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Guest: Graham Edward “Tommy” Thompson
Host: Dave Homewood
Recorded: 22nd of July 2022
Released: 4th of November 2022
Duration: 1 hour 25 minutes 44 seconds
November 2022 marks 50 years since the RNZAF’s de Havilland Vampire fleet retired from service. The Air Force operated 58 Vampires within New Zealand, and at least 44 more leased Vampires in Cyprus and Singapore.
In this episode of the WONZ Show, Dave Homewood talks with former RNZAF de Havilland Vampire pilot “Tommy” Thompson. He was one of the original RNZAF Vampire pilots and was the first postwar-trained pilot to fly the type in New Zealand. Following his conversion training and operational work up at Ohakea, Tommy left with No. 14 Squadron as one of the first pilots to deploy to the Eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus. He talks about life on the island, doing the Coronation tour of Africa in Operation Long Trek Two, exercises with other nations over Malta, etc.
Tommy also talks about incidents in Africa, Cyprus and New Zealand, including his baling out of a Vampire following an aerial collision.
Quick Links:
New Zealand Defence Force Serials for de Havilland Vampires
The WONZ Episode with Rod Dahlberg
The following photos come from Tommy Thompson’s personal collection:
The music heard in this episode is Wild Flower by Joakim Karud.
Thanks for cool photos! Flew the DH100 / Vampire in mid 60s in the Swiss Air Force as the training a/c getting introduced into jet flying – next was the DH115 / Venom. The Vampire was a ‘stealth’ aircraft and only a transponder got it onto the Radar screens of the Swiss ATC. A Swiss engineer offered plans to exchange the engine with a more modern engine and using the resulting space for fuel – the result (on the drawing board) was a 4hr endurance ‘stealth’ ‘fighter’. It was interesting to see the increase of the cockpit’s diameter when going up to 30,000ft – the exercise in pilot training was ‘high altitude flying’….
My first flight in a DH115 was in the one that showed up on a NZ flight magazine a few years back and at the time it was stationed in New Plymouth (if I remember correctly).
In 1970 I had the privilege to be in the first formation that landed Venoms on one of the Swiss highway portions designed to be changed to an emergency airfield within 24 hrs – a provision in case of wartime damage to an Air Force base. Did the same on Hunter in 1976 and on F5-E in the 80s.
Thanks for the comments Werner. Very interesting. The re-engined longer range Vampire concept sounds quite good!
That Vampire is still based at New Plymouth and I hope to publish an interview with the owner, Brett Emeny, at the end of the month as the last of the Vampire Month episodes, so keep an eye out for it.
Enjoyed my mates Cyprus stories, they were great days.
That was a Vampire that Les Milne had the flameout over Mt. Ruapehu on night flying. As we know he glided back to Ohakea and landed safely. To my knowledge he stayed in the RNZAF as I read an obit. in the newspaper in recent times.
Thanks Jim. Sorry I have not been in touch, it’s been a really busy period, but I still want to catch up with you soon and do an interview with you too, if possible.
Yes, that’s fine with me.
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[…] WONZ 263: Vampire Month – Tommy Thompson […]