RAAF Richmond Airshow
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well I thought it was a great day. Continious flying programme, I thought the pig display was first class and a really tight display by the 4 F-18's. simmo's F-18 display at the end was the cream on the cake. well done to all involved!!!
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What a great event. Good flying and static displays. Excellent transport in and out. An excellent RAAF Base Airshow.
For those thinking it wasn't that good the website promoted it as a celebration of the RAAF base at Richmond and establishment of the RAAF, not an international event. I wager the resources are limited as Avalon gets the lions share.
http://www.defence.gov.au/raaf/airshow/index.htm
TH
For those thinking it wasn't that good the website promoted it as a celebration of the RAAF base at Richmond and establishment of the RAAF, not an international event. I wager the resources are limited as Avalon gets the lions share.
http://www.defence.gov.au/raaf/airshow/index.htm
TH
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Far better than last years Avalon!(prolly the last 2!) I hope some organisers were at the show to see how it should be done!
Also I voluntier to do the comments next time. When I say I will shut up to listen to the Spitie or Musie, I will SHUT UP!
Also I voluntier to do the comments next time. When I say I will shut up to listen to the Spitie or Musie, I will SHUT UP!
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CRN
Nope, my car was at Richmond, it saved me going to the gym that night, my first concern was for my wife. That's why I was so pi**ed off, with the lack of buses for Richmond after the show.
Kickatinalong.
Kickatinalong.
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The RAAF received some very flattering comments on the quality of the airshow from some very influential aviation types. This included senior reps from government, industry (Boeing, Lockheed etc) and the ADF alike.
The display timeline was very tight and all aircraft captains performed admirably to adhere strictly to timeline. The planning was generally very thorough and was pivotal to the shows success.
Rumour has it that the organisers of Avalon were briefed to take notes.
As was mentioned previously, the lack of adequate advertising / marketing was obvious. Marketing and self promotion is something the ADF is very poor at, and this was certainly evident here. To attract quality candidates, the ADF needs a slick recruiting process. This was certainly debriefed in depth (the crowd sizes were a tad dissappointing), however my guess is that the lesson will not be learned.
Roulettes down to 5 due to lead breaking his leg. Pretty hard to reorganise a routine a week prior to the event with a pilot not trained up to lead.
As for civil aircraft arriving and departing the aerodrome. It was certainly considered very seriously, however the organising team were very concerned with parking space and the requirement to close the aerodrome at around 9am to facilitate military aircarft ops. They decided ( to the displeasure of some) to prohibit civil aircraft.
The display timeline was very tight and all aircraft captains performed admirably to adhere strictly to timeline. The planning was generally very thorough and was pivotal to the shows success.
Rumour has it that the organisers of Avalon were briefed to take notes.
As was mentioned previously, the lack of adequate advertising / marketing was obvious. Marketing and self promotion is something the ADF is very poor at, and this was certainly evident here. To attract quality candidates, the ADF needs a slick recruiting process. This was certainly debriefed in depth (the crowd sizes were a tad dissappointing), however my guess is that the lesson will not be learned.
Roulettes down to 5 due to lead breaking his leg. Pretty hard to reorganise a routine a week prior to the event with a pilot not trained up to lead.
As for civil aircraft arriving and departing the aerodrome. It was certainly considered very seriously, however the organising team were very concerned with parking space and the requirement to close the aerodrome at around 9am to facilitate military aircarft ops. They decided ( to the displeasure of some) to prohibit civil aircraft.
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I thought the airshow was good - not fantastic though. Wish the USAF could have sent a few super hornets, f16s, apaches etc.
Pitty we didnt have a tiger on show either.
Also would have liked NZ to show us their 757 display.
What I thought was abysmal was parking and the departure at the end. Absolute chaos. Needed to keep the parking attendants to help unpark the cars. All those pushy inconsiderate twits who just blocked cars continually. Glad I didnt public transport it either as the state rails finest brokedown.....
Ahwell.
Pitty we didnt have a tiger on show either.
Also would have liked NZ to show us their 757 display.
What I thought was abysmal was parking and the departure at the end. Absolute chaos. Needed to keep the parking attendants to help unpark the cars. All those pushy inconsiderate twits who just blocked cars continually. Glad I didnt public transport it either as the state rails finest brokedown.....
Ahwell.
C5 used every now & then to bring in heavy machinery (fork lifts & semi trailer tractors, "other" machinery & equipment. First one to come in in early 80's actually blew away the bitumen on part of the 30 turning node
Metrosexual
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I went early on Sat morning, no traffic, got to park my car easily, and left just after the flying displays - no hassles whatsoever.
F111 was awesome, & i was surprised at the sound of the Meteor!
