Air Show of Finest Vintage

A vintage wine, of a good year, is usually superb. The same applies to cars and, as was proved at Nelson airport last month, to aircraft. The air show that the "Golden Age of Flying" turned on, was of vintage quality, in vintage machines - aircraft that can still show some of their more modern counterparts a thing or two about manoeuvreability. The show was put on by members of a Blenheim society in collaboration with the Nelson Aero Club. It was a tremendous show and one which certainly bears repeating.

We obtained this fine shot of this Tiger Moth from another vintage aircraft, the twin-engined Dominie which competed in the London-Sydney air race.

Precision flying by Moths at next to no altitude

Blenheim's "flying grandmother", 70-year-old Mrs Hilda Alexander, prepares for her great barnstorming act (pilot was her son, Ron).

The gracefully-sleek Dominie at take-off

Glider pilot Ivan Evans, selected to fly for New Zealand at the world championships in Texas, prepares for a demonstration.

A feature of the show was an aerial "cops and robbers" act (here the Keystone Cops arrive too late to prevent the criminal taking off).

Youthful 70-year-old Mrs Alexander with grandson, Mark.

The cops had just been bombed...

...after being buzzed

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The Nelson Photo News

No 112 : March 7, 1970

Air Show of Finest Vintage