NSW: Skyhawks salute for final flight

AAP General News (Australia)
12-05-2001
NSW: Skyhawks salute for final flight

The Royal New Zealand Airforce's Skyhawk squadron will bid farewell to Australia today
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 this afternoon and fly over Nowra,
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, over Port Stephens before heading to the RAAF base at Richmond in
Sydney's north-west.

The planes will then salute Katoomba in the Blue Mountains before passing over Canberra
at about 2.45pm, and then flying over Thredbo, in the Snowy Mountains south of the capital.

The return course will take them over Bega on the NSW South Coast at 3.15pm and the
planes will then descend to 400m for the final pass over Nowra before landing at their
base.

The squadron will be disbanded later this month.

AAP RTV wo/arb/rg

KEYWORD: SKYHAWK (SYDNEY)

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