The DVD that captures the essence of this year's Classic Fighters Omaka 2009 Airshow is superb! This year the DVD has been produced by an all new team who have brought together all the essential elements of the biennial three-day event into a neatly packaged 82 minute film. The movie has a fast paced feeling, with a really modern style, which draws the viewer into the subject and puts you right on the spot in the audience at the airshow.
In fact the audience is something of a feature of the film, and I spotted many familiar forum faces there among the photographers, flyers and airshow goers on the field.
The DVD shows all the battles and features of the event well, with an emphasis on the star of the show, the Deere family's Spitfire. There's a lot more besides however including a fair bit of Bristol Freighter footage and an interview with Al Marshall; lots of World War One aircraft and ground battle action; and a really nice section on the Monte Cassino battle sequence and the dogfight between the Spitfire and Me108. The night time show is also well captured, the highlight for me being the wonderful twilight Red Checkers display footage, a totally unique performance that I was so privileged to witness.
There are other excellent interviews throughout the main film and also among the bonus footage with people like Graham Bethell talking about his P-51D Mustang, Lester Hope talking about his marvelous Stuka, the Monte Cassino monastery and other ground displays he and his team built, Dave Lochead covering the re-enactments and vehicles used, Jay McIntyre talking about the maintenance side required on the airfield before an airshow, Graham Orphan giving a history of the airshow, Faye Emeny talking about her part in the Yak 52 team, and much more.
One featurette on the bonus section that I really enjoyed was about, and interviews with, the volunteers who work tirelessly at the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre. All proceeds from this DVD and the airshow itself go back into the running of and future expansion of the Omaka AHC, and it's really great to see the volunteers get the recognition they deserved.
There are a number of really excellent air to air sequences with airshow performers too. The P-40 and Corsair in particular look great, but the lesser known Fleet biplane gets it's own featurette with some lovely footage of it flying around the Marlborough coastline.
Watching this film really brought back many great memories of what was a superb airshow, one that I'll never forget for so many reasons. The team have done a great job and I believe this is the first major production they've done of this nature so they've really excelled themselves considering, as filming a three day airshow and compiling it into a tight, punchy, flowing and concise package like this is never an easy task. Well done.
You can purchase this Official Omaka Classic Fighters 2009 DVD
The full Classic Fighters DVD costs $35 + P&P ($5 within NZ and $10 overseas).
The DVD is produced by the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre. Order your copy now by going to their website here:
http://www.omaka.org.nz/omaka-merchandise.htmAs a footnote, my Mum watched this with me, and though she's not really a mad keen aviation fan as such, she knows a fair bit having had my late Dad and me and my brother all keen on aircraft to contend with - and she thoroughly enjoyed this DVD too, right till the end.
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