Airshow profits for flying heritage

Gate takings at the ‘Classics of the Sky’ Tauranga City Airshow are helping to keep some of the vintage aircraft on show there in the air and out for public display.

The organisation behind the airshow is the Bay of Plenty Classic Aircraft Trust.

It operates as www.classicflyersnz.com

Airshow profits – if there are any – go back to the trust and the Sports Aviation Association, says trust chairman David Love.

“They are the people who originally had the airshow here,” says David.

“We are helping them run it; it’s effectively their airshow, just really vamped up.

“They help run it so they get some of the proceeds from it – they are a not-for-profit organisation as well.

“But the majority of it does come to us if we make a profit and we didn’t last time so it cost us money rather than making us any money.”

Any airshow income helps run the Classic Flyers museum and enables the trust to do more to preserve New Zealand’s aviation heritage, says David.

“We are getting an Aermacchi here from the air force, and we are getting a Skyhawk.

“We have collected $30,000, which the government is charging us, then it’s going to cost quite a bit of money to display.

“There are all sorts of bits and pieces like that happening.

“There’s no shortage of things we can put the money to.”

These projects are set against a background of increasing popularity for Tauranga as a centre for classic flying.

Tauranga is the fourth biggest airport in the country, says David, and offers advantages over Ardmore, which was the previous natural centre for classic flying.

“We are a natural place for classic aviation,” says David.

“Lots of airspace, relatively free for flying – unlike Auckland, which is pretty horrendous given the geography up there as there’s restricted airspace with big jets flying through.

“New Zealand is much narrower at that point, you haven’t got as much land to fly over.”

There are more people who want hangars at Tauranga and more will have to be built in the longer term, says David.

“At the moment the aim is just to try and make sure we can break even,” says David. “We do see this as putting on a show for the people of Tauranga.

“It’s an important part of Tauranga life so that’s one of our objectives: to make this a better place to live, a more fun place to live.”