Point Cook Airshows in the 70's
 

Any Pprune remember the good old Point Cook Airshows in the 1970's?

Back when RAAF Point Cook was a full on air force base.

The only thing near Pt Cook in those day was the Werribee Pooh Farm and associated flies.

They were always held about late November early December, and what a day:
- wandering around the recently retired Canberras parked on the grass,
- climbing all over the Me262 on the flight line,
- watching the mighty P51 Mustang "Duffy's Delight" starting up and doing its high speed taxi on the main runway and actually getting airborne a few times, -the Antartic Pilatus Porter putting on a fantastic display,
- a flypast of about twenty Tiger Moths,
- Ansett DC-3 doing joyrides
-plenty of competitive displays by the respective Cessna and Piper dealers,
- wandering through the RAAF Museum,
- Speedbird B747 overflying after departing from Tullamarine for Singapore.
finding a nice shady spot under the big old pine hedge by early afternoon was always a must.

Stationair are you going for the title of nostalgia king?;)

Didn't get to any at Point Cook, but remember a ripsnorter of an airshow at Laverton in the seventies!

Got to sit in a Phantom and Mirage, then watched the same aircraft performing overhead, you remember those days, when the airshow actually took place over the crowd!:ok:

Also remember a P-51, not sure if it was the same one you refer to, but what got me was the sound, AWESOME!:D

Remember both places and the shows.

can remember the amount of drinks and pies dropped when the mirages would do a sneak run from behind show centre and scare the bethingees out of everyone.

Duffy's delight was always that

Was there an ME163 ? Somewhere near the 262?

Yes the ME163 was somewhere near the ME262.
A Lockheed Hudson was also present along with a Dragon Rapide.
A number of DC-3's including Brain and Brown's.

I never made a Point Cook A/S either but to this day remember those RAF Chappies putting on one of the best low level handling displays I've ever seen in a Vulcan....The old car being dropped from the helicopter trick, after lots of P.A calls "would the owner of car rego ????? please move it" then see the C.O. of the base go running out to try and stop......I did start getting sick of that by the 3rd Airshow.

Yeah! I remember "Rocky" McGregor flying the Winjeel, with I think it was Rasmus in the other one, in Mirror formation at low, low level.
Now that was skill!
Also some pilot in a DC-3 did a tight bank just after rotation and brushed a wingtip on the grass now was that skill or what? LOL Lucky not to have dug the tip in.

I never got to any of the Point Cook shows either. But every time I fly past the old RAAF base at Laverton I always remember the airshows I attended in the late sixties and into the seventies. Can still picture the Canberra's, Neptunes, Phantom's, Sabre's, Mirages, Vulcans etc. doing their thing. Used to happen every two years from what I remember.

I remember going to Laverton in the late fifties by train to the battle of Britain airshows, where the Sabre broke the sound barrier for its public debut. Big crowds, lots of military aircraft. Also went to the Point Cook fly ins and the Museum open days in the 90's. Wonderful place, lots of nostalagia.

Forget the 70's, there's supposed to be an airshow there in February!

Not like they were in the 1970's, no security, wander all over the place. plus plenty of high speed beat up's, non approved flying displays and lots of low flying. Somewhere in the garage is some super8 movie's of the PT Cook air-shows from that era, CASA would go into hiding and not to mention the lack of security.
It was always stinking at those airshows for some reason must be the start of global warming.
Super8 movie for the younger readers is stuff that was around before VHS and Beta video camcorders.

Airshow of today are good but it pisses me having to explain to some **** in a security outfit why I should be allowed to take a photo of some military aircraft wheres a bit thin after a while, not to mention the threats of having your camera confiscated. The **** would be hard pressed to guard a trolley at the local Woolies!

Can remember the 75th anniversary airshow, very foggy start to the day, and a Heron from down south doing a very low level circuit to get in. Then when the airspace opened up and all the CT4's where departing to form up for the flypast in 75 formation, ATC closed the airspace and all the GA aircraft finished up back at MB & EN. The only non military aircraft was the Heron and a Kendall Metro. It was a great day!

I dunno about Point Cook airshows but I enjoyed being involved in a couple of RAAF airshows in far North Queensland in the Fifties. One was a Anzac Day Fly Past at Cairns in a Lincoln. We lost No 4 engine on take off during departure at Townsville for the Cairns fly past. The pilot Syd Gooding DFC thought nothing of it and told me to feather the prop. The Lincoln wasn't bad on three engines at light weights so we continued on three just in time to fly over the Cenotaph right on time as the Salute was being taken. The marchers were all wartime vets from RAAF, Army and Navy and would have been disappointed if there was no RAAF presence in the skies for the ceremony.

A couple of years later Centaurus was involved in a Battle of Britain display at Amberley RAAF base. In those days the RAAF always put on a good show at every major Air Force base to celebrate the Anniversary of the Battle of Britain. The policy was scrubbed in later years when political correctness came into vogue and the newspapers questioned the cost. The fact it was a marvellous recruiting drive which was successful, was ignored. Pity.

