Monday, May 21, 2012

Pearce RAAF Airshow 2012


Yesterday bro Graham and I went to Pearce Airforce Base for the big airshow. We arrived early around 10.30am and it seems that many others who headed up to Pearce later gave up and returned home after waiting in traffic for hours. We had no problems getting to Pearce and parking amongst what looked like thousands of other cars. After the airshow we sat in the car for 3.5 hours as thousands of cars tried to exit on one narrow road. Grrrr!

The airshow was good. There were the local private aircraft and vintage craft and then the Roulettes the RAAF showoffs, doing a speccie job of smoke trailing gyrations. Another flight of instructors did similar and I must admit that one lot of aerobatics looks similar to the next to me. Highlight of the show was the heavy military hardware...The Orion, which I remember Joan and Kev and the kids flew in as the civilian version, the Lockheed Electra, one time returning to Australia on leave from PNG. There was the massive C17 Globemaster, a C130 Hercules which is an oldie but hundreds are still in active service around the world and several other big planes which made some impressive near vertical takeoffs. Here's a photo of the Wedgetail surveillance aircraft. How annoying that all those people spoil my photo!

The exciting part of the show was by the Hornets doing high speed low passes and vertical climbs with wonderfully loud angry noises. One Super Hornet did a few extra speedy passes.

The last participant of the main show was a flypast by a B52 bomber which flew down to Perth from Guam on both days. It didn't land and after doing two passes turned back and flew all the way back to Guam. It is a lumbering giant which seemed like it has passed its time, but there are still lots of them in active service with the USAF. I'm guessing that it was a good demo to show the strike distance to a growing Asian power.

I took quite a few photos with a small digital camera instead of my Nikon D70. I recently heard a radio interview with some expert who said that people take photos of events when they should actually watch  with their eyes. I should have just watched rather than squint into the sun and miss the real events. Looking at photos isn't quite the same. There are plenty of videos and pics on YouTube.
Turn up your speakers as high as they can stand for this 2 second clip from my iPhone.

1 comment:

Bernie said...

Love Air shows and can well remember the long lines of traffic going and coming home. Still enjoyed them very much. My late husband was in the RCAF and was an electrician on many types of aircraft, one of the best too I might add.
Your friend John had a wonderful funeral and seems to have a beautiful family who loved him very much, showing a life well lived.......:-)Hugs