Avalon Airshow

[Jabawocky]

WOT!

Turned on propper KIWI WX and you are not happy about it!

Geez can't please some visitors!!! Sure you are not a Pom?

into the bunker I go!

Jabaless!

[Gundog01]

Would be interested to hear feed back from the final Bou and F111 display.

[mostlytossas]

Sorry for all those who came from afar for the show like Tred but look on the bright side...At least your losses were NZ$ so not much lost there hey?

[VH-XXX]

There was no "final" F111 display as such as it was too windy for it (cross wind) and there was water on the runway.

[fixa24]

bou was great, put on a good show despite the xw. No F111 flights on sunday due xw again..

[Rawhard]

Why bother?

As I've been reading Avalon was same old same old. As an industry worker from out of state and thinking I might be interested in going next airshow, now I'm not sure. Is there anything worthwhile seeing at the Airshow?

[VH-XXX]

Don't believe everything you hear, or take what you do hear with a grain of salt. It's a great airshow, seriously, but it's very similar from year to year (biennial) so don't expect anything new the next time. You can hardly blame the organisers, it would be hard to make it "that" much better or different every show.

[BULLDOG 248]

I remember going to a Geelong Airshow at Grovedale around 15 years ago in the year between the Avalon Airshow, with a huge crowd rolling up and ENJOYING just an average line-up of GA and Warbirds aircraft with no jets.

What made it so successful was:

-There were no gaps between acts

-Entry prices were reasonable

-You could walk around static aircraft

-People flying in could camp under there wing

-Think they had a Band playing Fri+Sat night and the aero club was still full on Sunday night

-Cheap joy-flight in Heli/Fixed wing before and after show

-Large hangar had plenty of seats to get out of the weather and rest.


I lived in Geelong at the time and remember reading "letters to the editor" in the local rag the next week. All who went THOUGHLY ENJOYED and some made remarks to Airshows Downunder then to "TAKE A LEAF OUT OF GROVEDALES BOOK" to improve their own show.
15 years later.....Whats changed???????????????????????

[FoxtrotAlpha18]

Originally Posted by 4Greens

Just read the Australian Aviation supplement and no mention of Avalon at all. What is going on?

Couldn't have been looking too hard 4Greens... Australian Aviation did a Show Daily at the show on the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this year and also ran it online...

Australian Aviation Airshow Daily

Click on 'Archive' at bottom right for all three issues...

Was about time someone did this at Avalon, and a pretty good first up effort by the guys from AA too.

Edit:- sorry for link there Mods, but it is to a news site.

[Critical Reynolds No]

How to you post youtube videos? I found one here:
YouTube - Avalon Airshow 2009 Compilation Friday display

[4Greens]

Foxtrot Alpha,
The Australian Newspaper.

[FoxtrotAlpha18]

Ohhh...

So instead of...

...the Australian Aviation supplement...

...you meant to write "The Australian's aviation supplement"???

Amazing the difference some 6th Grade level punctuation can make!

[archangel7]

I loved watching the 757 from the RNZAF, they did a stunning job to entertain the spectators it was awesome... the rest was a letdown, I was surprised not to see an a380 and I think I saw that Pitts go up a few too many times. Was a disappointment, waste of $50

[bentleg]

I was surprised not to see an a380

There was an A380 there from 0800 until 1200 (only) on Saturday. I suspect it flew in from US overnight, came down to YMAV for a while, then had to get back to YSSY for a departure.

QF brought in a 747-400 on Sunday.

[Teal]

I loved watching the 757 from the RNZAF, they did a stunning job to entertain the spectators it was awesome

Even though I saw this jet previously in 2005, I agree entirely...there's really something special about the sheer performance and maneuverability of a big jet like that. (frustrated ex-Skyhawk pilots?)

[Mr & Mrs Rocketboots]

We too crossed the ditch as first-timers to the Avalon airshow. Fortunately for us, we were lucky enough to be hosted in one of the corporate chalets so didn't end up in the mud pool on the Saturday. It was a shame the weather didn't cooperate, but that's part of the joy of outdoor events! It did make the pyro display at the night show very effective tho!

There were some displays that we enjoyed very much, but there were also some irritations that left us feeling a little bit disappointed.

Highlights:

• Kent P and the Interstate Cadet. Really enjoyed it, thought the commentary was amusing and apt. Shame we didn't get to see the landing on the RV, darn those crosswinds.
• C17 and B757 - gotta love big aircraft being thrown around close to the ground.
• Super Connie - indeed! Beautiful to watch and listen to.
• B1B - a bit disappointing in that each pass was just straight down the runway about 15 mins apart. Lots of noise and novelty factor for Kiwis to enjoy.
• FA18 Super Hornet - very slick.
• Jet powered glider - smooth performance, wingtip contrails just added to the atmosphere.
• Both specialist aerobatic planes (sorry, can't remember the types and don't have programme handy)
• FA18 formation.

Lowlights:

• The commentators. If they weren't in a position to see what was happening, why not?! Even then, I suspect that we may still have wanted to shoot one of them. Very poor performance.
• Speaker volume - far too loud when music playing. Some of us want to hear the aircraft (and each other).
• I can appreciate that the weather changed the programme around, but there were still far too many long gaps. My brother has been to many of the Avalon shows and tells me that this is normal. I also have experience as a display coordinator at a relatively big airshow over here, and dead air for more than a minute is something we work hard to avoid. One year we had a tongue-in-cheek complaint that we didn't leave any gaps for people to visit the loo! Even with scheduled airline movements, it is possible to keep it a lot tighter than that.

Attended the Thursday trade day, Friday night show and all day Saturday. Parking and traffic movement was relatively well organised on those days, and we had no problems with officious volunteers that were alluded to earlier in this topic. Found most of them friendly and eager to help.

So final comments to the organisers - tighten up the programme and avoid those too long gaps, improve (or replace) the commentary team, more variety on the programme. Please.