Roulette formation Flypast with a Hercules over Sydney Harbour

[Michael P]

What: Formation flight by Royal Australian Air Force aerobatic team, the Roulettes, with a C-130H Hercules.

Where: Over Sydney Harbour.

When: Thursday, 6 October 2011 at approximately 11.30am.

Air Force’s aerobatic display team, the Roulettes, will make an appearance over Sydney Harbour in the lead up to the Bathurst 1000 motor racing event this weekend.

The team will fly with six Pilatus PC-9/A aircraft in formation with an Air Force C-130H from RAAF Base Richmond. The Roulettes will conduct a series of formation aerobatic manoeuvres over Sydney Harbour, but not a full display routine.

Aircraft will be emitting smoke during the display. This practice is controlled by the pilot and is safe.

The flight over Sydney Harbour will be an image collection exercise for the team, identifying the Roulettes with one of Australia’s most cherished landmarks. The imagery during this flight will be used to promote the Roulettes and Air Force in the future.

This year, Air Force is marking its 90th Birthday with a series of modest activities, focusing on remembering our past, and looking to our future with the theme tradition, innovation, evolution. This formation flypast over Sydney Harbour will involve two Air Force icons – the C-130 Hercules and the Roulettes aerobatic team – and further promote Air Force in its 90th Birthday celebrations.

More about the Roulettes http://ra.af/gEN6h5
More about the C-130 http://ra.af/ef91xQ

[Shayne G]

What altitude will they be flying at?

[A McLaughlin]

C-130 has been cancelled - only Roulettes now.

[KrishnaM]

they have been up in the air for a while now.. nice formations so far and I can hear them buzz past from inside the office

[Ray P.]

... This practice is controlled by the pilot and is safe. ...

I wonder if there are any practices controlled by the pilot that aren't safe. :rolleyes:

[Mario Facchini]

I know the Roulettes are an institution and have been around for years, but i wonder if there are any ideas to change to a Jet based performance squadron?

[Greg McDonald]

The air force can't afford it....

[Mick.B]

No

[A McLaughlin]

Not enough Hawks or Hornets to devote to a dedicated team. The Roulettes perform 12+ times a year and are otherwise full time CFS QFIs. All the PC-9s at CFS at east Sale are painted in Roulettes colours and their hours are spread around the display team.

There are dedicated Hornet and Super Hornet singleton display pilots who are B-Cat supervisors/instructors within their squadrons and have the gig for a 2-3 year period, but they only perform 3-4 times a year.

Each of the classic Hornet squadrons get to do a four-ship display at major airshows for a two-year rotation, but they only perform once or twice a year.

[AdamC]

Some pictures here.

http://images.defence.gov.au/fotoweb/Grid.fwx?position=1&archiveid=5002&columns=4&rows=8&sorting=ModifiedTimeAsc&search=(IPTC025%20contains(Third%20Series%201961-))

Adam.

[Nigel C]

The air force can't afford it....
Slight correction....we, the taxpayer, can't afford it ;)

[Greg McDonald]

True Nigel. We (the taxpayers) are too busy buying subs that don't work, rusty second hand ships and fighter aircraft that are already not worth the money and will probably be out of date before we get them.

[Nigel C]

and that's just the military part of the budget! :rolleyes:

[A McLaughlin]

Greg, what fighter aircraft are "already not worth the money"?

[Greg McDonald]

From 'the age' website and a very old article but considering that the cost has blown out enormously a number of times since this article its an even more valid point:

The RAAF's next generation of air fighters could be as outclassed as propeller-driven aircraft in the days of jets, the Parliamentary Library has found.

In a recent report into the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), the library said it was likely the project would become more expensive and that other aircraft would do the same job more cheaply.

And it warned that developments in unmanned aircraft could make the JSF effectively obsolete.

Australia is one of eight countries to have signed up with the United States to develop and buy Lockheed Martin's $US276 billion ($A374.92 billion) F-35 JSF.

Australia is hopeful of buying about 100 of the aircraft at about $100 million each, to replace the ageing F/A-18 and F-111.

But the library, which canvassed the JSF, the alternative F-22 Raptor and also the F-15 (being purchased by South Korea), found Australia's decision may have been a poor one.

It found the cost of the F-22 was likely to come down to that of the JSF, while the JSF is likely to become more expensive.

The F-15 was found to have almost all the same features of the JSF, except some of the aircraft's stealth capabilities.

But even those stealth capabilities were played down, as Australia would only get aircraft which much lower stealth abilities than those flown by the United States Air Force.

And by the time Australia plans to take control of its JSFs, in around 2015, unmanned strike fighters could only be a few years away.

"Like the last of the propeller-driven fighter planes, the JSF's day may pass before the aircraft even soars into the sky in RAAF livery," it said.

The library said there had to be questions over whether the number of JSFs expected to be built would be.

It said America's use of the F-22, and the development of an unmanned fighter, would cancel out the need for some of the planned 2,400 US JSFs.

Already Australia is budgeting around $15.5 billion for the JSF project - a $3.5 billion increase in recent years.

The library said this cost would continue to blow out.

"It is clear that the JSF will most likely become much more costly by the time it is delivered and fully effective," it said.

The report comes as the US and its JSF partners, including Australia, have made an in principle agreement on the project's plans.

Included in a draft pact were statements of intent by the non-US countries to buy a combined total of 710 F-35s, said Kathy Crawford, a spokeswoman for the Pentagon program office involved.

"It's one step closer to finalising partnerships that will last 40 years or more," she said.

An agreement on the draft memorandum of understanding was reached last week in Williamsburg, Virginia, Crawford said. The pact also covers how the aircraft would be maintained and upgraded over their projected 40 year lifespan.

The Pentagon hopes a formal pact will be signed by all the partners in mid-December.

The first of the JSFs are supposed to be delivered to the US in 2009.

Other partner countries, and their expected number of aircraft, include Italy (131), the Netherlands (85), Turkey (100), Norway (48), Denmark (48) and Canada (60).

[Jaryd stock]

Considering the RAAF don't want to buy a 4th gen fighter what other 5th gen fighter is there to buy other than the Russian Sukhoi T-50 which is no where near as developed as the JSF and is not really a proven platform plus it's Russian RAAF won't even go there.

F-22 is not even an option to expensive, US wont realease it, and it is not really a true multiroll aircraft it's roll is air superiority. RAAF need a true multiroll aircraft that is 5th gen with stealth characteristics the F-35 is it, I'm not a JSF fan and I don't believe the RAAF should have a strike force that is made up of just one aircraft also, but the F-35 has to be the way to go....