TVAL pilot training weekend April 2023

[KiwiZac]

Hi all,
On Saturday I drove down to Hood Aerodrome, Masterton for The Vintage Aviator Ltd's final pilot training weekend of the season. I have a bunch of photos to share and will do so tomorrow but I'm about to head off to work - I just wanted to put in a placeholder post to whet the collective appetite 

Star of the event for me was a recently-completed Fokker E.III reproduction. However I'm told TVAL have a proper public reveal planned for this gorgeous aeroplane so out of respect for the team I won't be posting my pictures of that until it's all official, but there were a great number of fascinating machines out on the grass besides her. Stay tuned!

[KiwiZac]

On Friday I realised it was the last weekend of the month, and after checking with a friend who is groundcrew with TVAL confirmed they would be flying the next day - so before sunrise the next morning off I drove to Masterton! And what greeted me upon arrival?
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr
One of the Rousseau Aviation DVII-65s built for The Blue Max, a Fokker DR.I whose heritage I can't recall right now, and the Chad Wille-built Sopwith Triplane.

DSC_0987 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
TVAL Sopwith Snipe. You can just make out a TVAL RE.8 behind - unfortunately this didn't fly while I was there.

DSC_1036 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
TVAL Sopwith Pup with my friend Andrew Love getting ready to fly - unfortunately wind issues prevented his flight until the following day.

DSC_1504 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Original Sopwith Camel.

DSC_1493 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Original BE.2f and Century Aviation-TVAL DH.4 to the fore, obscuring the original Bristol F.2B and TVAL BE.12.

DSC_0982 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
TVAL BE.2c (late) for Richie W!

DSC_0983 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Albatros D.II, unfortunately I cannot recall if this is a Koloman Mayrhofer/CraftLab production or TVAL.

DSC_1002 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
Walt Addems and Joe Pfeifer-built Nieuport XI. Former RNZAF A-4 Skyhawk and veteran Yak-52 display pilot Paul "Huggy" Hughan (right) conducts his preflight before taking off to duel Andy Love in the D.II. Ryan Southam, inspecting the interplane strut, later made his first ever rotary-powered flight in this machine on this day.

DSC_0984 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
TVAL Albatros D.Va. That's our own Jamo in the blue top!

What say we get some of these birds up where they belong?

[KiwiZac]

The BE.2c (late) was off and, thanks to me finally experimenting with camera settings beyond "AUTO", I captured its rather smoky start-up:
DSC_1191 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1355 by Zac Yates, on Flickr

The DR.I - one of SEVEN operated by TVAL - was up and down during the day. Here two of the youngest members of the team (who are also Tiger Moth pilots and getting into Great War flying), Grace Hills and Kaleb Humpage-Pinto, are on chock duty:
DSC_1408 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1415 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
The silver and yellow machine in the background is TVAL's De Havilland Tiger Moth, which was also up and down a lot for formation practice and as a photoship.

Unfortunately the D.VII was most uncooperative, utterly refusing to start.
DSC_1007 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1029 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1106 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1122 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1508 by Zac Yates, on Flickr

Ryan Southam went up in the Noop for his maiden rotary mission, I caught him and his partner Tracy Dixon prepping:
DSC_1236 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1127 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1427 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1451 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1456 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1459 by Zac Yates, on Flickr

The Sopwith Triplane also flew several times.
DSC_1005 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1031 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1208 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1217 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1524 by Zac Yates, on Flickr

Another former RNZAF pilot, Scott McKenzie, preflighted the Snipe for a later flight:
DSC_1487 by Zac Yates, on Flickr

Then it was lunchtime and I found a choice spot to wait for activity to resume:
Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr

[KiwiZac]

During the lunchbreak Andy came over and he told me what to expect at 1330: "the big boys" going up together while he and "Huggy" duked it out in the Ni.11 and D.II respectively. I'll just let the photos do the talking here.

DSC_1522 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1542 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1531 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1574 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1580 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1590 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1608 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1644 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1648 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1655 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1662 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1666 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1672 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1675 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1679 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1684 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1688 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1711 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1728 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1741 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1744 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1745 by Zac Yates, on Flickr

[KiwiZac]

The rest of the afternoon was less structured, and I also missed some of it (Camel, Snipe) while visiting a friend's hangar, so these last two posts are presented more to show the atmosphere of these training weekends and what you can see.

DSC_1762 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1763 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1772 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1790 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1798 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1806 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1808 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1817 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1826 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1829 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1844 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1855 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1864 by Zac Yates, on Flickr

[KiwiZac]

DSC_1871 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1898 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1976 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1983 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1985 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1990 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_1994 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_2009 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_2020 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_2052 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_2083 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_2086 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_2096 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_2118 by Zac Yates, on Flickr
DSC_2141 by Zac Yates, on Flickr

I hope you liked these photos and I haven't overwhelmed you!

[hsmed]

That must have been a wonderful day. Wish I could have been there, but the next best thing is your pictures.

Thanks
Henning

[RichieW]

Fantastic album Zac, lovely to see the exhausts of the BE2c smoking up. It looks like a fantastic day out.

Richie

[kensar]

great pictures.  You're quite lucky to be able to see and experience these aircraft first hand.

[KiwiZac]

All of my photos from Saturday can be found here.

Thank you for the kind words folks! I've come to realise that part of my enjoyment/philosophy with photography is sharing the experience with those who can't be there, and I hope I've done that to a degree.

You're quite lucky to be able to see and experience these aircraft first hand.

I was pinching myself watching the five-ship formation of two-seaters forming up because I was very aware one can't see that anywhere else on the planet. It's a special place and to have it 2.5hr drive from me is a wonderful thing. However two months from today I move to Blenheim - that other Kiwi hotbed of heritage aviation and home to the famed Omaka museum - so it'll be a little trickier to get there for the next couple of years.

The Wings Over Wairarapa airshow is to be held at Hood in late November this year and I hope to be there. The WW1 displays should be something special!