Classic Fighters Airshow, Blenheim, Easter Weekend

[far queue]

I’m doing a day ride to this air show and thought I’d post it up here in case anyone else was interested. Good Friday is practice and Expo day with the air show being held on the Saturday and Sunday. I plan to head up on the Saturday with the Sunday as a reserve day in case the weather is crap on the Saturday. The main reason for the ride is the air show itself, so if the weather in Blenheim is crap the air show will be no fun and I won’t go, regardless of what the weather is doing in Christchurch.

It’s 308km Ch>BM and I can easily do this on a tank and would prefer to do it in one hop, however I realise that some others may have less range and/or would prefer a break along the way. So, I’m happy to make ONE stop at Kaikoura for those that wish to refuel or whatever, this being the closest centre to the halfway point. If you wish to stop more often than this, that’s cool, but I won’t be. I will refuel on arrival in Blenheim in order to be prepared for a quick getaway from the air show and get on with the return trip and beat whatever traffic there may be leaving the air show, I suggest you do the same but that’s up to you. I won’t be hanging around in Blenheim waiting. I’m happy to make the one stop at Kaikoura on the way home again for those that wish. I don’t wish for this to be a race and don’t intend to travel at huge speeds all the way there and back, I just don’t want to be dithering and have the journey drag on, I would rather just get on with it. If this sounds like something you’re interested in then you’re most welcome to come along.

Distances
Christchurch to Kaikoura = 181km
Kaikoura to Blenheim = 127km
Total one way trip = 308km

Timings
Sunrise in Christchurch = 0650
Sunset in Christchurch = 1810

Depart Christchurch at 0700
Arrive Blenheim at around 1030

Depart Blenheim at 1510
Arrive Christchurch at around 1840

This assumes a one way trip time of around 3.5 hours. Departure time from Blenheim is planned to arrive back in the Christchurch area around dusk and may be altered depending on how long the trip up actually took. It’s also hoped that the air show will finish at around this time, so I don’t miss anything. The program says it finishes at 1600, so I may have to play that one by ear. I’ve never been to this air show before – does anyone know what time it has actually finished in the past?

The Classic Fighters website is here
Blenheim current weather is here

If there's interest we can sort out where to meet, I'm thinking Woodend at 0730.

[miSTa]

I'm keen just need to check with the boss.

As a thought my parents are in Blenheim and not too far from the Omaka Aerodrome - I could check with the old man and lady to see if the bikes could be left at their place and from there score a lift to the site? I think they may even be within walking distance.

[far queue]

Excellent. Sounds good to me - saves having to carry bike shit round with me all day.

[miSTa]

Sorted, got a place to park the bikes, leave our gear and a lift to and from the aerodrome.


Numbers limited.

[miSTa]

Weather forecast for Blenheim on Saturday is looking good (chch isn't going to be flash, just as well we are not going to be here)

[SVboy]

Hey FQ
Are you weather dependent?.If so,let me know if it will be Sat or Sun. [Yes, I know you are a big bad waterproof biker after your West Coast write up..but we all know I am a fair weather wimp!]

[far queue]

Weather forecast for Blenheim on Saturday is looking good (chch isn't going to be flash, just as well we are not going to be here)

Excellent.

Hey FQ
Are you weather dependent?.If so,let me know if it will be Sat or Sun.

Yes, the ride's weather dependant. But it's dependant on the weather in BM not the weather in CH. I don't mind riding through a bit of rain, but I don't really want to spend a day standing in it at an airshow. Forecasts can change so I'm not going to make the call on which day yet, although it's sounding promising for Saturday at the moment.

[miSTa]

If there's interest we can sort out where to meet, I'm thinking Woodend at 0730.

Where abouts at Woodend or maybe the top of Marshland Road, just before the start of the motorway?

Yes, the ride's weather dependant. But it's dependant on the weather in BM not the weather in CH. I don't mind riding through a bit of rain, but I don't really want to spend a day standing in it at an airshow. Forecasts can change so I'm not going to make the call on which day yet, although it's sounding promising for Saturday at the moment.

Tomorrow is looking good. "Cloudy periods, evening showers. Easterlies." Talking to my father before - they've had a beautiful day up there today, shitload of planes in the air and the weather for tomorrow should be better than the forecast.

[far queue]

OK, we're on for tomorrow. SVboy is coming round to my place and we're meeting Mr S at BP Marshlands at 0710. There doesn't seem to be anyone else interested, but if you are, yell out and we'll see you at the BP.

[miSTa]

What a great day. Up at the crack of dawn, get a text from Dangerous saying the rain stops at Greta Valley. That's not so bad its only an hour or so of straight line riding. Meet up with Far Queue and SVBoy and we're off at a relativ ely gentle pace in misty sort of rain. Get to Greta Valley and sure enough the rain stops and we have nice dry roads, up goes the pace . Stop at Kaikoura for SVBoy to refuel, next stop Blenheim. What a gret road through through to Blenheim, nice fast sweepers no real tight corners just the way I like it. One funny moment was coming around a corner at 1x0km/h to see a police truck, I look at him, he looks at me, I look at my speedo, mmmm, think "what can he do?", shrug my shoulders and carry on and hope he doesn't radio anyone on ahead. Find the way to my parents place (never been there before - new house and had to rely on my memory on how to get as I forgot my map). Find my parents place easy enough, park up the bikes and score a lift to the air show.

