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Post by colford on Apr 29, 2019 20:26:56 GMT 12
In the countdown to Wings Over Illawarra 2019. Latest weather forecast is looking decidedly aviation unfriendly for the arrivals and practice day on the Friday, but is looking quite good for the Saturday and okay for the Sunday. Will be keeping a close eye on the weather closer we get. The P40 from Scone flew in late last week and the Sea Fury has arrived at HARS from Nowra and is being rapidly reassembled for static display during the show.
Indicative flying program is:
WINGS OVER ILLAWARRA 2019
Gates open 9:00 am - 5:00 pm Saturday & Sunday
Airshow from 10:30 am - 4:30 pm Saturday & Sunday
10:10 • Opening Ceremony
10:30 • RAAF PC-21 x 4 Formation and solo aerobatic
• Douglas C-47
• DHC-4 Caribou
• RAAF C-27 Spartan
11:25 • RAAF C-130J Hercules
• RAAF C-17 Globemaster III
• RAN MH-60R
• PT-17 Stearman
• Paul Bennet in the Wolf Pitts Pro
• Jet Provost
12:30 • Russian Roolettes
• Beech-18
• 2 x CA-18 Mk21 Mustangs
• T6 Texan & Wirraway
13:45 • Learjet Formation Pair
• L-39C Albatros
• Steadfast Yakovlev Yak 3U
• Matt Hall in the Extra 300L
• RAAF P-8A Poseidon
14:35 • T-28 Trojan
• TBM-3E Avenger
• WWII Fighters
o Hawker Hurricane
o Supermarine Spitfire Mk XVI
o CAC CA-18 Mk21 Mustang
o Curtis P-40 Kittyhawk
15:36 • Marchetti S211 Formation
• CAC CA-27 Mk32 Sabre
• Sky Aces Formation Aerobatics
• RAAF Hawk 127 with "Wall of Fire"
16:30 • Show Close
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Post by Mustang51 on Apr 30, 2019 9:36:14 GMT 12
Hopefully that has not deterred anyone. Programme is quite good. Fingers crossed for the weather now and its off to Albion Park
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Post by colford on May 2, 2019 22:01:20 GMT 12
Ando, your digs for the weekend are ready. Time to assume the commentary position.  Ando's WOI2019 Digs by Colin Ford, on Flickr Current weather forecast is pretty wet for Friday, possiblity of showers and a bit of cloud Saturday, Sunday forecast at this stage looking decidedly wet. Glad I planned to attend WOI 2109 on the Saturday. I plan to be the very back, top row of this, pretty close to that platform section.  WOI 2019 Gold by Colin Ford, on Flickr This will be my method of identification.  Full Noise Cap WBDU by Colin Ford, on Flickr |
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Post by mcmaster on May 3, 2019 9:07:29 GMT 12
Looking great. Here’s hoping the weather holds but we do need some moisture eventually. You can really see how their promo material has the F18 as the key draw card. Someone hinted all the knucks are up in Darwin for a big ex as the reason for this years absence. One Hornet however flew over Bondi yesterday whilst I was showing some Kiwi visitors around. Think it was for the ceremony for the NSW Governor.
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Post by ErrolC on May 3, 2019 9:12:12 GMT 12
I assume rather more pilots are able to do a flypast as opposed to an airshow display.
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Post by Mustang51 on May 3, 2019 10:20:23 GMT 12
F18 was for the new Guv ! Most unusual in fact. The Central Commentary Position looks good. At least it has no 'roof' like one previous. Should be down there early this afternoon. Hopefully they wont have the 'loo situated where it was last time and on that alarming angle again. Most disconcerting indeed.
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Post by mcmaster on May 3, 2019 14:50:53 GMT 12
Hopefully they wont have the 'loo situated where it was last time and on that alarming angle again. Most disconcerting indeed. Sounds like bomb aiming was a struggle then?  |
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Post by colford on May 3, 2019 17:09:00 GMT 12
Lots of activity around Albion Park past few hours as aircraft arrive and participants take opportunity as it presents itself with breaks in the rain showers and low cloud to get in some final practice. Where I am staying is to the north of the airfield, so have seen a few arrivals coming in, including Harvard's, Pitts and a range of GA types. Weather forecast for tomorrow is looking better than today.
