On Saturday I had the great pleasure of attending the 71st Anniversary Reunion of No. 485 (NZ) Squadron, the NZ Spitfire Squadron. This was hosted by RNZAF Base Whenuapai, and in attendance were five veteran pilots form the squadron; Owen Hardy, Doug Brown, Harvey Sweetman (the last of the originals of the Squadron), Jim Robinson and Ken Lee.
Also in attendance were Spifires PV270 and MH367.
PV270 is the Mk IX Spitfire owned by Brendon Deere and flying in Al Deere's colours. It was flown by Sean Perrett at this event. MH367 is owned and flown by Doug Brooker. Both put on excellent displays, and were thoroughly appreciated by the veterans, their families and the families of now deceased squadron memebrs, plus the other assembled types like myself who were invited to this wonderful event.
A number of WONZ Forum members were there and so there's now a great thread running on that forum with photo and anecdotal coverage, which starts here:
http://rnzaf.proboards.com/index.cgi?bo ... 529&page=1
Last edited by
Dave Homewood on Mon Feb 27, 2012 5:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.