Rotorua Airport Opening Pageant and the 60th Anniversary Flyin

With the 60th Anniversary Flyin being held at Rotorua Airport yesterday, 5 October 2024, it is somewhat sobering to confess that I was at what I thought was the original Opening Pageant back on 25 November 1967.  I guess that puts a lot of us in our place!  However it does throw up the question why was the Opening Pageant held 3 years after the opening?  On further research, the airshow might have been held at that time to take advantage of the RNZAF who were camped on the airfield for Operation Shining Cuckoo with 10 Vampires and Canberras.

Here is a photo that I took back then on the day, Saturday 25 November 1967 (the date thanks to Delticman who was also there - we drove up from Wanganui in his Mini).  It is of Jack Inder's Turbulent ZK-CGT.  The two guys checking it out are John Galpin (the taller) and I think Clarry Healy from Nelson who was building a Taylor Monoplane.  Here is a link to the history of ZK-CGT and other mid-1960s Turbulents:  https://nzcivair.blogspot.com/2010/05/druine-turbulents-of-new-zealand-5.html

And 60 years later this is what a lot of modern sport aircraft look like, Gary Thorne's Vans RV 12 ZK-VGT.  Of course back in the 1960s you were allocated the next registration alphabetically but today you can choose your registration (for a fee).  I guess VGT stands for Van's (of) Gary Thorne.

Thanks for the photo Mark.