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Post by colford on May 7, 2019 16:53:22 GMT 12
Finally had some time to go through all the photos that I took on the Saturday edition of Wings Over Illawarra 2019. Weather proved troublesome, largely washing out Friday's practice, threatened the end of Saturday's program and impacted Sunday's program with delays and shuffling of the program and participants. Fairly stiff breeze with stronger wind gusts did make it tricky for some of the performers. On the Saturday as the heavy cloud built during the day, it did make things quite gloomy and tricky for photography. I left just before the RAAF Hawk started its show finishing routine, but was still able to see bits of it as I exiting the car park and airfield surrounds, and a few minutes later ran into the forward edge of the rain showers that were moving in from the north west. I did avoid the big end of show traffic jam as a result as well. Onto the photos.  AA Lear Pair Flyby by Colin Ford, on Flickr  AeroBraking Provost by Colin Ford, on Flickr  AUB Gear Up by Colin Ford, on Flickr  Avenger Up by Colin Ford, on Flickr  Beech Top Side Pass by Colin Ford, on Flickr  Caribou Take Off by Colin Ford, on Flickr  Dakota Take Off 2 by Colin Ford, on Flickr  Fighter Pair by Colin Ford, on Flickr  Fighter Trio 3 by Colin Ford, on Flickr More to follow. |
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Post by colford on May 7, 2019 16:58:24 GMT 12
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Post by colford on May 7, 2019 17:04:41 GMT 12
Part Three.  Navy MH060R by Colin Ford, on Flickr  New Roulette Top View by Colin Ford, on Flickr  New Roulettes Belly Pass by Colin Ford, on Flickr  PBA Super Pitts by Colin Ford, on Flickr  PBA Super Pitts 2 by Colin Ford, on Flickr  Provost Pass by Colin Ford, on Flickr  RR Trio Break Up by Colin Ford, on Flickr  RR Trio Break in Line by Colin Ford, on Flickr  RR Trio Going Down by Colin Ford, on Flickr  RR Yak Pair by Colin Ford, on Flickr  Sabre Rotate by Colin Ford, on Flickr  Snifter Roll In by Colin Ford, on Flickr More to follow. |
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Post by colford on May 7, 2019 17:22:28 GMT 12
Last batch.  Spartan Goes Bush by Colin Ford, on Flickr  Spartan Rollin In by Colin Ford, on Flickr  Spitfire Taxi In by Colin Ford, on Flickr  Steadfast Up by Colin Ford, on Flickr  Steadfast 7 L39 Run In by Colin Ford, on Flickr Look closely at this photo, in particular the cowling on Steadfast. This is the issue that caused Steadfast to abort its performance on the Saturday, could have turned nasty in a hurry as it happened on the initial high speed past down the crowdline.  Trainer Pair Takeoff by Colin Ford, on Flickr  Texan Edge by Colin Ford, on Flickr  Trainer Pair Break by Colin Ford, on Flickr You can see how dark it was getting later in the day.  Wirraway Wings by Colin Ford, on Flickr  WOI Talking Heads by Colin Ford, on Flickr I want to know where that hand is coming from and who it's attached to? Kudos to the commentary team for the number of times they let the aircraft engines do the talking. Notes for Ando: Yes, still Basler Dakota operating in Antarctica, was down there this year flying with air sampling probes fitted. Was being flown by a young Aussie pilot. Flies in and out via South America for the season. 3 Sqdn RAAF flying Mustangs operationally in MTO, or were you refering to the CAC built Mustangs with RAAF Squadrons not seeing wartime operational service? Yes, there's one in every crowd! Also need to be careful what gets picked up by commentators microphones, background conversations that maybe shouldn't be heard. Those mikes were sensitive. Time to change to more directional microphones?! Until the next airshow. |
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Post by johnnyfalcon on May 7, 2019 18:19:10 GMT 12
Nice coverage Col. Much appreciated. Lucky the weather didn't spoil things too much, it looks like a good day of rich aviation heritage. Cheers!
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Post by Mustang51 on May 7, 2019 18:34:01 GMT 12
Col, Referring to the CAC built Mustangs. A few went to Korea but not in the Pacific. Sunday was the microphone 'fail' and unfortunately we have no choice in the matter. Guessing you were there for the Sunday show.....rain and associated high very variable gusting wind resulted in lots os stress and instant changes to the programme. All praise to Chris Tibbetts the Air Bos for what he was able to put together with deteriorating weather and lowering sun.
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Post by mcmaster on May 7, 2019 19:05:12 GMT 12
Great shots Col thanks for sharing. The C130 and C17 in front of the escarpment stand out. The new Roulettes scheme still growing on me. I missed the show is there any noticable difference between the PC 9 and 21 display or hard to tell without the full team?
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Post by colford on May 7, 2019 23:49:12 GMT 12
Mcmaster, re the old PC-9 Roulettes vs the new PC-21 Roulettes I think it is a bit early to tell, as they said in the commentary they are still learning the aircraft and getting the feel of how their display routine translates to the new airframe and its performance. The solo PC-21 segment to some degree was designed to show some of the performance of the PC-21, including tighter turning radius, the power available in vertical moves and controlability. Also no smoke at this stage. To my eye the performance was good, but felt a bit hesitant, certainly a degree of caution whilst they become fully accustomed to the PC-21. They noted that the four ship is a stepping stone in getting that familiarity and confidence built up before they go to the full Roulettes formation.
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Post by Calum on May 9, 2019 15:03:06 GMT 12
Nice photos Colin, I'm still going through mine from he show (along with my Omaka ones) .
The morning was quite good, pity it got so dark in the afternoon. I think I've ditched all of my hawk shots.
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Post by Mustang51 on May 9, 2019 16:19:13 GMT 12
Dark in the afternoon....Calum that was an understatement for Sunday. The sun had gone down behind the escarpment and there was a heap of cloud out west for anyone who was not there. The "Wall of Fire" was welcome to light the place up and provide a degree of warmth for the Unicon and Commentary team !
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Post by colford on May 9, 2019 16:44:05 GMT 12
Calum, yes most of my afternoon photos are mere dark shapes on a dark background, despite cranking the setting on my camera to try and compensate, you can only compensate so far. Given the north-south orientation of the airshow display, morning certainly okay for photography, as the morning sun from the north east is providing reasonable lighting, but once the sun moves over to the west, lots of shadows and backlighting. Add in rapidly changing light as cloud moved in front of the sun during the morning to the really thick cloud cover in the afternoon, not a good recipe for photography. Mind you, I did check my total shots taken for the Saturday and despite not photographing some subjects and displays during the later afternoon - more spectating than photographing, I did take a few thousand photos on my main setup on the Saturday, plus another dozen on my mobile. A lot of those will be culled because they are just too dark and no amount of post-editing is going to improve them. Things we do in the digital era compared to what we used to do with film.
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Post by ZacYates on May 10, 2019 11:10:04 GMT 12
I really enjoyed seeing your photos Col, a lovely selection shot well!
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