Richard Smeeding said he still got a kick out of buckling into the F-16 and rated the plane as one of the best he had ever flown.
``I still have to remind myself that I am actually sitting in such a beautifully terrifying machine. One tail, one engine, one pilot - the way God intended,'' he said.
The F-16 had many potent powers that attracted pilots like Mr Smeeding.
``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.''
He noted the F-16 appearance at the airshow would only be the second time the aircraft had displayed in New Zealand since 1984, after they attended the RNZAF airshow at Ohakea last year.
However, the display at Wanaka would be the first ever time the 2400kmh F-16s had made a display at a civilian airshow in New Zealand.
The US F-16 team members and their all-weather multi-role fighter planes are based at the Masawa Air Force base in Japan.
