Some questions regarding RAAF Roulettes

[TehLewis]

Hey everyone,

I'm a year 12 student in Adelaide, Australia and I'm doing a research topic about the Roulettes. My topic asks the question "Should the RAAF invest more money in the Roulettes for recruitment and publicity purposes?"

Even though I go to as many airshows as I can and love many things to do with aviation, I'm just a low level enthusiast and any help or opinions from professionals or other enthusiasts would be thoroughly appreciated.

One of the main things that I wanted to cover was why the Roulettes don't use jet powered aircraft. By no means am I saying that this a bad thing; I mean, every time I watch the Roulettes I'm left in awe because of their fantastic display. It's just that the Blue Angels, Thunderbirds, Russian Knights, Red Arrows, Blue Impulse etc. use jet powered aircraft. Most of the people I have asked said that it's because the RAAF don't have the money to use and support jet powered aircraft for the Roulettes, but I was wondering if this could be confirmed and if the RAAF DOES have enough money, do they choose not to change aircraft to maintain THE PC-9 because it has been successful with the Roulettes? etc.

It would be great if everyone could help out if you can share an opinion, or if you do, give us some facts and figures that would assist me with this project! :D

I hope my aviation noobness hasn't made any of the pros cringe in pain haha

Thanks

Lewis :)

[emeritus]

TL....

In the 50 odd years that I have been in the industry the RAAF seem to have used whatever a/c that were used for flying training at that time. Not sure how long the Roulettes have been in existence. I think that before them there was an aerobatic team using vampires. The name of the team (Red Sales ?) was discontinued after a tragic prang at Sale.

In the worldwide scheme of things the RAAF is a small outfit with limited rescources and has been more of a quality than quantity thing and cannot compete with the big boys in terms of publicity/rescources.

If I were you I would talk to the RAAF publicity people, the Roulettes boss and anyone else in the RAAF that can supply the info you need. ( Why talk to the monkey when you can talk to the organ grinder )

Maybe also try the Military forum here on Pprune.

When you have finished your project I/we would like to see your results.

regards...Emeritus

[Neptunus Rex]

Hi Lewis,

There is one big difference between the Roulettes and the other aerobatic teams The others are all full time team pilots, whereas the Roulettes pilots are working Flying Instructors at the RAAF Central Flying School (CFS) where their 'Day Job' is training new instructors. That is why they use the current RAAF training aircraft, which was the Macchi jet trainer until it was replaced by the PC9.

During the week, the Roulettes aircraft are all busy flying with CFS students and instructors.

[TehLewis]

Thanks for the replies, guys. And thanks for the info too. Very helpful stuff. I'll keep things posted on how things are going too :D