US Airforce F-16 pilot Richard Smeeding looking forward to Warbirds Over Wanaka

Wednesday, 7 March 2018

Richard Smeeding stands on the wing of an F-16 at the 2017 Royal New Zealand Air Force Air show.

US Air Force F-16 pilot Richard 'Punch' Smeeding is promising an exhilarating display when the Fighting Falcon demonstration team performs at Warbirds Over Wanaka International Airshow this Easter.

The F-16 team members are based at the Misawa Air Force base in Japan and will make their first display at a civilian airshow in New Zealand.

The F-16 goes through its paces at the 2017 Royal New Zealand Air Force Air show.

Smeeding said it was only the second time since 1984 that the jets have displayed in New Zealand, after they attended the RNZAF airshow at Ohakea last year.

He rates the F-16 as the best aircraft he's ever flown.

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'One tail, one engine, one pilot – the way God intended,' he said.

'The jet will let me pull minus 3 to 9.9g's, go twice the speed of sound, rage through the mountains at 100ft fully loaded for war and all the time flying like an extension of my body.'

'My favourite thing to do is fly OCA-SEAD (Offensive Counter Air – Suppression of Enemy Air Defences), leading several hundred aircraft missions doing air-to-air while destroying ground targets and dismantling complex IADS (integrated air defence systems) in a single seat fighter.'

Smeeding has flown with the F-16 demonstration team for several years but still gets a kick out of climbing into the cockpit.

'I still have to remind myself that I am actually sitting in such a beautifully terrifying machine. Once the canopy comes down you're 'in the zone', master of your destiny and a terror to the enemy,' Smeeding said.

He will be finishing up with the team soon and his replacement, Captain Jacob 'Primo' Impellizzeri, will be in Wanaka as a ground observer.

Smeeding said the one aircraft he would love to fly is the North American F-86 Sabre.

The Sabre was first built in 1949 and played a pivotal role in the Korean War (1950-1953) engaging with the Russian MIG-15 in some of the first ever jet-to- jet air battles in history.