We didn't arrive in time to see the start of the show so missed the "battle of Britain" show (though I don't know how you can have a BoB show when there were no Me-109s, Spitfires or Hurricanes flying). The first display we saw was the "Great War Scenario" with a truck load of Fokker triplanes, a few Nieuports, a Sopworth Camel and a few other beasties. What a great sight they were, fantastic.


Next up came the Corsair, what a beautiful sounding plane that is. Followed by a RAAF Caribou. Noisy bloody thing and ugly but the amount of runway needed for take off and landing or lack of was inpressive.

The Mustang was fast unlike the de Haviland that followed soon after. They were slow but graceful and I thought that they sounded pretty good too. "Tora! Tora! Tora!" was the next display which had 15 Harvards in it! Lots of planes.

Then there were the Kiwi Blue prachutists, the Red Checkers, and a Iroquois and Seaprite show. The last show we show was the Edge 540 doing some aerobatics.

Time to get out of there and go home. Despite the number of people leaving there were no traffic jams, just the way it should be. Make it back to the old mans place, gear up and off again. A nice easy pace back to Kaikoura. Far Queue and I stop out the BP in Kaikoura and I had no sooner got my helmet off when some gay bastard had me in a bear hug. Turn my head and see that its not FQ, whew, it's not SVBoy cause we stopped for him to catch up, who the hell is it. They let go, I turn around and here's Dangerous running away as fast as his little match stick legs will let him. Damn right right too boy!

Time to leave but first the wet weather gear. The clouds don't look too flash, it's raining back in Christchurch, bugger looks like most of way back is going to wet and dark. Not my favourite riding conditions. Sure enough just south of Kaikoura the roads are wet, there's a slight drizzle and it's getting dark quite quickly. Make it to the star of the Hundalees and find the roads are dry and rain has stopped. Better make the most of this. Get to the sourthern end and back on to wet roads and rain. It's dark now the pace has slowed, rain on the visor, the visor wanting to fog up, the inside of the visor is getting wet, low beam sucks when cornering, oncoming car headlights are dazzling, shit its hard to see...

I make to Cheviot with out incident, have a comfort stop and wait for Far Queue. He arrives with similar a tale of woe as does SVBoy a few minutes later. Things don't get any better on the way to Amberley. Stop and Amberley and wait for everyone to catch up. Five minutes later FQ arrives, 10 minutes later still no SVBoy. 15 minutes later still no SVBoy, 20 minutes he's till not here, 25 minutes, don't like this...30 minutes, nope time to go back. Fives later here's comes a single headlight, here's our man. We were a little worried there. Make it back home with incident. Riding when its wet and dark on tghe open raod is still not my favourite pastime but it does teach you alot about being smooth, relaxed, alert, and defensive.

One final comment, and I'm going to be rather blunt, a big fat hairy arse to all the car drivers who don't think they need to dip their headlights, fuck you too!

Photo 1: Fokker fly by
Photo 2: Fokker line up
Photo 3: Messerschmitt Me-108
Photo 4: P40 Kittyhawk

[miSTa]

A few more photos and a couple of videos..


Fokker fly by:


mvi_0983.avi


Corsair parking


mvi_1005.avi



Photo 1: Corsair
Photo 2: Catalina
Photo 2 and 4: Obligatory BMW photo

[Jantar]

Great pics and videos. Mr S.

Another guy (who is also a pilot) and I are sitting at work work and enjoying them. Any more?

[miSTa]

Just upload a pile of pictures to the link in my signature (http://community.webshots.com/user/MrSensible)

I'm sure FQ will be along soon - he took 100's of photos

[Highlander]

Followed by a RAAF Caribou. Noisy bloody thing and ugly but the amount of runway needed for take off and landing or lack of was inpressive.

I recall seing one at the RNZAF golden anniversary show at Ohakea, they did almost a length of the runway with just the nose wheel on the ground. They called that trick the wheel barrow

[far queue]

I can't really add to Mr S's write up other than to agree with the crap conditions on the way home and the REALLY poor visibility. It's amazing how hard it is to see with the combination of the dark, oncoming headlights and rain on the visor. Even the dazzle coming back reflectorized road signs was bad news through a wet visor. The dry daylight stuff was fun though, and the air show was AWESOME. My favourites were definitely the Triplanes and the Corsair. Amazing to see 7 Triplanes in the sky together, let alone a Fokker D7, Pfalz D3, Camel, SE5a, and 2 Nieuports up there with them - man that was a crowded patch of sky for a while there. The display put on by Keith Skilling in the Corsair was amazing too, it would have to be the best WW2 warbird display I've seen yet, even compared to what the Hanna's used to do - those BIG loops right over my head and the high G turns right down on the deck with the vapour trails coming off the wingtips - amazing.

I'll post some pics up later tonight, I just need to sort them out and make a few smaller to stick on here.

Another guy (who is also a pilot) and I are sitting at work work and enjoying them. Any more?

Anything in particular take your fancy, I've got one or 2 to choose from

I'm sure FQ will be along soon - he took 100's of photos

I've told you thousands of times - don't exaggerate. Ummm ... 305 actually There's a few crap ones to be deleted of course.