Newcastle Airshow 4 June 2016 By Cheryl Smit Very similar to last year, the weather was fantastic with blue skies and patches of clouds lending itself to perfect flying weather for the Newcastle Airshow hosted by Champ Marketing for the sixth consecutive year. The Airshow was opened with the Glider display piloted by Gary Whitecross. Derek Hopkins flew the Lambada as the tug-plane The AN2 ZU-FOO then took off with the Paraglider and Skydivers First out was the Paraglider flown by Gert Louis Cilliers Next out was the troop of seven skydivers, though as always the highlight was the big South African Flag that was displayed high above the airfield The A Team - Torre Industries Pitts were next with their three ship aerobatic display The Raptors four ship display was next to please the crowds, piloted by Pierre Gouws, Nigel Hopkins, Trevor Warner and Hayden Tunner Ivan van der Schaar in his KFC branded Pitts then did a lovely display Next up was the display of the Gyrocopter flown by Matthew Zalewski whom has 4000 hours and 3000 of them on Gyroplanes The Legendary Flying Lions with their newly branded Adrenaline Show T6 Harvards, then took to the skies to display some of their daring feats and magnificent aerial display Nigel Hopkins was then up for his solo aerobatic display in his Extra 330 SC which had the crowd entertained and riveted to their seats Team 80 - The Silver Falcons in their Pilatus PC7 Mark 2's piloted by Mark Gentles, James Wilcox, Omphile Mutloane and Wendy Badenhorst displayed their premier formation and aerobatic manoeuvres with such precision skill The SAAF C130 Hercules with its four huge propellers spinning away then took to the skies displaying its manoeuvres with low and slow flying over the airfield Mustang Sally the P-51 mustang piloted by Menno Parsons was next up in the air with his high speed display which is always a crowd pleaser but difficult to photograph The next display was Mike Wyngaards in the Impala owned by Dawid Laas. Mike's father a General in the SAAF had actually helped assemble this Impala ZU-IMP 479 which was the last of the 20 Impala to be delivered to the SAAF on the 3rd June 1966 Next up was formation flying with the L39's ZU-IBN flown by Pierre Gouws and ZU-ROL flown by Glen Warden which had us all enthralled Neville Ferreira in his Slick 540 took to the skies to race the Mercedes sponsored by Stucky Motors. Peter Graham, Ramp Controller brought the black and white checkered flag down and the race was on. Much applause was received when the Mercedes won the race. Neville then went on to do a really slick aerobatic display with much applause from the crowd What a show… Champ Marketing, Johan Pieterse and his team you can give yourselves a bow Brian Emmenis from Capital Sounds introduced his newest member to the team 'Elvis' who had the crowd captivated with his Zulu commentary, the crowds loved him. As always special mention must go to the ATNS crew, The Flight Display Director Charlie Marais, Flight Director John Neilon, Ramp Controller Peter Graham, Disaster Management Coordinator Lappies Labuschagne and to Brian Emmenis and his team from Capital Sounds, for a safe Airshow.

Events 2016 ASSA

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