2024 Australia Airshows and Scheduled Flying Days

[campbellbox]

Looks like a great day for it over in Temora! Looking forward to seeing a bit of coverage from our Aussie correspondents.

auswebcams.com/YTEM/

[planecrazy]

Temora highlights clip from JB Aviation, cracking day!

[typerated]

Seems no HARS at Temora - still politics on the aussie scene?

[Dave Homewood]

The new HARS UH-1H was there. Their Caribou was also scheduled but had a problem found during the pre flight inspection.

[colford]

Back home from Warbirds Down Under 2024 at Temora Aviation Museum conducted over the past weekend. Bad weather (heavy rain causing localised flooding in a number of areas accompanied by strong winds and a very, very low cloud base) over south eastern Australia from late Thursday through to early Saturday morning prevented a number of aircraft planned to attend from getting to the event. That included one Spitfire, one P-51 Mustang and one P-40 Kittyhawk, plus a couple of others. Being the first WDU since 2018, with the 2020 event cancelled due to Covid and the 2022 event cancelled due to a long period of heavy rain turning the event location into large muddy mess, and with the poor weather in the leadup to this year's you can imagine the nerves of the organisors of WDU 2024 being a bit stretched. On the Friday fast moving localised storm cells dumped large amounts of rain on various locations in and around Temora - one of them hit not long after I arrived at Temora and I was hit with one whilst on the road to my accommodation which was a monsoonal downpour for about 5 minutes where you were lucky to see more than a car lengths distance ahead - everyone slowed to a crawl or pulled over. As it was the weather remained fairly poor until early Saturday morning and then improved from then on. As a result a couple of aircraft participating in WDU were still arriving during the day - an example of that being the UH-IH from HARS flown by Mick Haxell who made his way from Shellharbour to Temora through the tail end of the weather front arriving during the latter part of the Saturday.

Part of the flight line early Saturday morning. The trainers and a number of other aircraft participating were parked further to the south in front of the general admission areas.

WDU 2024 Flight Line Saturday Pt 1 by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU 2024 Flight Line Saturday Pt 2 by Colin Ford, on Flickr

For myself, disappointed a few aircraft were not able to make it, a few aircraft I had hoped to see perform were not there for other reasons. BUT, very happy to see P-51D Mustang VH-BOB there as well as Judy Pay's P-40F and Grahame Hosking's Corsair, along with a few other aircraft I had not seen perform at Australia airshows before (or for a very long time) - given the presence of a couple of DHC's finest bush planes on the flight line the phrase "hmmmm, nice Beaver" did make the rounds of the Photographers Pit, especially after the handling display done during the Vietnam scenario segment.

Have a lot of photos to download, go through, so will start posting up over the next day or so, some of the highlights of the weekend's flying activity.

[colford]

And.....knowing the interest in a certain Kiwi pilot's first WDU airshow performance, Bevan taxiing out on the Saturday for his first performance as a part of the Beech and Harvard formation and then for a solo display.

WDU 2024 Bevan 1st Performance Taxi Out by Colin Ford, on Flickr

I have more......

[typerated]

Oct 21, 2024 21:43:19 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

The new HARS UH-1H was there. Their Caribou was also scheduled but had a problem found during the pre flight inspection.

Ok thanks - there used to be quite a lot of HARS stuff in the past but some is better than none!

[colford]

Oh dear! 42.47GBs comprising 10,710 photos over two days, yes I have a lot of photos from Warbirds Down Under 2024 to review, select and post just a mere sample from. So lets get started with the first half of Saturday.

WDU 2024 P40F Takeoff Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 P-51D Takeoff Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Fighter Four Open Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Fighter Four Tail Chase Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Basic Trainer Trio Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Basic Trainer Trio 2 Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Tiger Streamer Hunt Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Tiger Streamer Hunt 3 Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Tiger Streamer Hunt In Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Roulettes Arrival and Pitch Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Roulettes Spaghetti Break Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Roulettes Spaghetti Break 2 Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Roulettes Wheel Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Roulettes Mirror Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Roulettes Bomburst Break Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Roulettes Bomburst Break 2 Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Chipmunk Hi Side Pass Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

More soon.......

