An air show day keeps the doctor away

Flight hours: 0
Study Hours: 1

I received an email reminder from my SAAA group that there are a number of air shows and events just around the corner. One of them happened to be the Defence Force Air Show at the RAAF base in Richmond, approximately a 40 minute drive for me with the new motorway and with the traffic attending the show, I estimated another 10 to 15 minutes or so.

The air show happened to also be the 85th anniversary of the Royal Australia Air Force (RAAF).

Plans were made to attend on the Saturday, but due to possibly lame weather, I opted for the Sunday instead. A mate of mine, Bill, ended up joining me at the last minute as we made our way to Richmond. The police were quite helpful in directing traffic to the air show through small detours, which made me feel good about my decision to drive instead of catching a train.

I would have preferred to fly myself, as Richmond is only a 10 minute hop from most GA airfields in the Sydney basin, however the base was closed to civilian aircraft movements for a few days.

When we arrived, we were shuttled on to a bus like sheep, to make our way around the base to the air show. It was good to see an aerobatics aircraft performing an accelerated inverted spin as soon as I hopped off to enter the show.

On closer inspection during its maneuvers, the aircraft was Edge 540 being flown by Pip "Why be ordinary when you can be extraordinary!" Borrman.

Some of the types of aircraft on display and used in demonstrations include: Globemaster (Cargo/Troop transport), Hercules (multi role transport), F-111's (long range strike fighter), F/A-18 Super Hornets (Multi role fighter), Some Warbirds, P-3 Orion (mostly surveillance) and the PC-9's that the roulettes RAAF aerobatic team uses.

Midway through the show Alan, an old friend from college days, happened to find me in the crowd (must be my height). Alan and I have caught up recently however Bill and Alan havent seen each other in over 5 years or so. Whilst they were having their catch up, I just kept my eyes skyward looking at the Roulettes performing formation aerobatics.

Here are some pictures taken during the show.