As I usually do I went in on Thursday looking less at the billboard draw cards and more at something different from previous years. I found it in a little Bristol WWI fighter crated in from Peter Jackson's personal collection in NZ for Qantas's 100 centenary celebration. And even though it was a static display on the day it was a true work of restoration art. Thoroughly enjoyed that little gem up close and personal.

Other highlights I enjoyed on Thursday were
1) The new Cirrus LPJ.
2) Getting to sit inside the cockpit again of my all time favourite corporate jet the Dassault 7X.
3) Cracking some funny jokes with the support personnel of the G650 and YF22, even poking fun at the YF22 pilots who whizzed by in their golf cart.
4) Wearing the YF22 helmut and going for a Wonder Women ride at the Lockheed Martin corporate stand.
6) Having a dejavu moment inside an classic B212 fitted with steam gauges.
7) Learning a bit more about single pilot HEMS ops with an AW139.
8) Bumping into my favourite PA-28 VH-JIO again 20 years later.
9) Watching the freeform fun of the 2xZlins (I think) and 1xPitts aerobatic display which made me really jealous.

I reckon I had a great day. Many thanks to the organisers.

I went to Avalon today, flying in via Avalon East as many others did too, some of which were Ppruners, however it must have been a different airshow to where Sunfish went.

There were Cirrus there, the Cessna TTX with it's 235 knot cruise, Foxbat, the new Brumby, the new Sling 2 and 4 from South Africa, Citabria?, Tecnams and lots more plus the large trade halls with lots of vendors not just military, plenty of people to talk to, some good SAAA displays and aircraft, RA-Aus tent, stacks of different aircraft from the Geelong Sports Aviators, a couple of RV10's and an RV12 and a Titan Mustang amongst many others.

The Geelong war reenactment group was excellent, with bucket loads of restored military Jeeps and hardware, a huge tent with the entire contents of the Nar Nar Goon military museum re-located for the first time ever just for this show.

All this on the ground and in the air a dozen WWI replica aircraft, bombing runs, the Black Knights and lots more.

PLENTY to look at.

$65.80 fairly well spent...

As for ramp checks, I was greeted with a brochure on plain english TAF decoding and a cardboard funnel compliments of CASA but no ramp check. The guys next to me in a commercial 182 got instantly ramped with flight plan being passed around the group of 6 CASA employees. I can see how it would be intimidating as although their intentions may have been good, being approached by 6 CASA flouro vests would be somewhat stressful.

Had a fantastic day today at Avalon, it was best show I've seen and I've seen them all. Well done to my mates running it, first class job as usual. Even the family didn't complain too much!! Bonus:O

I particularly liked the 1 hour RAAF showcase.

The WW1 re-enactment was good too.

Left at 2000 after the F18 Classic display and beat all the traffic.......:ok:

Great Airshow Today,
Best Fireworks I have ever seen,
Missed Connie, does anyone know why she is not there this show?
Gold Pass was great.
Food was just.
Transport was fantastic to & from the city
Looking forward to tomorrow
R W

4 positive posts in a row! Great stuff for this site, glad most of you are having a great time.

And another +ve
 

A fabulous show - the pair of Extras in formation was world class and perfection; the WWI display out of this world and the fast jets were as good as ever. The snap rolls to start Paul B's display were incredible and the immortals playing with fire were another standout. And I agree - the fireworks were the best display I have ever seen too; Sydney NYE included.

Where's the photos?????

Some could not get away this year… :{

I actually went to the airshow to try and learn stuff, not just to Be entertained.

She's having a bit of work done on the engines last I heard.

Avalon 2015
 

Nothing said about the A400M? Was it just static or did it show off?

Get your Tie Downs out folks….

https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.n...a6813c4ba428f4

It wouldn't be Avalon airshow if it didn't have a significant meteorological event at some stage during the week.

Many of the trade exhibitors started roping off their stands at around 12pm Friday which was unfortunate. If you were serious you'd have to dress like 007 to get attention.

One of my favourites shows but missing it this year:{

130kmh damaging winds in the area. I'm not looking forward to hearing the damage reports.

Jetstar SYD-AVV circled Melbourne and went back to Sydney.

Don't know where the 130 kph info came from.

Avalon wind obs peaked with a SW gust of 67 kph at 8.02 pm, still pretty strong! Took a bit of a hammering from 8 to 8.30 pm.

130kmh winds were reported on Port Phillip Bay from the BOM.

With the rain forecasted overnight, how soon would a runway U/S NOTAM be released for YAVE if it were to close?