ADF Airshow 2010 - Williamtown
 

Now officially up on the RAAF website

Should be great! :)

http://www.airforce.gov.au/airshows/

From the website:

Being that this airshow will be one of the last times we get to see the F-111, will there be any international visitors that will come along for this Special occasion? I checked the Thunderbirds website they are at Whiteman AFB performing on those dates so that is a pain in the A--.But anyone with some info what will come from abroad....

Apparently everyone will be sitting on the RAAF side which will be better than Avalon for photos and there will be some USAF visitors. There wont be a huge selection of aircraft due to the limited room. Also, the Wedgetail's will be closed as ID is required even for the RAAF to go onboard apparently. They're expecting 30,000 or so people :S Main training day is on the Friday and because there is limited flights on weekends all passengers are required to show their itinerary to access the terminal as theyre blocking roads I hear.

I'm sorry, lines like this crack me up! :D

The Roulettes were last spectacular when they had Macchi's. Until the drone of PT-6's is replaced with jet noise the Roulettes will be mediocre at best. The skills of the pilots is phenomenal, the planes are enough to bore even the most excited kid after having watched F-111's and Hornets do their thing.

Send a secondment out to one of the Hawk Squdrons for 7 jets, grab some flashy paint and make the ADF's premier aerial display team exciting again.

As for Williamtown, see you there!

I heard a (very unconfirmed) rumour about an F-22 out of Guam?

The Asia-Pacific region is crawling with those right now, so distance is not that much a factor for the USAF not to!

True, although i'm not holding my breath. The same situation existed at the time of last years Avalon, with F-22s on deployment in the region, and nothing came of it. Apparently politics had a bit to do with it, or so i was told ;)

I guess we can only hope...

I agree with you Craig its a bit embarsing when say the Thunderbirds or the Red Arrows come out here put on a show then you here the person over the PA say,and coming up next the Roullettes. yeah great.. hey can't we keep 9 of the F-111's,paint them red and white and get them to perform,that would be unreal.It would be a great bomb burst performed at the end of display with all of them doing there dump n burns..RAAF think about it.As for the Raptor i'll believe it when i see it,how many times have we been told that a B-2 is coming,or this and that will be here best to expect nothing.Why don't Malaysia or Singapore send a couple of things,im getting bored of seeing 15's and 16's being brought down by 135's from japan..

Interesting that they're charging for it. Townsville's airshow was free last year.

However, as far as airshows go, the RAAF Airshow's sh*t all over Avalon.

With regard to the Roulette's. I am lucky enough to have worked (and be trained) by former members of the Roulette's. I voiced my opinion on how after the Townsville Airshow last year, the Roulette's were seen as boring as batsh*t compared to the Thunderbirds, and asked why we couldn't have a similar display team.

The main problem is that the RAAF doesn't put enough funding or time into the Roulette's. All the members must train in their own time and often do the displays in their own time. The RAAF also gives them a very small budget for everything bar the flying. So you definitely won't see the Roulette's staying in 5 star hotels etc., when they're away for displays.

Compare that to say the Thunderbirds, they have a huge budget to work with, and they're an entirely seperate squadron where they're only focus is on doing these displays.

Until such time as the RAAF puts in more money, and they aren't cramming the guys up with other work, then we won't have a spectacular team like other Air Forces do.

Mick

If you're tired of seeing F-15's and F-16's, bringing the RSAF down won't do much to abate that boredom...

I would be excited at first Grant, because they would have different markings on them then take a couple of photos then get tired of seeing them. Least the 16's would be block 52+ and have couple of different bumps and things on them,Im just saying that we have all seen the same aircraft time and time again it would be great if we got to see some Sukoi's or F-5's, Grippens or something that are around close in this region,there closer to us than things based in Japan...Every time a show is in southeast Asia there's always photos of pigs there doing there thing,why can't those country's send something to our shows for once...

They get time in leiu for their weekend displays/deployments and as for training in their own time, I'm not sure what that even means. They may practice over an occasional lunch period, but that doesn't mean that they miss out on lunch.

As for funding, they are funded based on the number of displays that they will perform for the year. They are accommodated in the same manner and level as everyone else in the ADF. That means staying on Defence Establishments or in Hotel accommodation depending on the circumstance. If you want a Thunderbirds type display team, then expect the taxpayer to cough up mega (or perhaps obscene amounts of ) funds to do so. I think we need to realise that we are not a big league Air Force like the USAF or RAF, and as such we shouldn't expect a big league Aerobatic Display Team. I think they do a fantastic job.

At the last Edinburgh Airshow about 4 years ago, admission was about $10

I would pay $50.00 bucks for a defence airshow. They are great.

Don't give them ideas Mick :D

Floody is right, I mean afterall it is an ADF airshow so in effect we as taxpayers are already paying for it...

:cool:

Question for any one going or been to one of these.. Are you allowed to take pets.. I want to go do a overnight but not sure if I can take the dog...

Now if the Roulettes performed using Caribou's, that would be fun to watch.:)

Then again.....

You don't need to....they have food stalls everywhere on the day.:rolleyes::rolleyes:

haha i dont wanna eat my dog...

Loud Noisy Aircraft and lots of strange people........Sure to be a good mix for an animal of any kind.

I think common sense needs to be applied here.

FYI, tickets are now on sale. Bought my tickets the other night.

Got my tickets as well. Looking forward to what should be a great weekend

Hi all,

Williamtown's website seems to have been down for a few days now, does anyone know the website or have a phone number where you order the tickets?.....or do you have to go through the Williamtown site?


Thanks,
Jeff.

Hi Jeff,

You can order tickets at http://www.proticket.com.au/event.asp?eventid=669

The airforce.gov.au site is still working. It's the raaf.gov.au site which seems to be down?

Try this one: http://www.airforce.gov.au/AirShows/

Thanks a lot Dan and Mike!

Cheers,
Jeff.

No. http://www.airforce.gov.au/AirShows/

Edit: I've just noticed it says "No radio transmitters/devices will be allowed into the event.". So no scanners? :(

Thats basically what i understood from reading the website.

Bugger !!!! i'll still end up going anyways.

Best day?
 

Any suggestions as to which will be the best day to go? Any advice appreciated.

im flying up for the day on the sunday, whats the best way to get to the entrance of the show from the terminal?

Read the website. All will be revealed! burhhahahahahahahaha.
http://www.airforce.gov.au/airshows/

I wish they would update the Airshow web site.Any news on what will be coming from outside Australia yet.

I'm not expecting much. I believe there is an airshow at Misawa AB Japan on the SAME weekend

So as far as US assets go, i dare say they'll get priority including the resident Viper demo team

Not a lot showing up at Misawa either. But looks like the PACAF Viper demo team's definitely out of Williamtown.

All I know is not to get your hopes up for foreign AF participation, so far I've only got one aircraft from the organisers. And its nothing we haven't seen before.

VMFA-224 should be at Tindal for Ex Southern Frontier during that time as well, so we can hope they'll send a Bug or two our way for the weekend. They've got a couple of nice flagships/special schemes.

I take it then that mobile phones are also off limits .... They are after all radio transmitters.....:)

Yeah, that thought crossed my mind too.. Wonder why they mention on the website how bad the Vodafone coverage is :)

Cant wait!
I'll be there for the weekend...