on www.sky-lens.com/articles-airshows-uk-commonwealth-usa.php Warbirds over Wanaka (WoW) airshow was a cracking stuff. WoW had real WWII re-enactments with local ' warhorses ' firing guns, while a P-51 D, a FG-1D Corsair, a Spitfire, a Yak-3, the world's unique soviet La-5, to name but a few warbirds..., are all dogfighting or straffing the airfield. Wanaka based Alpine Fighter collection flies the only warbird in the world - a P-40 - firing live guns with dummy ammunitions against the A6M Zero brought in by the CAF Californian Wing. To complete things, it is the only place in the world where I experienced a airfield attack by four RAAF Hornets overflying the crowds with afterburners. Unfortunately this style of military jets display is not allowed in Europe. Where else can you see a RNZAF C-130 performing a fast low pass a few meters over the runway ?

 


Though high peaks and mountains around the airfield do little to make most of the scenes of the WWII air war look realistic, the Otago mountains and colours of landscapes enhance the overall show with huge drama. Antarctic low light is filtered all over the area by big clouds and high peaks around, and so, the temperature of colours are changing every minute. What a kingdom of heaven for photography. Warbirds over Wanaka event is the result of 50% of local atmosphere provided by nature plus 50% of noisy technology featured with aeroplanes. It may explain why it may be the best airshow amongst all other ones in nations of the Commonwealth, and simply the best warbird display in the world in a photographer's point of view.

 

 

 

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