NSW: Skyhawks salute for final flight

AAP General News (Australia)
12-04-2001
NSW: Skyhawks salute for final flight

SYDNEY, Dec 4 AAP - Royal New Zealand Airforce's Skyhawk squadron will bid farewell
to Australia tomorrow with a final fly-over before the squadron is disbanded.

The five-plane party will take off from Nowra on the NSW South Coast, its home base
for ten years.

The Vietnam-era fighter planes will leave at 1.30pm and fly low at 600m over Nowra
and ascend as they pass over Berry, Wollongong and Port Kembla before angling out over
the ocean.

They will then cut back in over Sydney at about 2pm and continue north to the RAAF
base at Williamstown and over Port Stephens.

Due at the RAAF base at Richmond in Sydney's north-west at 2.30pm, they will then salute
Katoomba in the Blue Mountains before passing over Canberra at about 2.45pm.

The final pass will take place over Thredbo, in the Snowy Mountains south of the national
capital, and the return course will take them over Bega on the NSW South Coast at 3.15pm.

The planes will then descend to 400m for the final pass over Nowra before landing at their base.

Skyhawk squadron will be disbanded later this month.

AAP wo/arb/jnb

KEYWORD: SKYHAWK

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