The Royal New Zealand Air Force’s 40 Squadron will be flying into Whakatāne on Tuesday and Wednesday this week to carry out tactical training exercises at Whakatāne Airport.

Whakatāne District Council Manager Business Services, Aaron Milne, says the RNZAF exercise will involve several night-time landings and take-offs at the airfield, over both nights, with the squadron’s C-130 Hercules aircraft.

“The Air Force has advised that the exercise will take place in the early evening, between the last scheduled departure at 5:25 pm and the last scheduled arrival at 7:40 pm,” Mr Milne says. “We don’t see the Air Force training in our area very often, and based on experience from the last time they were here, the community seems to enjoy their occasional presence in our skies.”

Mr Milne says the exercises themselves will be conducted at night, but the aircraft will land at the airfield around dusk and offload a 4WD, which would then set up some lighting along the runway. “The whole exercise is expected to take two hours, at the end of which the aircraft will land, load the 4WD and depart for Whenuapai Airbase.  This exercise would then be repeated the next night.”
 
The training is dependent upon weather and the aircraft availability.