Thanks Neil and Rowan, happy to share the images.
It was great to have a B-52H on static display, and be able to walk all around it, and into the main gear bays and bomb bay. A massive wingspan that droops so much you can just touch the wing tips. The flying B-52H came in directly from Guam, over 16hrs return, and did a high speed pass along the runway, all eight Pratt & Whitney TF33 engines pumping out thick black smoke. On their second pass then slowed down, opened the bomb bay, and there were simulated pyrotechnics on the ground.
I thought the RSAF F-16 Black Knights did a great display on the Friday, opposing passes with a closing speed around 2000kph, high G turns, a mirror pass with one aircraft inverted above the other and very close, one aircraft corkscrewing around the other, and finally a high speed run pulling up into a climb to 10,000ft in 10 seconds.
The formation flying by the RAAF Hornet, Sabre and Meteor was a rare pleasure to watch, and shooting the consecutive touchdown exciting. We just need the flying Mirage IIIC to complete the set.
The static display of WWW1 aircraft by the NZ and Australian Antique Aircraft Societies was excellent, and the aerial dogfight just magic, with probably eight aircraft in the air at one time. Some of those aircraft had rotary engines, where the crankshaft is fixed, and the radial pistons rotate around the shaft. There was plenty of "Blipping" by some of these aircraft, as they do not have a normal throttle, you just turn the magneto on and off to control the speed of the aircraft. Again, ground pyrotechnics were used as part of the dog fight.
The two F-22 Raptors are amazing up close, such unusual lines, and sharp edges to reduce the radar profile. Their display pilot was on other duties, so they did not do a flying display unfortunately.
The size of the Global Hawk UAV was also a surprise, much larger than I imagined.
There was a good selection of corporate jets, including the Gulfstream G650, my first close up look.
I am just editing some video I managed to capture as well, and should have that uploaded later this evening.
Last edited by Grahame Hutchison; 2nd March 2015 at 01:43 PM.
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