Air Pageant

An impressive air pageant, with the visiting RNZAF Harvard aerobatic team, and aero club and commercial aircraft taking part, was staged at Darton Field recently in conjunction with the official opening of the new air terminal building

Before a crowd of 2500 people, the various aircraft performed their manoeuvres in near-perfect fiying conditions. Exhibitions of topdressing, aerial spraying, and aerobatics were given by local pilots, but the highlight of the day was the display by the RNZAF team, whose breath-taking stunt and formation flying held the crowd spell-bound throughout.

Leaving a triplicate trail of white smoke in its wake, the Royal New Zealand Air Force Harvard acrobatic team climbs through a cloudless blue sky in close formation. This striking picture was presented to the Gisborne Aero Club by the aerobatic team's pilots.

Two of the Harvards swoop low past the control tower

Trailing smoke, three Harvards in formation trace a giant loop in the sky

Four in formation

The Harvard pilots are all flying instructors at the Central Plying School, Wigram. They are from left! Flight Lieutenants Stewart Boyes, John Buckmaster, Barry Keid, and Barry Flavell.

Formation flyers' finale was an upward "bomb burst"

Vertical flight?

"Sky-writing"

Visiting aero clubs' cabin planes

Fieldair's Lodestar gave an impressive "One engine" demonstration

The Gisborne Aero Club's Cessna aircraft doing a tight turn above the crowd

A portion of the large crowd who saw the display

An aerial view of the airport taken during the pageant showing, from bottom: three Harvard and a Devon aircraft of the Rnzaf aerobatic team, the new air terminal building and tarmac, the control tower, a Civil Aviation Dakota, the old air terminal building, tarmac, and commercial hangar, the Gisborne Aero Club's hangar and club rooms (right), the car parking area, and a western portion of the suburb of Elgin in the background.

Previous article Issue contents Next article

All images and text on this website are made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 New Zealand (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/nz/).

The Gisborne Photo News

No 99 : September 6, 1962

Air Pageant