Falcons fly high in spectacular display

DOGFIGHT: RNZAF Black Falcons aerobatics team members look to be almost touching wings as they engage in a spectacular manoeuvre in the sky over Gisborne yesterday. Crowds gathered along the foreshore and on Titirangi/Kaiti Hill to enjoy the display captured extensively on camera and video. Pictures by Liam Clayton

A Royal New Zealand Air Force squadron known as the Black Falcons accomplished a mission to entertain Gisborne in the air and on the ground yesterday.

Gisborne Mayor Rehette Stoltz enthusiastically accepted an invitation to sit in the cockpit of an all black Beechcraft T-6c Texan II at Gisborne Airport.

The mayor was impressed and happily asked many questions of Flight Lieutenant Ed Drane, who had earlier been one of five Black Falcon pilots to entertain large crowds in the sky over Gisborne at lunchtime.

Mayor Stoltz showed a particular interest in the ejector seat.

The Black Falcons travel around the country to perform at air shows, open days and community events.

Gisborne (yesterday) and Hawke’s Bay (today) were late additions to their 2023 schedule to honour the fortitude of communities devastated by Cyclone Gabrielle.

An earlier trip to Napier for its Art Deco Festival was cancelled due to the cyclone.

“If we can provide a bit of relief to the locals, that would be great,” Flight Lieutenant Drane said.

Some of the Black Falcons had previously been embedded into other New Zealand Defence Force agencies to help the initial cyclone relief effort.

The Black Falcons have three specific displays for different weather conditions.

Gisborne’s display started with “the full show” consisting of looping manoeuvres.

The pilots moved on to the “flat show” where they “put on a bit of power” and performed high-speed low passes.

The Black Falcons were originally formed to celebrate the turn of the millennium in Gisborne.

Operating five Italian-built Aermacchi MB-339CB trainer jets, the team performed five displays before disbanding later that year.

They were re-established in 2015 in time for the RNZAF’s 80th anniversary in 2017, which was celebrated with an airshow at RNZAF Base Ohakea.

The Black Falcons are equipped with the two-seater Beechcraft T-6 Texan II turboprop, which has a top speed of 316 knots (580kph) and a ceiling of 31,000 feet.

Flight Lieutenant Drane, who has mainly flown the Lockheed C-130 Hercules in the air force, said a Hercules could fly at the same speed “but it’s certainly not as manoeuvrable as these (T-6 Texans)”.

“They’re awesome to fly . . . a real capable aircraft. You can really throw it around.”

Flight Lieutenant Drane joined the RNZAF in 2011 and has travelled all over the world, conducting air mobility tasking ranging from humanitarian relief throughout the Pacific region, multiple exercises in the US, Antarctic flights and an operational deployment to the Middle East, as well as missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Black Falcons remain based at Ohakea where the pilots are instructors with the Central Flying School, which is responsible for training flying instructors and maintaining flying instructional standards across the air force.