My one gripe.....that 'orrible bagpipe music that just wouldn't stop! Drove me absolutley nuts!!
F111 was awesome, & i was surprised at the sound of the Meteor!
My one gripe.....that 'orrible bagpipe music that just wouldn't stop! Drove me absolutley nuts!!
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It was interesting seeing the state of Schofields on the train home. I haven't been out there since the last show (1985?). I was always told it was sold for houses. I couldn't see a house for cooee. Bit of a clean up it could be used again
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Hello,
I'm very interested by the story about Richmond Aerodrome (post #3), and more precisely, by the ex Guillaux Caudron plane JC Marduel bought.
Is anbybody do know if this plane ever existe ? I'm particularly interested by this plane propeller ... and if somedy have a good photo of it, it will be marvellous !
PM
I'm very interested by the story about Richmond Aerodrome (post #3), and more precisely, by the ex Guillaux Caudron plane JC Marduel bought.
Is anbybody do know if this plane ever existe ? I'm particularly interested by this plane propeller ... and if somedy have a good photo of it, it will be marvellous !
PM
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Defence Budget................
I would say who knows??
Townsville just had their RAAF airshow, they don't come too thick and fast these days, what with all the offshore work at the moment, wars, tsunamis and natural disasters, PNG prangs etc. AND not to mention the v e r y stretched defence budget.
Have a young friend now flying C17's out of Amberley and he is all over the place.
So not sure if anything is scheduled but could be sometime before you see anything resembling an airshow, I'd say just make the most from looking at individual aircraft movements!!
Townsville just had their RAAF airshow, they don't come too thick and fast these days, what with all the offshore work at the moment, wars, tsunamis and natural disasters, PNG prangs etc. AND not to mention the v e r y stretched defence budget.
Have a young friend now flying C17's out of Amberley and he is all over the place.
So not sure if anything is scheduled but could be sometime before you see anything resembling an airshow, I'd say just make the most from looking at individual aircraft movements!!
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No word on Richmond hosting one for a few years. The next two will be at Willy & Pearce. Although unsure which one will host which year. Plus, as gutful has stated, they may not even hold one due to commitments and the GFC.
2011 is the 90th year of the RAAF and word was that Willytown would have it.
They also try to get to other bases first before restarting the sequence. So we've had Richmond (2006), Edinburgh (2007), Amberley (2008), Townsville (2009) and then Pearce (2010) and Williamtown (2011). So leaves others like East Sale, Point Cook, Darwin, Fairbairn etc before Richmond gets another look in.
2011 is the 90th year of the RAAF and word was that Willytown would have it.
They also try to get to other bases first before restarting the sequence. So we've had Richmond (2006), Edinburgh (2007), Amberley (2008), Townsville (2009) and then Pearce (2010) and Williamtown (2011). So leaves others like East Sale, Point Cook, Darwin, Fairbairn etc before Richmond gets another look in.
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Richmond Aerodrome Beginnings
Flying from Richmond commenced about a few months earlier than October 1916. From the memoirs of one Delfosse Badgery -
When war broke out, Guillaux had been immediately recalled to France. He had taken with him his Bleriot monoplane, but had sold his Caudron biplane to a young Frenchman, J.C. Marduel, who conducted a school of languages in Castlereagh Street, Sydney.
It is difficult to imagine anyone more adventurous than Marduel, for, having bought an aeroplane, he decided to teach himself to fly it. The team of mechanics with Guillaux had assembled the aircraft, which had been flown by Guillaux in test flights. It was stored in a shed near Centennial Park, and Marduel bravely began his self-taught flying experiments in that park. Attempting to rise from the ground, he crashed into the branches of a Moreton Bay fig tree. The aircraft was damaged, but the aviator was unhurt. It was at that rather late stage that Del’s advice and help were sought. If Marduel had joined forces with Del at the beginning, they could have established a profitable flying school, as the larger Caudron owned by Marduel was a two seater and he was agreeable to using his machine for that purpose.
Del realized that, if he could repair the damaged machine, Centennial Park was totally unsuitable as a flying-field. Its sand-dunes, scrubs, swamps and lakes provided no large level space of cleared ground, and its situation on ridges between the Harbour and the Ocean was one which suffered from fitful sea-breezes and turbulent air-currents, such as that which had contributed to Marduel's mishap.
Flavelle's paddock at Concord was too small, and too much encumbered with stumps and trees, for use as a flying-school field. It therefore became necessary for Del to find a site for an aerodrome large enough, level and clear enough to be used with very little effort of preparation, yet within a short traveling distance of the city, but not in a densely inhabited suburb.
If such a place could be found, and a hangar and workshop built there, and if Marduel's Caudron could be borrowed, leased or acquired and economically repaired, then Del's dream of a Sydney Flying School could materialize.
