Don't panic - F/A-18s are having a play over the airport on Sunday.

Agreed deye. I fly around for work quite a bit so the displays of Dash 8’s, 767s were great for my kids to see how I get around rather than just dropping me off at the airport.

The Hornet was good and yes, as a recruiting and community support tool they are priceless. I used to get paid to go to airshows for work quite a bit and I have to say, I think today’s Hornet display was as good, if not better than any fighter display I’ve ever seen. Only wish the RAAF had loaned a C-17 for the day! Too few aircraft too many op’s:(

The only bummer was the long queues to get on the commercial planes. For small kids it’s a long wait. Also, having a security guard stopping families from joining the queue for the Dash 8 ER but then letting her friends join the queue, and then again sending away families was a bit rough.

That said, next year we’re taking lots of cash and going for the day. Lots of food and bouncy castles for the kids, it’ll be a good day out.

Bungle said :

I don’t think the hornets will actually be landing at the airport either. When I saw them in Melbourne at the GP they said the fly down from Newcastle, do the display, then fly back.

The hornet landed as advertised, but unfortunately got parked over in the RAAF area 🙁

The display itself was great 🙂

cranky said :

May I play the Devil’s Advocate.

These exhibitions may well be classed as training exercises, but on this page of RA we have a group of people doing their best to raise money for Newborn Intensive Care.

I would expect one ‘dump & burn’ to be worth about 5 years of fund raising for the charity.

There has to be a better way.

I can see your point, but in terms of return on investment, from a recruiting perspective, these displays are priceless. We do need an Air Force and the jet displays seem to really excite the target demographic. Recruiting inquiries always spike dramatically after displays like this, so IMHO this is money well spent.

cranky said :

These exhibitions may well be classed as training exercises, but on this page of RA we have a group of people doing their best to raise money for Newborn Intensive Care.

They would be doing this kind of thing in training anyway and I guess we need to have an air force. It may seem a bit expensive now, but you don’t want to be caught short when the sh*t hits the fan.

I don’t think the hornets will actually be landing at the airport either. When I saw them in Melbourne at the GP they said the fly down from Newcastle, do the display, then fly back.

From my understanding 1 x F-18 operational (flying) hour is about $10,000.

Qantas should have got the Airbus A330 Precision Aerobatics Team to do a display.
Brilliant! They could do a 300m “Sweet Jesus We’re All Gonna Die” dive, detonate the O2 tanks over the crowd, and then coast in for a landing with the wheels up.
Top it off with a display from their precision bus driving team, and then burn down BBP as a finale.

captainwhorebags said :

Qantas should have got the Airbus A330 Precision Aerobatics Team to do a display.

I hope they employ Tex Johnston as one of the pilots – http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=-vHiYA6Dmws

Qantas should have got the Airbus A330 Precision Aerobatics Team to do a display.

cranky said :

I would expect one ‘dump & burn’ to be worth about 5 years of fund raising for the charity.

I seriously doubt that. From what I can find the internal fuel capacity is about 19,000 litres.

…last manouvre, they bomb the crap out of DFO. Otherwise Snow won’t let them land back at his airport.

hornets can’t dump and burn (sadly)

No, cranky, you may not. Let us have our fun.

May I play the Devil’s Advocate.

These exhibitions may well be classed as training exercises, but on this page of RA we have a group of people doing their best to raise money for Newborn Intensive Care.

I would expect one ‘dump & burn’ to be worth about 5 years of fund raising for the charity.

There has to be a better way.

anyone know a good spot to watch this from? I will pretty much just watch the jets and then leave. I love it.

If you can make the time to see this display, it is truly well worth it. Just be aware that small children may not like the noise…….and there will be plenty of noise!

I also doubt the display will last as long as advertised, as it usually only takes about 10 mins to perform this Hornet display.

And watch how quickly the Hornet decelerates when Flt Lt Ward performs the high-G pull!!!!

*note to self* remember fly by, grab camera, head to airport 😀

Given the amount of roadworks and the traffic chaos I have seen going on around the airport recently I was surprised to see an airport open day being held!

That does sound kinda fun to go and watch. Might have to drop in to Brand Depot with the the little Whatsups.

Cmon Pany, you know and I know better (than that). 😛

I hear the screaming jets…………..

Suh-weet! I’m going to be in the office (at BBP), definitely have to pop outside to check this out. Thanks heaps!

This info on the Hornet display has been provided by the pilot FYI.

Display

Manoeuvres are difficult to describe, but they are as follows:

-First pass low & fast

– inverted (upside down)

– “Hornet turn” – fastest, tightest turn the hornet can fly, into a high AoA squat into the vertical,

– square loop (loop with four tight, “hornet” corners) into a “loaded roll”, a corkscrewing pirouette type roll-unique to the hornet, no other aircraft in Aus can fly this loaded roll and this is only the second time it has been displayed in Australia.

– slow pass (25 degrees angle-of-attack, 200km/h)

– fast pass

– configured pass (speedbrake, tailhook, air-to-air refuelling probe, landing gear and flap)

– vertical departure and rolls

I’ll then descend down for a low-level pitch out into the circuit to land, with a “low overshoot” and one last high-G pull.