[colford]

More Saturday morning WDU2024 action.....

WDU2024 Trainer Flock Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Trainer Flock Head On Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 CT4 Solo Topside by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Winjeel Solo Topside by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Bird Dog Solo Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Bird Dog Solo Landing Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 BT-13 Solo Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Harvard 4 Run In Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Harvard 4 Climb Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Harvard 4 Over the Top Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Trojan Takeoff by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Beaver Take Off Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr
Airshow debut following restoration, nice flowing display. ("Nice Beaver")

WDU2024 Beaver landing & Eagle Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr
Demonstrating STOL prowess - the 'L' part. Eagle, top left, got out of the way just in time.

WDU2024 Bird Dog Pair Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr
Bird Dog pair to open the Vietnam scenario.

WDU2024 Bird Dogs & Canberra Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr
Bird Dogs with Canberra in overwatch.

WDU2024 Trojan & Eagle Miss Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr
T-28 making hi side pass with two eagles doing avoidance.

Untitled by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Canberra Top Side 1 Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Canberra Top Side 2 Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Canberra Bottom Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

That get's us to about lunchtime on Saturday's program. More to follow later.

[Dave Homewood]

Really nice photos Colin.

[colford]

Next set of photos covering from lunchtime forward until just before the final two big acts on the Saturday - the massed fighter formation and the full on F-35 display. Photos are basically in order of how events took place and aircraft displayed. As you will note, there were patches of blue skies, and cloud that dispersed then reformed over the course of the afternoon. Made for some moody skies, changeable light conditions, and of course as the sun moved further to the west as the day went on, subjects in the air became more backlighted. Enjoy.

WDU2024 Corsair Heading Out Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Hudson Heading Out Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Avenger Unfolding Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Beech StartUp & Bevan Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 HARS UH-1H Arriving Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2025 HARS UH-1H Hover Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr
Much griping by the assembled photograhers about the chap wearing the flouro jacket next to the window in the Huey.

WDU2024 Canberra Taxi Back Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Harvard Bevan Taxi Out Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr
Bevan heading out to be part of the Beesh & Harvard formation and then solo Harvard display. He handled the tricky windy conditions very well and put on a polished display Routine. great debut at Warbirds Down Under.

WDU2024 Harvard Pair #2 Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 RAAF C-130J Pass Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr
RAAF C-130J on the Saturday, underwhelming. Two passes and gone.

WDU2024 RAAF C-130J Ramp Pass Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Pacific Trio Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Pacific Trio Pass 2 Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Pacific Trio Pass 3 Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Hudson Cloud Dancing Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Hudson Bomb Bay Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Avenger Shadow Clouds Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Avenger Hi Side Pass Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Corsair Hi Side Pass Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Beech & Harvards 1st Pass Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Beech & Harvards 1st Pass 2 Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Beech & Harvards 1st Pass 3 Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Corsair taxi Back Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Bevan Solo 1 Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Bevan Harvard Solo 2 Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 bevan Harvard Solo 3 Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Bevan Harvard Solo 4 Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 PC-9 Taxi Out Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 bevan Harvard Solo Taxi back Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Bevan Harvard Solo Taxi back 2 Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 PC-9 Take Off 1 Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr
PC-9 Display by Steve "Boris' Beckker - was a little more sedate than the debut at the September 2024 Temora Aircraft Showcase. May be due to CASA reps being on site for the weekend.........?

WDU2024 PC-9 take Off 2 Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 PC-9 Inverted Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 PC-9 Climbing Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 PC-9 Knife Edge Pass Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 PC-9 Aero braking Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

More tomorrow.

[planecrazy]

Wow great set, thanks so much, really enjoying these......

[Dave Homewood]

Fantastic photos Colin!

I love that Hudson-Corsair-Avenger formation, and the Beech 18 and two Harvards together too.

[campbellbox]

Great stuff, thanks Colin. The trainer formation is not exactly heavy metal, but it really does it for me for some reason.