As the Australian Federal Government, through its Department of Defence, was taking an extremely limited view of the use of aeroplanes in wartime, and was proceeding in a leisurely pace with the instruction of only four military officers at the Central Flying School at Point Cook, Del and his cousins asked the New South Wales Government for assistance in providing an aerodrome in order to establish a Civilian Flying School, from which, military aviators could also be trained.
The State Government, under the ministry led by Premier W.A. Holman, took a favorable view of that proposal. The arrangements for selecting and developing a site for a Government Aerodrome, under the supervision of the Minister for Public Works, Arthur Griffith, were entrusted to A.G. Cutler, Chief Engineer of the Public Works Department.
In April 1915. Del accompanied Cutler on visits to various areas of Crown Land on the outskirts of Sydney, but Del considered that none of the suggested sites was suitable as an aerodrome. The Government had insisted that the site for the aerodrome should be outside the metropolitan residential area.
"I know the ideal place," said Del.
"Where?" Cutler asked him.
"Richmond Common:" said Del.
Several times he had made flights to that vicinity thirty miles to the northwest of Sydney, and had landed on the large, level, treeless common of the town of Richmond, on the Hawkesbury River. Del knew that this area was close to the original farm of his grandfather, Samuel Badgery. Hence Badgerys Creek.
“The Common belongs to the townspeople," said Cutler. "It is administered by trustees, but I suppose that they would give permission for an aerodrome there. It can never be sold to private owners, or used for cultivation or residential sites, and it is not used much for its original intention as a pasture for the townspeoples' cows. Most of them don't keep cows nowadays, as milk is supplied by dairy farmers who keep their cows in their own paddocks."
"It's not Crown Land, then?" asked Del.
"No, it's a Town Common, under an old Act of Parliament based on English law and practice. If you want to have your aerodrome, flying-school, hangars, and workshops there, the State Government has no power to make the land immediately available, as it could if it was Crown Land. You will have to obtain permission from the Trustees of the Common. Are you sure that this is the best site?"
"Easily the best.'" said Del, enthusiastically. After 125 years of settlement, the only Crown Land left unoccupied within thirty miles of Sydney was on hilly, stony, sandy, or scrubby soil - unsuitable for farm-cultivation or pastures, and for that reason also the unoccupied Crown Lands were unsuitable for aerodrome sites. It was a stroke of luck that the Richmond Town Common, a large level space that had been cleared of its trees by the pioneer settlers of the town, in quest of firewood, had been so heavily grazed by town cows and horses that it had a turf-like covering of grass that would make an ideal runway for aeroplanes taking off or landing.
The trustees of the Common gave permission for its use as an aerodrome, and for the erection of a hangar at the edge of the ground. In the meantime the State Government entered into negotiations to acquire the Common, this involved complicated legal procedures.
In April, 1915, Del Badgery and J. C. Marduel erected a shed on Richmond Common. Marduel’s damaged Caudron biplane was housed there, while Del worked at repairing it, and eventually he took it up for test flights.
That was the beginning of the Richmond Aerodrome - today one of the main bases of the Royal Australian Air Force. It was Delfosse Badgery who selected the site, and first flew an aeroplane there.
At that time (April 1915) the war in Europe was beginning to spread much more widely than had been expected. The Ottoman Empire (Turkey) had entered the war on the side of the Central European Powers (Germany, Austria and Hungary). This closed the Dardanelles Strait to the transit of war-materials by sea to Russia. Large British, French, Indian, Australian, and New Zealand forces were encamped in Egypt, in training for a military attack on Turkey, which would include an attempt to force the Dardanelles Strait by a military landing on the Gallipoli Peninsula.
Although 20,000 Australian troops had been sent to Egypt, leaving Australia in November 1914, there was no Australian Military Aviation unit in that expeditionary force.
Flying from Richmond commenced about a few months earlier than October 1916. From the memoirs of one Delfosse Badgery -
When war broke out, Guillaux had been immediately recalled to France. He had taken with him his Bleriot monoplane, but had sold his Caudron biplane to a young Frenchman, J.C. Marduel, who conducted a school of languages in Castlereagh Street, Sydney.
It is difficult to imagine anyone more adventurous than Marduel, for, having bought an aeroplane, he decided to teach himself to fly it. The team of mechanics with Guillaux had assembled the aircraft, which had been flown by Guillaux in test flights. It was stored in a shed near Centennial Park, and Marduel bravely began his self-taught flying experiments in that park. Attempting to rise from the ground, he crashed into the branches of a Moreton Bay fig tree. The aircraft was damaged, but the aviator was unhurt. It was at that rather late stage that Del’s advice and help were sought. If Marduel had joined forces with Del at the beginning, they could have established a profitable flying school, as the larger Caudron owned by Marduel was a two seater and he was agreeable to using his machine for that purpose.
