OT: Avalon Airshow 2011

[neksmerj]

Whether my legs will regain total mobility, only time will tell.

It took nearly 50 minutes to trek from the cow paddock carpark, to the main venue across grass, dust and stones. Even the kids were scanned at Check Point Charlie, on the way in. Bags of sandwiches and bottles of drink attracted special scrutiny. Full points for security in this terrorist laced society.

The static aircraft display most impressive, especially military aircraft, marred by row after row of slick sales dudes in their slick slap up kennels, trying to flog the latest kit plane. Reminiscent of Nepean Highway Moorabbin with mile after mile of car yards.

What was in the air? Not much and far too long between events. An airforce jet flies over, then 10 minutes later, it returns with shock and awe. The shock and awe left one's ears bleeding. Two hours of just waiting around, interspersed with commercial passenger jets coming and going, was enough.

If it took 50 minutes to walk in, it took 60 minutes to walk out at 3:00pm. By now the legs were buggered from just standing with the added stiff neck from craning skyward.

Eventually, we found the car in unfamiliar surroundings being hemmed in with thousands of cars that came in after us. Ever tried to escape from the Waverley football carpark, well that was a walk in the park compared with what we were faced with.

One hour later, the one and only exit gate was in view. There may have been other ways out, but without the assistance of a helicopter, we couldn't know.

Geelong road will be terrific, if they ever widen it to 4 lanes. Two lanes into Melbourne smacks of being a very expensive carpark.

Next time, if ever a next time, I'll be more than happy to pay $140 each way, and fly to Avalon by chopper from Melbourne. At least that flight would be a highlight.

The above is only my opinion, others may have other impressions.

Ken

[antoni]

Hi all
Only been to the air show by DC3 out of Essendon.
No time this year
The DC3 with the blue band NO air con hot on a hot day.
The DC3 with the orange band I think has air was not as hot in side.
no bush walking.
Tony

[Dave J]

Sounds very disappointing. I have never been, but after 20 minutes of walking I would have turned around. They could of at least had some shuttle buses to take you in from the car park, even if they charged.
It doesn't sound like it was worth the walk anyway, and one thing I hate is waiting in a line up for hours in the car to get out.
The chopper ride sounds like the go, if there is a next time.

Dave

[eskimo]

must have had a lot of visitors..I was in Melton for a competition over the weekend and we couldnt get decent accommodation anywhere..best we could get was pub rooms at bachus marsh...at least we could roll up the stairs

[rotten_66]

SIL went and was not overly impressed with the car parking issues either.

Friend was going to take OS relatives to the YouYangs NP for a bit of a bush walk but the park was closed apparently to stop people hiking up the "mountain" and watching everything for "free",

Live in Werribee so have been watching various aspects of it for a week now. The Air Force Museum at Point Cook is pretty good lots of displays to look at and on Tuesdays/Thursdays/Sundays at 1pm there is a flying display of one of the half dozen or so vintage aircraft, it is luck of the draw as to which it is but if you ever score the Mustang, woo hoo.


Ron

[Stustoys]

I've been a few times and the parking has always been rubbish, but I guess there is only so much they can do for 3 days a year(although a few busses could be a good idea). I think the air forces of the world have less money of late. I remember one of the years I went the Russians weren't going to fly because they didn't have the money for fuel.
Sucks about the park being closed! I wonder how they pull that one off?
Was lucky enough to go a Friday one year and lay in the refuelers "seat" of a KC-135.

To go a little OT when people talk about Mustangs and Spitfires I always think of this video.(language warning )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvDDDKnNhuE

27litres (maybe 37) at about 6ft lol


Stuart

p.s. Two radiators.....Griffon... 37litres (I'm pretty sure)

[Greg Q]

That sucks that the airshow here is so crap. I have been attending shows for fifty years or so, both as a visitor and a demonstration performer. The best shows make it fun to attend, make parking easy, have affordable tickets. The show stage (runway) has to be full of planes all the time, tightly scheduled.

