Annual RNZAF Exercise Wise Owl takes off at Base Auckland

For the next two weeks (August 10th through 21st), the RNZAF is carrying out a pilot training exercise out of RNZAF Base Auckland called Exercise Wise Owl.

Wise Owl is part of the 18-month pilot’s ‘Wings’ course, which develops fully qualified pilots for the Royal New Zealand Air Force and Royal New Zealand Navy under No. 14 Squadron.

According to an post on the NZDF Community Alerts Facebook, flying will take place Monday to Friday from August 10th and 21st between 0830 and 1630.

Four T-6 Texan II aircraft performing a buzz and break before landing back at Whenuapai after a photo mission with a fifth Texan | Photo: Noah Stohr-Waldren

The exercise requires students, in T-6C Texan II aircraft, to undertake flight training away from their more familiar airspace at RNZAF Base Ohakea. T-6C Texan II aircraft are used to train Royal New Zealand Air Force pilots during their Wings Course and pilot instructors during the Flying Instructor Course.

There are six Texan’s involved with the exercise at RNZAF Base Auckland, provided by No. 14 Squadron based at RNZAF Base Ohakea

Wise Owl provides several challenges for student pilots, including “close flying” - an important skill pilots need to know to be operational in the next step of their career as they move to their fixed wing or rotary squadrons after graduation in December. On the course, seven student pilots are elevating their skills with two daily flights, six days a week, in the T-6C Texan II.

One of the five student pilots on a previous Exercise Wise Owl course, Pilot Officer Phil Percy, said learning to fly solo as part of a formation was a highlight of his course, as well as being a huge confidence booster.

Flight Lieutenant Fothergill said “They go from never having flown in close formation, to by the end of those 14 flights, being comfortable doing high-angle bank turns and aerobatics following each other”.

The pilots on the course are expected to ‘gain their wings’ later this year, following their around 18 months of flight training.