Airshow Pictures, Sounds & Videos

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These pictures may be reproduced for non-commercial purposes as long as credit is given to the author/photographer. Please drop me an email to let me know what you thought of the videos and pictures.

Avalon '97

I didn't make it back to Australia for this show, so if anyone has any pictures or videos online, I would love to put them up here. I heard the F18 and F111 put on QUITE THE SHOW, would love to hear your comments!

Avalon '95

This is a group of pictures I scanned from my personal stash.

All of the pictures were taken by me, except for the static displays, which were all taken by Brian Smith (maintainer of The Church home page). Some of the pictures were captures from a video taken by Brian.

Please Mail me your comments. I'd be very interested to read what you have to say about this page as this is only my second airshow where I've taken photos.

The F-16

F16 on takeoff roll (26K). This was captured from video, and doesn't look that great. At this stage, our ears were starting to suffer...F16's on AB tend to be on the loud side. Click here to listen to the takeoff in wav (332K) or AU (120K) format.
F16 with BBQ drive engaged (13K), picking up speed very rapidly, flying straight level getting ready for the big pull up.
F16 with contrails (144K) pulling up toward a vertical climb immediately after takeoff, banking to the right slightly. Contrails can clearly be seen coming from the root of the leading edge. Reasonable view of the AB kicked in. Aircraft was very small in photo, so picture quality isn't great.
F16 landing (146K) after the display. Main gear on deck, nose wheel still way up in the air. The dangly bits are well and truly dangled... the Dunlops, flaps, brakes.. everything you'd expect for a landing, really.
F16 taxiing (161K) after the landing. Canopy is open, pilot waving toward the crowd.
F16 static display (171K). Looking toward the centre of the fuselage from the 4 o'clock position. It's a shame there's no AIM 9M on the wingtip, looks naked without it. Can see other folks walking past and a bit of the grandstand (which runs parallel with the runway/display line).
F16 static display (183K). Looking from head on, intake covers are on along with various other dangly bits. I didn't scan this one properly, it's too bright. I'll fix it one day. Drop tanks on wings and centreline clearly visible. The didn't take the tanks off for any of the displays on any of the show days. It still put on a great display, though my friends and I wondered how it would perform without the tanks.

The SU-27

SU-27 on takeoff run (146K). This shot nearly cost us our ears, but it was worth it. I should've taken the shot after it came past so we could see the BBQ going on in those two huge engines. As it is, if you look toward the right side of the shot, level with the engines, you can see the copious fumes pouring out of the nozzles. For most of us here in Australia, this was the first time we'd seen the SU-27, so it was very much a Three-Change-of-Underwear(tm) display. Click here to listen to the full takeoff in wav (564K) or AU (204K) format, or here for the shortened version of the wav (283K) and AU (102K) samples.
SU-27 knife edge (110K) pass. Slight smoke trail from the left engine. This shot wasn't too easy to take because the plane wasn't exactly crawling past at that stage. Nice shot of the top surface of the fuselage and wings.
SU-27 landing (133K) after the second of its two spectacular displays that day. The aircraft has not passed us by yet. This landing really does have everything going for it, nose wheel in the air, flaps, slats, plenty of elevator, and an airbrake big enough to sink a ship (though I believe this one's being used to stop a plane).

The IL-76

IL-76 video clip 120Kbps or 28Kbps (removed after disk crash). To download the video to your hard disk, here's the high quality local playback version (~500K)

Il76 Waterbomber (21K) coming past, dropping a huge amount of water. This was quite a jaw dropper at the time. Vladimir Urinovsky kindly provided me with some information about this aircraft. It carries 40 tons of water in 2 20ton tanks which can be opened separately if need be. It can cover 450 x 50 meters of burning surface. It usually performs its duties at a height of 50 meters.

The F/A-18

F/A-18 (139K) taking off in the later part of the day. I've tried to get as much detail out of the shot as possible. I think I took it too far, the colours aren't too good on the fuselage. As with a lot of these pictures, the You-Yang ranges (the big hilly bit) sit nicely in the background. Sadly, the display was severely lacking in the "Change of Underwear" Stakes (see first comment about the SU-27). The RAAF just don't seem to throw the aircraft around anymore. A good friend of mine (Hi Scott) has spoken with Australian RAAF pilots and was told that this is due to budget restrictions, leading to reduced training time. *Hops off his soap box*

The F-111

F111 (41K) thundering past on its takeoff roll. I deliberately took this shot after it had passed us, so would could get a good view of the burners. Like a few others, I brightened this one too much, and the background is now over over exposed. Might redo this one if I get time.
F111 takeoff at night (10K). You can only see a light on the tail, a huge flame from the AB, and a change of colour in the flame as the burners meet the runway. This frame was captured off video. Click here to listen to the night takeoff in wav (234K) or AU (85K) format.
After the F111 did its evening display, consisting of a dump and burn (see Pt Cook airshow pictures below for daylight version of this), and several passes on full afterburner (click here for wav (135K) or here for an AU (48K) audio file) it landed and began to taxi past us, just as Scott was giving his commentary . He seemed to get in touch with his spiritual side when the smell of avgas reached us.
Click here to listen to a wav (271K) or AU (98K) sample of the kero sniffing incident. You can also click here to listen to another bit of Scott's amazing commentary in wav (136K) or AU (49K) format. For those who aren't familiar with the term "bar up", it means "to get excited in a way that only men can" :)

The F4

F-4 taking off (169K). We are at the aircraft's 10 o'clock in this shot, with the main gear just about to leave the ground. This was a special moment for me, having never seen the Phantom fly before.
This was also a pleasant surprise because this display was not printed in the program. We rolled up to the show at about 8:45am that day, not expecting to see any decent military aircraft until later in the day. We settled down at the front of the sparsely populated flight line and prepared for a day of rapid underwear changing. Before we knew it, an F4 was sitting at the end of the runway fuming like a....like a...well, like a big fuming thing. It must've put on a 10 minute display (longer than most military displays, from my limited experience), making many passes, vertical climbs, slow rolls, etc.
Probably one of the nicest things about the display, apart from the spontaneity, was another word ending in 'y'...uncertainty. Unlike most displays, where there seems to be a clear beginning and ending, the F4 would barrell past at about 475-500kts, pull up slowly about 70 degrees and slow roll till virtually out of sight. At this stage, most ppl thought it was gone (myself included). However, I had something most people didn't....binoculars! At about 15,000ft, it would stop the slow roll, invert and lazily pitch down to the vertical...absolutely FANGING at this stage. This happened two or three times, and then finally it landed.
The Phantom pilot won the hearts of Scott and I by employing the 270 degree roll to the right (instead of a boring ol' 90 degree left break). Very stylish....good form.
F-4 landing (122K) after a fantastic display. We're at the pilots' 2 o'clock. All wheels are on deck, parachute dangling out the back, canopy open, both pilots clearly visible. The tail section and one of the decals were sharpened to make them more visible.

The A-4

A4 Skyhawk (13K) taxiing on runway after its display. This is small because it was captured from video. I can capture frames from the display if people ask for some.

Point Cook '88

F/A-18 dirty pass
F111 dump and burn. This is the classic F111 routine. Flying past at a maximum of 350kts, fuel is jettisoned from the aircraft and the afterburner is engaged. The unburned fuel ignites, creating an effect that always turns heads. If this maneuver is attempted at > 350 kts, the fuel will not ignite. This is why they tend to go vertical during the maneuver.