We were asked to provide a Lincoln and flew from Townsville to Amberley the day before the big day. Stayed the night and attended the morning ops briefing only to find out we were scheduled to be the last aircraft in line. To add insult to injury we were informed that after our three minute slot over the crowd we were to not land but return to Townsville. Begged the CO for a further five minutes over the crowd since we had flown all the bloody way from Townsville for a lousy three minutes to do our stuff. That was approved. We watched the first part of display from among the crowd and then climbed aboard the Lincoln and taxied. Seven crew POB.

The display had been stunning with Sabres doing their stuff and Vampires, Mustangs, Wirras, a Neptune, dancing helicopters. parachutists baling out from a Dakota in strong winds and being spread-eagled all over the field. Last of all (except us) was a Canberra that did a marvellous display of limit turns within the aerodrome boundary. Unfortunately he couldn't get one of his wheels down during the downwind leg so he landed with one wheel up with fire engines tearing after him. The crowd went wild and applauded and we knew it was going to be a hard act to follow.

We didn't have a real plan so got airborne and beat the place up at 100 ft with lots of noise from the four Rolls Royce Merlins, flew over with bomb doors open to make a supply drop with storepedoes, did a few steep wing overs, an all-engines go-around from runway level then flew sedately back home to Townsville. Looking back now, it was probably the noise of the Merlins at full bore that got the crowd in.

Next morning at Townsville we discovered the Brisbane Courier Mail (18th September 1960) had written up the display with a photos of the parachutists floating from the sky, a Sabre doing a high speed low level beat up and best of all a photo of the Canberra doing the gutser landing.

The journalist wrote the story with the following words (in part) "The incident (Canberra gutser) was described as a copybook forced landing..the crowd appreciated the skill of the pilot and clapped and cheered...the greatest crowd pleaser however was the old Lincoln bomber flown by Flight Lieutenant (Centaurus) of 10 Sqn Townsville...because yesterday was probably the last time a Lincoln would be seen in a display at Amberley, the pilot really put the aircraft through it's paces with steep climbs and turns, dives and a supply drop..."

Whoops! the thread is about Point Cook and Laverton RAAF displays, so back to the subject..

Thats alright Centarus, take a bow its more than likely deserved.

Did you know Ed Plenty from the lincon days?

richo

or P.K. Brown or Arnie Slattery (WOP/AG off the Catalina)?

Richo and Belgique.

Blimey - now you are going back over fifty years- I knew Ed, Pete and Arnie. I didn't fly with Ed Plenty on Lincolns (he was in Malaya and I was on the Long Nose Mk 31's). However I flew with Ed on Tigers and Wirras mutual at CFS when we were on the QFI course. Wonderful bloke. Flew with Peter Brown on the Long Nose - I was there as the local QFI and of course did many hours with Arnie Slattery the signaller extraordinaire and his bugle that he played when crossing the Queensland border en route Darwin to Townsville. Took Arnie up in the 10 sqn Wirraway too. Arnie really stirred up Ben Simpson with the bugle playing over the intercomm.

There was an airshow at Point Cook in 2004 (or 2003?). There wasn't much to see apart from Winjeels flying in formation, the Roulettes in their PC 9, DC3's from Essendon came and went and some aerobatics. There were also a few homebuilt aircraft flying around. The place was packed so there appears to be a lot of interest still in these airshows.

Is the original seaplane base at Point Cook still in existance?

Thought y'all might like a bit more nostalgia (hope nobody minds the named names):

ROMEO VICTOR CHARLIE

"Mirage Leader, GO LOW", says the air traffic controller in Laverton Tower. The four Mirages unload slightly, and belt across the crowd at very low level, going transonic, and, I'm later told, breaking a few windows around the base. They had been running in from the north towards the crowd at about Mach point nine (1000 kms/hour, give or take) preparatory to a horizontal bomb-burst at about 200 feet, and because the Mirage intakes generate a particular buzzing sound at a high subsonic speed, demo pilots tended in those days to push the envelope as far as they could to achieve the desired noise. Doubtless the crowd are, in the main, impressed by this low flying. Perhaps the small children aren't.

It is a warmish spring day in September, and the occasion is the Laverton Airshow, 1966, and for this show it is my pleasant duty to demonstrate the paces of the Caribou, it being then only a couple of years in service, and I am now an experienced hand in its operation having recently returned from my Vietnam dalliance. As it happens, my co-pilot is a man later to become chief of CASA. Perhaps what follows had some formative impact on his regulatory opinion!

At the time of the radio call from the tower, I am in close line astern on the ARDU Dakota at 1000 feet altitude, and heading north-east a little to the left of the Old Geelong Road, towards Hoppers Crossing railway station. This station is the nominated turning point for the "piston" formation as it waits in a holding pattern prior to the concluding formation fly-by for the show. Many people may not be aware that Runway 23 at Laverton is built on the original alignment of the Geelong Road, and before the Laverton bypass was built traffic actually went around the northern side of the air base to regain the original route. There is perhaps now an argument to reopen the old alignment given the abandonment of the airfield in recent times.

