Greetings All
Another wet and windy summer season (not quite finished). The TVAL volunteer crew meet monthly during the flying season (Oct to April) to maintain currency on the various aircraft and practice displays for the biennial Wings Over Wairarapa airshow. This is held at Hood Aerodrome (where TVAL are based), but this year the airshow was pushed back to Nov-23 due to weather concerns, and unfortunately the weather was too windy for the TVAL collection to fly during the show.
My photos are intended to record airfield life, hopefully with a little 'atmosphere'. This season saw a new aircraft added to the collection, a reproduction Fokker Eindecker. Some aircraft are still unserviceable: the SE5a trio are waiting on some new valves, the early BE2c is in the process of being recovered (UV damage weakened the fabric) and a couple of Pups need some repair work. The LVG probably won't be flying for the foreseeable future as the pilots are unhappy with it's small, ineffective rudder which gets blanked by the large plywood fuselage. Zanzibar FE2b needs a some engine work.
TVAL have not been able to offer hangar tours to the public for some years now, as the hangar is so packed with aircraft it isn't possible to walk around safely. A new hangar would be great but no idea how far away that might be. There are vantage points for the public not far from the flight line, and there are occasional lunch time tours available by arrangement, particularly for overseas visitors with a special interest
https://jamesfahey.smugmug.com/TVAL-Pilot-Training-2324-seasonAn album for the new Fokker Eindecker:
https://jamesfahey.smugmug.com/Fokker-EIIIThe images are hi-res and you are welcome to download any for your personal use. Use the small download icon, not a right mouse button click or they won't be full size. If you want to post them elsewhere please credit me as the photographer
Thanks to TVAL for the generous hospitality offered to me, and to the volunteer pilots and ground crew for keeping the collection flying
Cheers
James