Del realized that, if he could repair the damaged machine, Centennial Park was totally unsuitable as a flying-field. Its sand-dunes, scrubs, swamps and lakes provided no large level space of cleared ground, and its situation on ridges between the Harbour and the Ocean was one which suffered from fitful sea-breezes and turbulent air-currents, such as that which had contributed to Marduel's mishap.
Flavelle's paddock at Concord was too small, and too much encumbered with stumps and trees, for use as a flying-school field. It therefore became necessary for Del to find a site for an aerodrome large enough, level and clear enough to be used with very little effort of preparation, yet within a short traveling distance of the city, but not in a densely inhabited suburb.
If such a place could be found, and a hangar and workshop built there, and if Marduel's Caudron could be borrowed, leased or acquired and economically repaired, then Del's dream of a Sydney Flying School could materialize.
As the Australian Federal Government, through its Department of Defence, was taking an extremely limited view of the use of aeroplanes in wartime, and was proceeding in a leisurely pace with the instruction of only four military officers at the Central Flying School at Point Cook, Del and his cousins asked the New South Wales Government for assistance in providing an aerodrome in order to establish a Civilian Flying School, from which, military aviators could also be trained.
The State Government, under the ministry led by Premier W.A. Holman, took a favorable view of that proposal. The arrangements for selecting and developing a site for a Government Aerodrome, under the supervision of the Minister for Public Works, Arthur Griffith, were entrusted to A.G. Cutler, Chief Engineer of the Public Works Department.
In April 1915. Del accompanied Cutler on visits to various areas of Crown Land on the outskirts of Sydney, but Del considered that none of the suggested sites was suitable as an aerodrome. The Government had insisted that the site for the aerodrome should be outside the metropolitan residential area.
"I know the ideal place," said Del.
"Where?" Cutler asked him.
"Richmond Common:" said Del.
Several times he had made flights to that vicinity thirty miles to the northwest of Sydney, and had landed on the large, level, treeless common of the town of Richmond, on the Hawkesbury River. Del knew that this area was close to the original farm of his grandfather, Samuel Badgery. Hence Badgerys Creek.
“The Common belongs to the townspeople," said Cutler. "It is administered by trustees, but I suppose that they would give permission for an aerodrome there. It can never be sold to private owners, or used for cultivation or residential sites, and it is not used much for its original intention as a pasture for the townspeoples' cows. Most of them don't keep cows nowadays, as milk is supplied by dairy farmers who keep their cows in their own paddocks."
"It's not Crown Land, then?" asked Del.
"No, it's a Town Common, under an old Act of Parliament based on English law and practice. If you want to have your aerodrome, flying-school, hangars, and workshops there, the State Government has no power to make the land immediately available, as it could if it was Crown Land. You will have to obtain permission from the Trustees of the Common. Are you sure that this is the best site?"
"Easily the best.'" said Del, enthusiastically. After 125 years of settlement, the only Crown Land left unoccupied within thirty miles of Sydney was on hilly, stony, sandy, or scrubby soil - unsuitable for farm-cultivation or pastures, and for that reason also the unoccupied Crown Lands were unsuitable for aerodrome sites. It was a stroke of luck that the Richmond Town Common, a large level space that had been cleared of its trees by the pioneer settlers of the town, in quest of firewood, had been so heavily grazed by town cows and horses that it had a turf-like covering of grass that would make an ideal runway for aeroplanes taking off or landing.
The trustees of the Common gave permission for its use as an aerodrome, and for the erection of a hangar at the edge of the ground. In the meantime the State Government entered into negotiations to acquire the Common, this involved complicated legal procedures.
In April, 1915, Del Badgery and J. C. Marduel erected a shed on Richmond Common. Marduel’s damaged Caudron biplane was housed there, while Del worked at repairing it, and eventually he took it up for test flights.
That was the beginning of the Richmond Aerodrome - today one of the main bases of the Royal Australian Air Force. It was Delfosse Badgery who selected the site, and first flew an aeroplane there.
At that time (April 1915) the war in Europe was beginning to spread much more widely than had been expected. The Ottoman Empire (Turkey) had entered the war on the side of the Central European Powers (Germany, Austria and Hungary). This closed the Dardanelles Strait to the transit of war-materials by sea to Russia. Large British, French, Indian, Australian, and New Zealand forces were encamped in Egypt, in training for a military attack on Turkey, which would include an attempt to force the Dardanelles Strait by a military landing on the Gallipoli Peninsula.
Although 20,000 Australian troops had been sent to Egypt, leaving Australia in November 1914, there was no Australian Military Aviation unit in that expeditionary force.