Which is your favourite twoseater (school) jet?

T-33 my second fav. Loved my flights in her

Nuuumannn...a big YES PLEASE to that! (Btw, how did you get on base? I'm ex-WB myself)

Eric...what's with that Alpha jet paintscheme?? Someone playing with photoshop?

Parsifal...I mentioned the Aermaachi MB339CB...not quite a Skyhawk, but great looking aircraft

Why didnt the Kiwis purchase the Hawk when they retired their Skyhawks. some things i just dont understand. NZ could afford the hawk, they are not that expensive per copy.....

Unfortunately our Government holds the view that we're so remote from everyone, no-one's going to bother attacking us. (We're not scared of you Aussie yobbos! )

Seriously though, we've had running defence cuts since the early '90s (I was one of 1100 Defence personnel who lost their jobs in the '92 defence cuts).
The Skyhawks were deemed too old to keep upgrading, and negotiations were made in 2001 to rent F-16s, before the Government decided it was all too expensive and pulled the plug on the entire Strike Wing.
The Skyhawks have been a point of controversy among various parties (predominantly the US military), with the result that they are still sitting on the spot 10 years later rusting away...

A4K said:

Unfortunately our Government holds the view that we're so remote from everyone, no-one's going to bother attacking us. (We're not scared of you Aussie yobbos! )

Seriously though, we've had running defence cuts since the early '90s (I was one of 1100 Defence personnel who lost their jobs in the '92 defence cuts).
The Skyhawks were deemed too old to keep upgrading, and negotiations were made in 2001 to rent F-16s, before the Government decided it was all too expensive and pulled the plug on the entire Strike Wing.
Our 10 year old Aermaachi MB 339CBs were sold off pretty quickly (to Indonesia), but the Skyhawks have been a point of controversy among various parties (predominantly the US military), with the result that they are still sitting on the spot 10 years later rusting away...

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Such a shame. About 15 L-39 ZA's would be perfect!

Even little countries have defence obligations. I can see why it might not be needed to have the latest and greatest in strike fighter technology, but not even having training capabilities with a secondary strike and fighter capability is just too risky for my liking. If a threat does arise, you will not be able to develop any capability for year. You will not any immediate capability at all, even of a limited nature. BAE Hawks would fill that role perfectly....a good trainer, with some secondary fighter and strike capabilities.....and at a cost even a country like ethiopia could afford.

Hi A4K, sorry to hear you lost your job with the defence cuts. Wasn't actually in the RNZAF, but was a dirty contractor. I worked on P-3s, among other things.

FLYBOYJ, and Parsifal, yours are not such bad ideas; there have been questions asked about the current government ressurecting a combat force, which is not likely; the real problem is that the expertise that existed in NZ is no longer there. Service personnel from the 'front line' have left NZ in disgust and are unlikely to come back.

People have hypothesised that however unlikely, if NZ was to reinstate a combat force, its equipment would be more likely to be a combat capable fast jet trainer rather than a pure combat type. We'll never get a deal as good as the F-16 one ever again.

Recently the NZ govt has decided that the A-4s will go to museums. All the ones that have been allocated are either already at their museums or on their way. The ones that are not are going to be scrapped. The Macchis are going the same way, despite the fleet being in a far better condition than the A-4s were, as they were stored indoors at Ohakea.



This was taken just after a rain storm; I was crouching under the wing of a C-130 when I took it.



Over the course of a weekend after it was announced that the A-4s were going outside, a group of us taped over the gaps and got them ready for spraying with Spraylat. The powers that be figured that storage outside would not be a problem in Marlborough due to the ambient humidity being quite low. Corrosion was always a problem with instrumentation and with the A-4s' cockpits being a sealed bath, they used to fill up with water all the time because the canopies leaked. Lots of issues.





The Kahu upgrade cockpit. This one was used as the demo aircraft for prospective buyers.

I'll post some more tomorrow.

I've just realised I'm in danger of hijacking this post! Tomorrow I'll open a new thread on Kiwi A-4s. Sorry

nuuumannn said:

I've just realised I'm in danger of hijacking this post! Tomorrow I'll open a new thread on Kiwi A-4s. Sorry

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No worries, great information!

Wow, some interesting info (and great pics) mate, thanks... and a question: what do you mean about the 'Maachis?
I've been living abroad since '95, but understood from articles and the net that they were snapped up like hot cakes by Malaysia (not Indonesia as I wrote earlier sorry) for $70 million - what the hell happened?????

Hi A4K, no time to post new images today, sorry. I'm going to open a new thread, hopefully tonight after work. Re the Macchis; no deal with the Malays. The NZDF stated that the Macchis were being sold only as part of a lot with the A-4s, not seperately, thus killing the best opportunity we had of getting some return on disbanding the Strike Force. That's what I've heard through the rumour mill.

Later...

...If that's true, than they are a bigger pack of idiots than I took them for...

Apologies Joe and Parsifal for the misinformation. (and many thanks Nuuumannn for the A-4 thread!)

Evan

Never flown in a jet except a 747 that was horrible - once. But if I had my druthers, I've always loved the lines of the T-37.