Airshows are how big pilots make little pilots.. you got to inspire awe.

A sure fire thing to do would be to invite the Canadian Armed Forces...they are real crowd pleasers. (I watched them destroy a Sea King once (no injuries), and my all-time favourite was at a show in Cold Lake. They were demonstrating air-dropping a bulldozer from a C-130. Parachutes failed in sequence, the bulldozer free-falled in from 4,000'. It was fantastic!

[dakotax3]

Regretfully, I understand there are very few of the flying fraternity who had anything good to say about the 2011 event. Advertisement promises of certain aircraft types on display but simply were not there, large boring gaps in flying displays, running commentary which was apparently either nonsense or simply incorrect during air displays. A huge waste of time for some I hear. And that's not even mentioning the carpark fiasco. I have been once, on a trade day many years ago; never again. We are a stupid lot here in Oz; hardly able to run a route in a cat house, let alone a major event. Other posters on here are correct, go visit Point Cook on a Sunday, you won't be disappointed and you won't have to listen to gibberish narratives.

[ernie1]

Long time lurker 1st post. (O/T too!)

Hi Guys,
2011 (Saturday anyway) was not so good.
* $10 parking fee for the privilege of waiting in a 75 minute queue? You should pay me! MORE PERIMETER GATES PLEASE.
* Poor commentary which was often wrong.
* No B1 or Connie flying demo.
* No queue marshals for aircraft interior viewing.
* Too many long gaps in the fly program.
* Too many mock up aircraft.

Good stuff
* Roulettes & the Aerobatics = awesome.
* P51, Spitfire and Catalina.
* No bogans.

BTW. You Yangs Nat. Park was closed due to road wash outs from the Feb. storms.

Cheers

Larry

[dakotax3]

Little birdy tells me the You Yangs were closed because the heavy rains exposed asbestos culverts.

[beer is good]

In 1982 I went to an airshow at Biggin Hill aerodrome. There was a Harrier jump doing its tricks but the highlight was a Spitfire, a Hurricane and a Lancaster flying down the strip at about 100ft with Churchill's speech about "never have so many owed so much to so few" booming out of the PA. Still sends the goose bumps down the back.

[Woodlee]

Not blowing my trumpet here , but I work on a frontline operational airbase I get to see an "airshow" every day when flying is scheduled ,mostly FA18's.
F111in the past , but sadly the "pig" is now retired so won't be seeing them any more.( very impressive machine I must say )
We also have visiting squadrons from different countries during exercises so I get to see quite a few different aircraft ,but have never seen a spitfire or P51 visit .
I guess I am lucky in one respect , I can get up close to some aircraft but not others.
Unfortunately cameras are out so my records of aircraft are firmly set in my head.
A few pics for those who can appreciate them , none of them are mine , and I make no claim to ownership. I reckon they are superb shots and just appreciate the priveledge of having them.

Kev

[neksmerj]

Hi Woodlee, some great shots there.

A mate of mine was shouted a trip in a P51D Mustang at Point Cook, here in Melbourne.
He's still talking about it, so are we, it cost about $800 between 4 of us. I'm not sure if the $800 was for a new engine, or fuselage, or a return trip to the States.

I have tried to attach a great sound file of a Mustang firing up, idling, taxiing and taking off, but WW forums won't accept it even though it was within the size limit.

Dear Moderator, any chance you can include MP3 files in allowable downloads?

Maybe next time.

Edit. After several attempts, got the sound file to insert. It is actually an MP3 file, but Windows Media Player will open it anyway.


Ken

[Stustoys]

$800 should just about cover the cost of the fuel
Can you convert the sound file to a .wav?

Stuart

[Greg Q]

Yeah, I was just going to say that the Mustang would probably burn around 300+ litres/hr of Avgas and a gallon or two of oil. $800 is a lot of money until you get near an airport with it.

Last week I dropped something in the plane that bounced into a display and cracked it. The display, which fits in one hand, cost $400,000.00. Needless to say I felt a little queasy.