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Australian airshow 1988 photos - the best ever downunder

Mon Apr 09, 2007 7:49 am

http://www.warbirdz.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1113

It is arguablyand not many will - this WAS the best airshow in Australia in the last 20years and that has got to say something...

The highlight to me been a kid and many others wasat the end a Rusisan air force AN-124 Ruslan doing 60-90deg turns nearly at around 500ft.. yes it was MAD russians .. only ruskies would attempt such a move - dont ever recall the USAF throwing their C-5 around same hahaha

The airshow had nearly everything in Australia you could want.. it has never been repeated except in 1991 but wasnt as good.

Sadly it wont ever happen again consdiering the normal Australian airshow it was replaced with is at Avalon every 2years and Avalon is failing like nothing, - this recent one only 3 weeks ago - was a flop to many people and i cancelled going myself as it was a mirror image of 2005 Avaloan airshow which was a copy of 2003... which was... get the drift. Also most of Australia warbirds people avoid Avalon nowdays as it no use...

Richmond 1988 was the best and shows when aussie minds are applied amazing work can be done.

It had over 250,000-500,000 people go to it as i understand which at the time was Australia new record for airshow attendance.

Many of us aircraft nuts pray there will be a return one day to Richmond , but we dont know how long the RAAF base will remain open for...let alone allow such a event that size to happen again. There was a small airshow back in last october 2006.. i went to was good but not the sheer magic of 1988....

Sabredriver

Mon Apr 09, 2007 2:28 pm

What the heck is up with this?

Image

Was this done on purpose?

Mon Apr 09, 2007 3:44 pm

thats a normal aussie party trick only the caribou can do .. touch down on it nose wheel and keep the rear wheels in the air and flies off again

like to see a c5 galaxy do that hahahaha

ive seen the nose trick about 10 times now..

Mon Apr 09, 2007 4:53 pm

sabredriver wrote:thats a normal aussie party trick only the caribou can do .. touch down on it nose wheel and keep the rear wheels in the air and flies off again

like to see a c5 galaxy do that hahahaha

ive seen the nose trick about 10 times now..


...and sometimes it goes spectacularly wrong as with this Buffalo, successor to the Caribou, at the Farnborough airshow in September 1984.

Nobody hurt.

Google for the Video and try not to smile.

PeterA

Photo credit:- Robin McInnes.

Image

Mon Apr 09, 2007 7:50 pm

I watched a KC-135A touch down nose-gear first when I was in the USAF. He had an Unsafe indication on both main gear. He greased her in ever so gentley on the nose and just let the mains settle in on there own. Turned ou to be faulty downlock sensors, but made a he11 of a show for us sitting at the edge of the taxiway!

Mon Apr 09, 2007 9:39 pm

PeterA wrote:
sabredriver wrote:...and sometimes it goes spectacularly wrong as with this Buffalo, successor to the Caribou, at the Farnborough airshow in September 1984.

Nobody hurt.

Google for the Video and try not to smile.
That video looks far worse than the nosewheel stunt gone wrong to me.

Tue Apr 10, 2007 4:03 am

Ah yes, the ol' misjudge your rate of decent during a STOL landing display trick. Result - one Cat-5 Buffalo & a couple of severely bruised egos.

Sabredriver,

Yes I have very fond memories of Richmond '88 as I was there for duration with 75SQN (Hornets). However, there were several great airshows that I remember from that era in Oz that were really exeptional. The RAN 75th Birthday airshow at Nowra was a standout. Again, I was there with the 77SQN display Mirage for the duration and the show had a phenominal Warbird turn out.

I agree that the chance of us ever seeing airshows like that again in Oz is getting very slim. Don't be too hard on the organisers though as they really aren't trying to put a show on for the die hard aerophiles like us, but are focusing on getting the joe public punter through the gate and to separate him/her from cash (remember it's a business). To the average bloke, a Classic Hornet screeming around at the speed of heat is really no different from a Super Hornet or F-16. All they want is lots of noise, speed and aeros. If they get that they tend to go home happy.

You've also got to consider that the cost of puting on this event every two years is quite phenominal and the risk is very high (check out the weather during this year's Friday & Saturday shows).

Anyway, I'll get off my soap box now.

Here's a closer pic of a 38SQN Caribou performing a "wheelbarrow" along the Avalon 'strip in 2005. It's a pretty neat party trick. Remember Avalon 2009 will probably be the last hurrah for both the Pig & the 'Bou.

Image


Cheers

Browny

Tue Apr 10, 2007 8:37 am

there used to be an aircraft in FS2000 that was able to do that. Then again, I also had this SR-71 that I could do a neat trick with. Coming in for landing, staying about 100 ft above the runway. Then suddenly kick in full AB, stick full back and deploy dragchute. Made it stop and stand on it's tail in midair for a few seconds :P Then, release chute, stick a bit forward and I went almost straight up. :shock:
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