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Traffic issues at Air Force celebrations

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Traffic issues at Air Force celebrations

3News NZ

The Air Force said it was doing its best to get everyone onto the air base

The Air Force said it was doing its best to get everyone onto the air base

An Air Force anniversary celebration is causing huge traffic problems on State Highway 1 in the Manawatu.

Traffic has been backed up for up to 10km on either side of the Ohakea Air Base, which is hosting an international air show as part of 75th anniversary festivities for the Air Force.

The 6.5km stretch of road between Bulls and Sanson, on which Ohakea is located, doubles as SH1 and SH3 and through traffic from the north, south, and between Whanganui and Palmerston North was being slowed.

Traffic mounted from about 9am and though it had eased off by about 1pm it was expected to rise again about 3pm when people left the air show.

A police communications spokesman said traffic had been backed up north of Bulls and south of Sanson.

Through traffic was advised to use detours, though they could be slow as the nearest crossing of the Rangitikei River to that at Bulls was about 8km to the north.

The Air Force said it was doing its best to get everyone onto the air base.

The show at Ohakea includes flybys by the Royal Australian Air Force's FA-18 Hornet fighters and the United States Air Force C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft.

There are static displays of military aircraft from Singapore and Australia and displays and flybys of historical warbirds such as the Spitfire, Mustang, Vampire and a Fokker DVII.

The RNZAF was set up in 1937 to provide trained pilots to Britain's Royal Air Force.

It no longer has an air combat wing, which was disbanded in 2001, ending the careers of the 17-strong Skyhawk fighter/bomber fleet and the 18-strong Aermacchi jet training fleet.

Most recently it took delivery of the $771 million French-built eight NH90 helicopters, which replaced the aging Iroquois helicopters.

NZN

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Comments

1/04/2012 5:47:17 p.m.

Lisa H wrote:

We waited in traffic for a while before taking some back roads to get there. The show was fantastic, would definately love to see it again in Ohakea, we'd plan our route a bit better next time.

1/04/2012 4:59:33 p.m.

Athol wrote:

What a fantastic day. Well done to everyone involved in this really sucessful day. Great to see the overseas airforces getting in behind our 75 year mildstone.They to seemed to be having a great time. The sun was out, cool planes to see and families having a great day out. Thanks RNZAF.

1/04/2012 2:56:34 p.m.

Andrew wrote:

It’s all happened before. Only in a more spectacular fashion. The two-day events held during the late ‘50’s drew crowds in excess of 100,000 and were reported to be the country’s biggest ever events with traffic jams to match. And in those days they allowed the jets to fly supersonic.

1/04/2012 12:33:35 p.m.

Anne wrote:

Excellent day. Very well organised by the RNZAF and did make us all very proud of you. Traffic hassles happen, despite the best of plans and although we arrived a bit late,we had a truly great time. Displays and people simply the best. Lets have lots of accolades instead of listening to the moaners. PLEASE, TV and papers- report what a great occasion this was.

31/03/2012 7:50:53 p.m.

Christine wrote:

Great Air show, well done NZ Air Force, but it took us 3 hours to get there from Feilding!! What was the rationale behind sending traffic from Feilding, Palmerston North AND Wellington down Fagan Rd, Speedy Road etc and NOT having anyone directing converging traffic. Bad planning NZTA but you didnt quite ruin our day.

31/03/2012 6:51:24 p.m.

Tony wrote:

You just need to be organised, It took us about than an hour from palmerston North at 8am and less than an hour to get home at 4:30pm. The Airshow was really worth attending. It was always going to be very busy.

31/03/2012 5:49:37 p.m.

nathan kilmister wrote:

bloody awesome day and even though traffic ws an issue it was worth the wait. magnificent aircraft and finnally got to see some of our ww2 history (two spits corsair grummen p51 warhawk etc)makes me very proud to be a kiwi and am very proud of our rnzaf

31/03/2012 5:11:36 p.m.

Warren Hyslop wrote:

Feel sorry for the people who had prepay tickets, but where was the police controlling the state highways this morning? not even a radio report on the local stations? Bad organisation. We ended up turnong around and coming back home after 2 hours at a standstill at Awahuri.

31/03/2012 4:07:37 p.m.

Bob wrote:

It was definatley worth the long wait in traffic to get there, well done RNZAF you put on a good show. Huge turnout!