Omaka WWII Collection

This element of the museum goes under the name of 'Dangerous Skies'. Many of the airframes are highly original including the P40 and Mosquito from the estate of the late John Smith. After being hidden away in a barn for decades the Mosquito has been restored to ground running condition. The Fw190 is the prototype Flug Werk remanufacture from 20 years ago and the Stuka appears to be a replica.

Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre

The museum at Omaka in the south island of New Zealand comprises a WWI hangar and a WWII hangar. We wnt in to the WWI exhibition first so I will start with that. The collection id actually entitled 'Knights of the Sky' and is the personal collection of film maker sir Peter Jackson. There is a lot of rare memorabilia but also many airframes. Several of these are replicas, some airworthy, some in interesting dioramas and some original. It was a fascinating place and well worth a visit.

Herc over the Lake

The RNZAF are retiring their C130H Hercules this year but they still played a role at Wanaka. One of them departed the airfield in the morning and next time I saw the aircrfat it was doing a parachute drop over the Lake. A short while later it was doing circuits with some of the warbirds. It was a little high up so I assume that this was more in the way of a photo shot rather than a publice display as such but it was still possible to see thta the C130 was flying with the Corsair, Spitfire and a couple of Mustangs which was great to see.

Grumman Super Widgeon

The Grumman Widgeon was a WWII era amphibious aircraft used by the US Navy and coastguard amongst others. It continued in production post war and a number were converted to 'Super' Widgeon status which primarily involved the fitment of Avco Lycoming Flat 6 piston engines although there were a number of other improvements. Over 300 Widgeons were built but only a handful survive including this one. It was listed as an arshow participant at Wanaka although it never took to the skies on the sunday. However, it did perform a water landing demonstration over Lake Wanaka on Friday afternoon so I didi get to see it.

SH-2G Seasprite

Although there was practice flying on the pre-show day at Wanaka some of the flying took the form of an advertised 30 minute free public show over the nearby Lake Wanaka so we headed off down that, got lucky with a lake front parking spot and took in some flying with some interesting scenery, including this Seasprite demo display.