Avalon show report

Great shots James, and thanks very much for the Chippie. 🙂

Y’know, the more I see pictures of the Boomerang, the more it grows on me. Do us a favour and bring it with you next time you come back Oop Noorth…

Great report, i never got the chance to go this year, but i’ve heard nothing but good reports about it. I absolutely love the HARS Connie, it brings back a lot of memories of the halcyon days of Australian commercial aviation

Thanks for the link James, the shortstop site gives me some ideas for any future revamping of the AACF one.

Did you get your ‘Promota copy, I could use some constructive criticism before we emabark on the next one 🙂

Ta OAW!

I should have added that IMHO it was a good show with something for everyone, which is what I tried to show with the pics. That’ll be the big one for Aus for 2005, but I’m not complaning; off to Temora in a couple of weeks…

Oscar Duck – nice pic (thanks) of a nice plane. I’ll happily send you some high res versions if you like?

Cheers

The all red twin tail is an Aercoupe.

Last lot, and another minor mystery (or two)

The FA-18 display was most impressive, and the sceme was nice. Mind you there’s something about celebrating 20 years of front line service with a fighter that bothers me. Can’t quite think what it is…

A Couple for John Boyle! After he said an aircraft reminded him of a John Deere tractorr, I saw this one with the name under the cockpit! 😀 And John, this is what an RAAF Roulette looks like.

There was a fat American (C-17) and a very old Canadian (Caraboooo!) for moving green covered people about. And I’m damned if I can remember what the red one is – but that’s not the quiz! The cropduster Snow Commander is a preserved restored aircraft – can’t be many flying preserved dusters…

The big PR excitement was the arrival of the ‘Wedgetail’ which the perceptive will note is a 737 with a fin, and a nice (grey) scheme. Of course the RAAF class was provided by the Vark doing it’s Dump & Burn routine, but here’s a couple of other shots of it…

And to finish, what’s the aircraft the dials, seats etc are from?

Cheers!

Some Warbirds and others here. Plus a test question!

The HARS Black Cat. Matt Denning’s Boomerang had a tailwheel problem on the Saturday am, but by the time the display came round it was working again. “Will it be a Legends?” (TM) Ought to be. 😎

The RAAF Museum had a number of items there, including their static Wirraway, and their Sopwith Pup (- nice to see flying).

The scale Storch was represented by a couple of examples. It doesn’t look TOO far off, and isn’t as rare as the real thing!

The sun’s position, not normally a problem at British shows, was a challange – I liked the waving photographers, and you could play with it – the Tiger shot came out well I think.

A couple of the PZLs were there, and to finish, a test question – What’s the Cri-Cri got in common with Black 6?

Thanks for the positive feedback gents! I’ll bang up a few more pics and answer some question, maybe add a few too…

Gary asked if I took any more of the Connie. Quite a lot actually, here’s a few, including one of one of the engineers explaining about the goes round and round and up n’ down stuff to a visitor, and a ‘Self Portrait in Connie Spinner’ Mmmm. Must enter it for the Turner Prize. Note the odd reflected shadow of (I think) the prop/engine.

For our Atlantique Dakota Promota, here’s a few more of some of the Daks there. Will, the Shortstop machine (www.shortstop.com.au) you asked about proudly wears a logo you might consider “Douglas – First around the world.”

There was a Trans Australia Airlines machine, the HARS (Ex-ARDU?) Dak and the Australian National Airways DC-3 – a prope pre-war DC, NOT a C-47 and with the passanger door, though the cockpit was modernised in the 70s. It’s owned by the administrators of the (sadly) bankrupt and defunct Ansett Airlines who themselves took over ANA. The operators are a dedicated bunch of ex-Ansett crew; good to see it fly. (Thanks to Duvec for the intro.) In the static was a joyriding Dak as well.

The Anson wreck was a bit of a mystery, no ID being visible – anyone know it? It was on display in the Australian Armed Forces setup, along with a number of other items of historic hardware.

The CASA was an Australian Arctic machine. They were recruiting, but having spent January in Canada, I skipped it. The Gippsland Aircraft ‘boxes’ were a export success being operated in the USA as Auxilliary USAF machines. Note the odd semi-military insignia.

I also like those pics. It has been a while since I saw a recent pic of a closed cocpit Stearman.

Thanks for posting JDK.

Stieglitz

JDK, Nice pic of my TBM>>>

Top Stuff James,
I must get my film’s done too mate,
Funny I took a picture of the Long/Lat sign as well.

I was there all day Sunday, and sat behind the Seafury chatting to Nigel and his Wife.
Not a bad show again Too, I reckon.

Cheer’s all, Tally Ho! Ho! Phil.(p.s. I must try and catch upwith you Jame’s, one of these day’s, before you decide to fly away again)

Septic,

There are 3 Drovers on the register in Oz. Charlie’s [seen here] is the only commercial ops one flying, another is under restoration in SA for a Vic owner and the other is owned by Hawker De Havilland [Boeing] & operated by HARS. There are some good shots around of the two current flyers at Bathurst.

Amazingly enough, all three are powered by Gipsy engines [10 Mk2; described as “three Chipminks in close formation!”]. None of the Lycoming Mark 3’s fly or look like doing so ever.

G’day 😉

Great shots James, thanks for posting.

Would I be right in thinking that the Drover is the sole airworthy example.

Did you take anymore of the Connie!

A KR-10 is for life not just for Xmas.

Septic.

Lovely pictures, I like the look of ‘Eclat’ , that kind of shine gives a lowly Anson degreaser something to aspire to 🙂

What kind of colour scheme is it on that equally shiny Dakota?

Yup! Ricoh KR-10. Works fine. Little thumb powered device for selecting the next frame, n’ everything.

James
thanks for the kind words about grey paint.
You’re right, the Drover is a bit special.
Thanks for posting.
Cheers
Andy.

PS. Do you still take your steam powered Ricoh to airshows?

There was a good variety of other vintage aircraft – Daks (Shortstop’s example here) an L-5B in the static and a Stearman dooing some very top level wing walking – from Oshkosh.

And the big finale? Bang.

More tomorrow if ya want em!

Cheers

A couple for some forum members! A Chippy for Steve Young, and a scale Spit for Daz (no Daz, sadly it didn’t fly).

The Black Cat (HARS) makes a nice silhouette – and the the 20th anniversary painted FA-18 of the RAAF put on an excellent display; here his flares show of the climbing turn.

Dunno why people are rude about AiB liking grey ships – as far as I can see, grey is the colour of choice of most airforces today – here’s the Sea King of the RAN to prove the point.

A big highlight on the Friday night ‘Night Alive’ was the Connie night flight. Here she is on the runway. One of those things it’s a privilage to see.

There were three Mustangs there; Jeff Trappett’s ‘Eclat’ (very shiny, amazing to see in the sun). The RAAF Museum’s example and Bob Eastgate’s. They put on a great display, and Jeff did some class aeros with the wing and fuselage winking in the sun. Yes, even I liked it!

You aren’t going to see a DHA Drover fly anywhere else but Aus, so that was a bit special.

our very own Oscar Duck’s TBM and the Queensland ‘Zero’ (T-6) battled the Pacific. Gus in the Wangaratta based P-40 was so sucessful in defending the TBM from the Zero he was worshiped upon landing by one of the marshallers. Some tip!

Also down from Brisbane was the Sea Fury. A Sea Fury makes it a good airshow…