Avalon Airshow 2011 - Pics.

[Homestar]

As requested, a few pics from Avalon to get started. These are all on the ground, as my camera, and my skills using it are a bit limited. One of the other Sparkies on site has all the whiz bang gear, and knows how to use it, so there will be some action shots coming once I get him to copy them for me.

Forgive any errors in my descriptions, as I am not an airplane buff, and was taking notes from a friend while I was taking these - he knows his stuff, but I may have mixed up a few things...

2 x F22 Raptors were flying in tonight for their first touchdown on Australian soil, but no one is sure how tight security will be with these, so I may not be able to get any close ups, but we'll see...

So. to start with, here are a couple of shots of Australian FA-18's





Ye Olde F-16


U.S - B1 Bomber



U.S. refuelling tanker for the 2 x B1's - Boeing something or other - forgot what he said...


Black Hawk


And lastly (for the moment) this funny looking plane with heavy duty landing gear, and no wings...


Cheers - Gav.

[Hoges]

,,,

[Hoges]

...

[Hoges]

The tanker is designated as a KC-10. It's derived from the civilian McDonnell Douglas DC-10 wide body aircraft. One of the civilian planes once lost an engine ...as in : engine became detached from the wing on landing
Hmmm ... now, where's that invoice for high tensile bolts?

PS re. the F-22 ...maybe a US Airshow joke ...they used to advertise the fly-in of the stealth planes ...when people asked when is the B2 etc coming they'd reply, didn't you see it...well it is a stealth fighter... I suspect same might be the case with the F-22...we'll see...or then perhaps ...maybe not!

[wrinklearthur]

The tanker is designated as a KC-10. It's derived from the civilian McDonnell Douglas DC-10 wide body aircraft. One of the civilian planes once lost an engine ...as in : engine became detached from the wing on landing
Hmmm ... now, where's that invoice for high tensile bolts?

Just as well it wasnt the top engine that fell off.
Perhaps the bolts were forgotten to be picked up, hence no invoice.

Cheers Arthur

[juddy]

Is avalon a military base/reserve field??? as the tow truck is a military spec one, and theres a lot of ground equipment about.

[numpty]

Is avalon a military base/reserve field??? as the tow truck is a military spec one, and theres a lot of ground equipment about.

No,but they did assemble and test the FA 18's there in bygone years. Avalon was also a Qantas training flight centre.

GAF was there originally and is where the Nomad was built. Avalon is now one of Jetstars destinations, depending on where the flight originates from.

Hope that helps.

[Hoges]

Yeah...I seem to recall Lindsay Fox of trucking fame either bought or secured a long term lease on the Avalon facility a few years from the Fed Govt when they privatised several major airports.

[Homestar]

Yeah...I seem to recall Lindsay Fox of trucking fame either bought or secured a long term lease on the Avalon facility a few years from the Fed Govt when they privatised several major airports.

Yep, he owns it, but I beleive it is up for sale if you are interested... I think he wants to tip a bucket load of money into a development of the Phillip Island race track - he owns that too, and wants to add hotels, resorts etc around the track to make it a world class facility.

Hoges, thanks for the info on the tanker that I didn't know, and re the F-22's - I'll keep you posted. They were on the internal schedule to land at 1800 and 1803 yesterday evening, but I won't be on site again until tomorrow, but I'll make some calls to see if anything turned up...

Cheers - Gav.

[Homestar]

The F-22's turned up... I'll try and hunt up a few pics.