WONZ 170 – WONZ Christmas Party – Geoff Cooper and John Denton

Guest: Geoff Cooper, and John Denton

Host: Dave Homewood

Recorded: 3rd of December 2017

Released: 15th of December 2017

Duration: 1 hour 48 seconds

In the second and final recording from the recent WONZ Christmas Party we hear initially a short piece from Captain Geoff Cooper of Fly DC3 New Zealand giving his pre-flight briefing to passengers and also his welcome to the WONZ Forum members who have gathered in the Fly DC3 hangar for the event.

We then hear from John Denton, a former jet fighter pilot with the RNZAF in the 1950’s through till the 1970’s. And John was one of the first big stars of the New Zealand Warbirds airshows, as he displayed the original de Havilland Venom ZK-VNM on the circuit for several years. One of the great displays of the 1980’s and 1990’s was John in the Venom performing a tail chase behind Warbirds President Trevor Bland in the North American Mustang, ZK-TAF. John talks about this and more, and he goes through step by step what happened the day he crashed the Venom through the fence at the end of the Ardmore runway and ended up in a turnip paddock across the road.

This episode was recorded in front of a live audience in a hangar on an active airfield, so there is some aircraft noise and the audio quality is reflected by the circumstances.

Quick Links:

• New Zealand Warbirds Association

• New Zealand Warbirds Association on Facebook

• Fly DC3 New Zealand (our venue hosts)

• Fly DC3 New Zealand on Facebook