Yesterday bro Graham and I went to
Pearce Airforce Base for the big airshow. We arrived early around
10.30am and it seems that many others who headed up to Pearce later
gave up and returned home after waiting in traffic for hours. We had
no problems getting to Pearce and parking amongst what looked like
thousands of other cars. After the airshow we sat in the car for 3.5
hours as thousands of cars tried to exit on one narrow road. Grrrr!
The airshow was good. There were the
local private aircraft and vintage craft and then the Roulettes the
RAAF showoffs, doing a speccie job of smoke trailing gyrations.
Another flight of instructors did similar and I must admit that one
lot of aerobatics looks similar to the next to me. Highlight of the
show was the heavy military hardware...The Orion, which I remember
Joan and Kev and the kids flew in as the civilian version, the
Lockheed Electra, one time returning to Australia on leave from PNG.
There was the massive C17 Globemaster, a C130 Hercules which is an
oldie but hundreds are still in active service around the world and
several other big planes which made some impressive near vertical
takeoffs. Here's a photo of the Wedgetail surveillance aircraft. How
annoying that all those people spoil my photo!
The exciting part of the show was by
the Hornets doing high speed low passes and vertical climbs with
wonderfully loud angry noises. One Super Hornet did a few extra
speedy passes.
The last participant of the main show
was a flypast by a B52 bomber which flew down to Perth from Guam on
both days. It didn't land and after doing two passes turned back and
flew all the way back to Guam. It is a lumbering giant which seemed
like it has passed its time, but there are still lots of them in
active service with the USAF. I'm guessing that it was a good demo
to show the strike distance to a growing Asian power.
I took quite a few photos with a small
digital camera instead of my Nikon D70. I recently heard a radio
interview with some expert who said that people take photos of events
when they should actually watch with their eyes. I should
have just watched rather than squint into the sun and miss the real
events. Looking at photos isn't quite the same. There are plenty of
videos and pics on YouTube.
1 comment:
Love Air shows and can well remember the long lines of traffic going and coming home. Still enjoyed them very much. My late husband was in the RCAF and was an electrician on many types of aircraft, one of the best too I might add.
Your friend John had a wonderful funeral and seems to have a beautiful family who loved him very much, showing a life well lived.......:-)Hugs
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