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