Point Cook Air Pageant 2010

[Critical Reynolds No]

Well done to the boys and girls for a great day. Thumbs up:ok:

Great to see the sabre in formation with the Sptfire and Mustang. Boy was that PC-21 a bullet!

Although can we get some new commentators please? I wanted the PC-21 commentator to do it all day. His enthusiasm for (other than his product) the older aircraft was nice.

Titanic music? Why?

Didn't get to see the museum so did not see if the Strike display with the F-111 was opened.

Cheers

[VH-XXX]

Careful what you say about the commentators, one of which is a very close relative and I think he did an unbiased excellent job! versus the Pilatus company representative whom only knew about one aircraft only!

Indeed however it did sound good and with around half as much more HP than the PC9 so it should. Apparently it is being pitched as a top end machine with hawk-like performance and it can be "dialled down" for ab-initio training, which does seem strange (if that is considered a factor) given the reverting back to CT4's for cost. Thread drift sorry.

The strike hangar was indeed open, complete with F111, Phantom and Canberra bomber.

[VBPCGUY]

Was a fantastic event and very well run and organised, kids had a ball heaps of people there, Sabre was something special, PC-21 very cool, hope it is taken up as a replacement for the PC-9

Few of my pictures from the day if you care to have a look:ok:

Login | Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/album.php?aid=207597&id=758898988&ref=mf)

[Centaurus]

The strike hangar was indeed open

Excuse my ignorance, but what exactly is a "Strike" Hangar. And what's the difference between a normal hangar and a Strike hangar? Hardened concrete on one but not the other, maybe:ok:

[Sunfish]

What is it about aircraft that attracted the weirdest collection of spotters yesterday that I have ever seen? There is something pathetic about bearded, pony tailed, Four foot tall dwarfs, as wide as they are tall, photographing someone filling a Tiger Moth fuel tank, using a camera with a lens the size of a Forty Four gallon drum.

Frankly, the stars of the day were the spotters, although the ageing pathetic military vehicle buffs dressed in fragments of uniforms crack me up.

PC21 display was excellent. You don't often see much "eyeballs out" aerobatics.

"Strike" Hangar = Strike aircraft = Canberra + F111 + F4E Phantom

[VH-XXX]

We had a spotter at my local field that matches that description early that morning and I can't believe he wasn't at the pageant, I guess he was ferreting out the ones that couldn't make it.

[Fantome]

"Strike" Hangar = Strike aircraft = Canberra + F111 + F4E Phantom

Strike me lucky, cobber - Vintage hangar=vintage planes=vintage wine and song=far from the hurly burly

[vee1-rotate]

What is it about aircraft that attracted the weirdest collection of spotters yesterday that I have ever seen? There is something pathetic about bearded, pony tailed, Four foot tall dwarfs, as wide as they are tall, photographing someone filling a Tiger Moth fuel tank, using a camera with a lens the size of a Forty Four gallon drum.


never a truer statement spoken...was nice to see the old and slow warbirds but I left after about an hour...not a whole lot of excitement...the 2 jet aircraft that were flying were about as loud as my vacuum cleaner on full...

excellent place for an airshow if I must say...an abundance of grass and open space, and great facilities...shame PC isn't used more often for these sorts of things!

[Captain Dart]

Don't knock the spotters; the kid with the bike leant up against the airfield fence has long gone, and has become a Gen Y horror in a 'hoodie' texting on his damn phone about the next party to gatecrash. He might look up idly at a loud military jet but the only other aircraft he will ever care about will be the Low Cost Carrier's airliner flying him up to the Gold Coast for 'schoolies'.

One glimmer of hope was on James May's 'Toy Story' recently where he and a group of Gen Y's assembled Airfix models leading up to the creation of a 1:1 scale plastic Spitfire. One young lad did not want to 'explode' his model like the others did; he'd actually put it together and wanted to keep it. Perhaps he will visit his local model shop, conspicuous among the pathetic greying 'tragics' like myself, and buy a kit for himself rather than a pre-assembled die-cast automobile.

As those of us involved with old aircraft become greyer and greyer, the spotters are pretty much all we've got; every spotter a living treasure, actually interested in what some of us are doing to restore and operate old flying machines, paying good money to attend airshows, buying the magazines and maybe paying for the odd flight.

Reggie S. Potter is always welcome at my airfield!

[j3pipercub]

Awesome, we're talking about an Air Pageant and some greying tragic turns it into a Gen Y bashing exercise... For the record, My bedroom is still full of Airfix models, yet I'm a Gen Y?!?!? I musn't be, cos heaven forbid your stereotyping is incorrect!!!!!

But the Airfix kit was awesome, here it is in full

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. (http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=3E6623394FD18B1C&search_query=james+may+spitfire)

And Sunfish, leave the spotters alone, they might find your hobby of bending firewalls and Qantas bashing a bit pathetic too...

It looks like an awesome day, Nice collection of warbirds. Did the P-40 and P-51 fly? What about the Yak?

j3

[VH-XXX]

They pretty much all flew, the Yak, P40, 51, Hudson etc. I'm not sure what happened but Jeff Trapett taxiied out his Mustang but came straight back in again without taking off (it flew in ok the day before), nothing was heard on the commentry as to why. I haven't heard if it left from there late Sunday or Monday; he had his Wirraway there too so it may not have been leaving on Sunday anyway.

I was going to put this in the photos thread in response to J3, but moved it here:


And a Ryan a few in front of you too I see...


