On ANZAC day, because I was not able to get to the Dunedin dawn parade with Alana, I was listening to the Wellington Parade on National Radio. It had already been mentioned the Iroquois helicopters would be doing a flyover at the end of the ceremony but it became apparent even on a radio broadcast that this wasn’t going to happen. Eventually the announcer, Warwick Burke, commented that perhaps they could not complete it because of the low cloud and for safety reasons had called it off. No one knew at that stage that there had been a fatal crash involving one of the helicopters, killing 3 of the 4 crewman on board. It was several hours before this was reported.One of the highlights at the Warbirds Air Show was the display by the RNZAF Iroquois Team. They demonstrated a number of highly complex manoeuvres showing that RNZAF pilots are right up there in terms of skill. Some of the manoeuvres were a run on landing (photo 1), flying the helicopter sideways down the runway while rotating 360 clockwise (photos 2-5) – apparently this is extremely challenging because the pilot is putting in put in to all of the controls simultaneously. Another one they used to do until the mechanics complained was fly the C130 Hercules down the run way, with only the nose wheel in contact with the ground (not shown).
Here is a selection of photos of the Iroquois in action, I hope you enjoy them:
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