To complicate the issue, I have a box four of Winjeels from 1FTS (or was it 1BFTS in those days?) on my port wing, and another box of four Winjeels on my starboard wing. Not only does this make the immediate sky a little crowded, but above us at 1500 feet is the incomplete "jet" formation, being led by the ARDU Canberra, which has a box of four Sabres on the port wing, and a box of four Vampires astern. There is a vacant space to his starboard, where, in due course, the plan is that the four Mirage will assemble in yet another box. The Canberra pilot, too, is using Hoppers Crossing station as his turning point, and we have all been travelling aroung the largish right hand holding pattern for some time, the "jets" of course overtaking the "pistons" periodically. Down to the south of us, at Point Cook, and at 1200 feet, is the "heavy" formation which consists of a C130A Hercules with an 11 SQN Neptune in line astern. Now, the general plan is that once the Mirages are in place, and at times appropriate to our performance, the three formations will set off for Laverton such that we all arrive overhead the crowd at the same time in a thunderous finale. We will then perform a complicated stream landing except for the Winjeels (back to Point Cook) and the Vampires (direct to East Sale). As it happens, at almost the same instant as the tower controller makes his call, I notice, beyond the Dakota and on a reciprocal heading to our formation, but slightly higher, a little black dot rapidly resolving itself into a light aircraft. I warn Val Trevethan (the Dak pilot).

To get to this point I have earlier departed Point Cook where I have been temporarily parked, and I have a time on target for my demonstration. This I achieve. Now, the final part of my demonstration is a STOL (Short Take-Off and Landing technique) landing, a back-up of about 200 yards, drop the tailgate and ramps, the army drives a jeep and trailer off, and I accelerate into a STOL take-off whilst the loadmaster(s) tidy up in the rear, hopefully not losing any equipment out the back as I climb away! I am to land "grass left" beside Runway 23, and I have practised this manoeuvre the previous afternoon, and had identified a series of reference points to ensure that I was able to stop before crossing the north-south runway. This was imperative because the C130 was scheduled to release brakes after my touchdown, and he was waiting out of sight to me behind the crowd for a take-off into the north preparatory to his show.

In the event, as I am on final at about 50 knots in the STOL approach, I realise that the previous afternoon's gentle sea breeze has not come in, and I am actually under the influence of a light northerly, a quartering tailwind, which is pushing me too far to the south west. I decide that the only option is to take reverse in the air, which practice is not generally encouraged, but which was used often enough in Vietnam operations to enable the use of marginally short strips. So just before I flare for touchdown I select reverse idle, get my two blue lights, and apply maximum reverse, intending to leave it in that position until I am fairly travelling backwards. This turns out to be a wise decision, because just after I start rolling backwards the wing tip of the C130 zooms past my nose, Brian Morgan having released brakes on time while not being aware of my predicament. The rest of my show goes as planned, and so I take off and join up with the Dakota. I might add that a similar show at Edinburgh the next week-end (I was not involved) was enlivened by one of the crew falling out the back during the reverse and unload sequence, and the aircraft went off without him. Probably the crowd thought it was part of the act.

The eagle eyes of Hugh Hopkins in the ARDU Canberra pick up the bogie at the same time as me, and he offers to pop over there and identify the culprit. The tower controller says don't bother (I guess he already knows the callsign) and in any case that was a rather impractical idea, given Hughie's accompanying colleagues.

A moment later a rather timid voice is heard: "Laverton Tower, this is Romeo Victor Charlie, I'm over Bacchus Marsh heading for Ballan and Melbourne told me to call you." The tower in a rather abrupt fashion tells him to turn right on to north immediately and depart the Laverton Black zone. RVC acknowledges this order, and we all watch him turn left slightly as he follows a bend in the railway. Clearly the points had been set wrongly at North Melbourne! Hughie is obliged to divert to his left so that the light aircraft is not downed (he was at 1500 feet, the "jet" formation altitude), and RVC continues down the Geelong railway, apparently not even sighting the 19 aircraft (or 23 including the Mirages) he has so blithely flown by. Presumably he has his head down trying to reconcile the relationship between Bacchus Marsh and the Laverton Black zone.

After a certain amount of to-ing and fro-ing we finally get organised, and the fly over concludes the show. But what we didn't know at the time was that the Neptune was also getting involved in its own series of exciting events. Both reciprocating engines stopped at the same time whilst it was in line astern on the C130 at just about the time we up to the north were dealing with our intruder. This was not thought to be a good idea at 1200 feet altitude. The captain "crash-started" the underwing jets (with, I understand, somewhat damaging consequences to the turbines) and the flight engineer ultimately got the recips going again, so the Neppy was in the appropriate place during the fly-over. When asked for an explanation by SASO Support Command at the rather interesting debrief held after the show, the pilot said to the Group Captain: "W-w-well, Sir, we've put it down to carby ice." This explanation was roundly applauded by all pilots present.

We later hear that the trainee pilot from the aero club was disciplined one way or another.

Great story, thanks grusome.
I was one of the young spectators. Was some time later that I got to work with 1 or 2 who flew that day.