Yep, it would be over from Tyabb. There was a fair number over from Tyabb who are regulars on the "circuit."

Trojan, they are nothing flash I'm afraid. If I had a proper lens on an SLR most of them would be photos taken in flight.

I'm yet again wondering as to the wisdom of how the Roulettes operate over and towards the crowd. Yes I understand that they are military etc and not required to comply with the standard CASA rules and regs for operations at public gatherings, however they are certainly not immune to crashing into each other during formation flight.

http://www.adf-serials.com/dfs/roulette-midair.pdf

Daredevil pilot escapes crash - National - www.smh.com.au (http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Daredevil-pilot-escapes-crash/2005/01/21/1106110948110.html)

Central Flying School RAAF - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Flying_School_RAAF)

And some older history:

"The Red Sales flew four de Havilland Vampire T33 aircraft and their first public display was at the Royal Hobart Regatta in February 1962. The team also performed at Wagga Wagga. However, in August the four aircraft crashed during low level formation aerobatics practice seven miles south-west of the East Sale aerodrome. The formation struck the ground during recovery from a barrel roll and disintegrated on impact and all six occupants in the aircraft were killed."



While I was googling I found this: Interesting!


"On 13 December 1978 a CT-4 crashed at East Sale while carrying ‘Santa Claus' over a crowd of about 300 children at the annual base Christmas Treat. The children watched Santa wave as the CT-4 circled the oval, but on the second circuit the aircraft clipped a 10-metre pine tree, fell to the ground and slid for about 30 metres before bursting into flames near the Airwomens' Block. CFS instructor Flight Lieutenant Paul Derbyshire (RAF) was unhurt in the accident but Santa WOFF Tom Baker in disguise, received a fractured right leg and was taken to the Gippsland Base Hospital. WOFF Baker said, ‘I was waving to the kids and next thing I knew we'd hit the ground. When I saw the flames I thought I threw the beard and wig out, but I haven't been able to find my beard."

[vee1-rotate]

They pretty much all flew, the Yak, P40, 51, Hudson etc. I'm not sure what happened but Jeff Trapett taxiied out his Mustang but came straight back in again without taking off (it flew in ok the day before), nothing was heard on the commentry as to why. I haven't heard if it left from there late Sunday or Monday; he had his Wirraway there too so it may not have been leaving on Sunday anyway.

It was coughing and spluttering when it taxiied past me with the others, so not sure if that had something to do with it.

[BD1959]

I thought it an awesome day & thought it flowed far smoother than any displays I've seen at Avalon. Yes, I'm greying, but there's something about the unique shapes of yester-gen aircraft which modern aircraft just don't have. That said, the PC21 was incredible.

Hats off to ATC who did a great job :ok: - but why can't we PPLs make life easier for these guys by fully following the procedures laid out in the AIPSUPs? I lost count of the requests for POB when it plainly stated this as a requirement on first contact.

Must admit, my first time being #2 to a PC9 - not that I saw him for long!!

Felt sorry for GRND who were swamped by requests for taxi clearance at the end of the day ... and I do forgive them forgetting us - the sight of the Hudson departing made up for the 15min wait.

Didn't make it into the museum but did make it into some of the hangars. Loved the work being done on the Mozzie and Bristol.

Brilliant day, guys!!

[VH-XXX]

I found ATC to be a little painful on the way in but ok on the way out once they got their rythm happening. They had me and another aircraft holding, but then decided to let in the aircraft based on the order that they reminded the controller that they were still holding and also based on the level of urgency in their voice. If that same controller was driving the GAAP-like airspace at Moorabbin they would have had people stacking into each other very early in the piece. In their defence they are not civilian controllers.1

Heading out from an airshow is always an issue as everyone simply wants to leave first and get home. It's always hard too as most of the aircraft start their engines, crank up their radios and ask almost immediately for a taxi clearance. I thought that may have been alleviated in this instance as aircraft had allocated timeslots for departure however it seems that nobody cared about that.

[BD1959]

Hmmm... I don't think I was informed of my allocated departure timeslot.

BD

[Mick.B]

Was lucky enough to meet the Demo Pilot Reto Aeschlimann when we went to Point Cook. What a hell of a top bloke. We met him by chance in the morning on his way out to his PC-21 for the Phillip Island display. After chatting for a few minutes he told us to come and see him in the afternoon before his display at Point cook. He has a great conection with kids and couldnt have been more helpfull with there questions. ( and mine :) ) The boys were given hats, stickers and books on the PC-21. He even insisted he take us for a look us up in the cockpit and around the aircraft. Fantastic time for all of us and certainly put on one hell of a show. That -3g outside knife edge turn was incredible. Now lets hope we buy them.


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[A37575]

The formation struck the ground during recovery from a barrel roll and disintegrated on impact and all six occupants in the aircraft were killed.

Reg Jones was the formation leader. A few years earlier we were on the same CFS Flying Instructor Course and flew together. The day after the crash I flew the brother of one of the victims (Martie Burke) and a Court of Inquiry member (Sqn Ldr Ken Godfrey)from Moorabbin to East Sale. We circled the crash sites. Quite eerie to see the four splashes of wreckage on the ground. Two close together and the other two at angles as they obviously try to pull up at the last second. Seems Reg started the barrel roll too early with his aircraft barely above the horizon when he rolled. A fatal mistake.

[Roller Merlin]

One of the best historical airshows you will find in this country and free of charge to boot! A real credit to the organizers and participants. Thanks to the RAAF Museum staff and volunteers - you really did a fantastic job!