[colford]

And.....I'm back. This batch will primariy be the fighter formation that was the prelude to the arrival of the RAAF F-35 and its display on Saturday afternoon. The fighter formation comprised 1 x Spitfire VIII, 2 x P-51D Mustang, 1 x F-4U Corsair and 3 x P-40. As the formation took off and formed up, P-51D 'Dove of Peace' and then the P-40F did solo displays. They then exited 'stage right' - as viewed from the crowd line, to join up with the other participants in the formation. The P-40F looks to have mis-judged their rejoin, as when the fighter formation first appeared the P-40F was not with them, then appeared to arrive in rather a hurry to catch up with the other aircraft. A few formation passes, then they transitioned into a tail chase, then the fighters peeled off one by one to land to leave the skies clear for the arrival of the RAAF F-35. During the tail chase different fighters moved within their groupings, and it did at times get a bit spread out at the tail end. The cloud, changing light and lowering sun into the west provided some challenges to photography, but also some interesting backdrops at times.

But, before then, jumping back a bit, another photo of the DHC beaver during it's display, and one of the Hudson on its taxi back after its display routine.

WDU2024 Beaver Flyby Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Hudson Taxi Back Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU Fighters P-51D Dove Taxi Out Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Fighters P-40F 106 Taxi Out Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Fighters Corsair Taxi Out Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Fighters P-51D BOB Taxi Out Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Fighters P-40 Pays Taxi Out Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Fighters P-40 112 Taxi Out Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Fighters Spitfire Taxi Out Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Fighters P-51D Solo Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Fighters P-51D Solo 2 Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Fighters P-51D Solo 3 Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Fighters P-51D Solo 4 Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Fighters P-51D Solo 5 Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Fighters P40F Solo Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Fighters P-51 BOB Climb Out Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Fighters P40 Pays Takeoff Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Fighters P40 112 Takeoff Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Fighters Corsair Takeoff Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Fighters P40F Solo 2 Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Fighters P40F Solo 3 Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Fighters P40F Solo 4 Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Fighters Formation Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Fighters Formation 2 Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Fighters Formation 3 Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Fighters Formation 4 Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Fighters Formation 5 Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Fighters Formation 6 Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Fighters Tail Chase Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Fighters Tail Chase 2 Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Fighters Tail Chase 3 Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Fighters Tail Chase 4 Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr
Spot the Spitfire VIII

WDU2024 Fighters Tail Chase 5 Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU20244 Fighters Tail Chase 6 Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 Fighters Tail Chase 7 +1 Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr
Where Eagles Dare.

If the weather hadn't prevented the arrival and participation of the new Spitfire VIII, the P-51D Mustang and P-40 Kittyhawk, the fighter formation would have been even more impressive. Plus the addition of a number regular participant fighters that are currently undergoing maintenance. Could have been HUGE!

[Dave Homewood]

Very cool.

[colford]

Which now brings us to the final performer at Warbirds Down Under on the Saturday, the RAAF F-35 Lightning II. This is the full dynamic performance display. It includes a number of fast and slow, clean and dirty, weapons bay doors open, feel the afterburners passes, along with some very tight turns, interspersed with the firing of flares at specific points. The performance of the F-35 was precededed by many public service announcements by Ando warning about the noise and vibration levels produced by the F-35 display, along with the sage advice that if you didn't bring hearing protection, the "index finger mark one" placed over your ear holes could offer some respite. The F-35 did provide a brilliant display of the art of turning AVTUR into noise and heat and speed. As usual the final act was the final run along the crowd line before pointing the F-35s nose up to the heavens, rolling through at altitude firing flares, finally rolling out on a heading for RAAF Williamtown as a mere speck in the sky, where by the time we truly got back to our car in the car park, he was back in the mess enjoying a cold beverage.

WDU2024 F35 Arrival Pass Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 F35 Arrival Pass 2 Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 F35 Arrival Pass 3 Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 F35 Arrival Pass 4 Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 F35 2nd Pass Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 F35 Kero2Noise Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 F35 Flares 1 Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 F35 Because I Was Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 F35 Dirty Pass Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 F35 Dirty Pass 2 Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 F35 Top Side Fast Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 F35 Bomb Open Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 F35 Bomb Open 2 Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 F35 Bomb Open 3 Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 F35 Power Climb Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 F35 More Flares & Ecto by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 F35 More Flares & Ecto 2 Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 F35 More Flares & Ecto 3 by Colin Ford, on Flickr

WDU2024 F35 Departing Flares Saturday by Colin Ford, on Flickr

The program on the Sunday was pretty much the same, but with the advantage of the improved weather, the participants already having done their performances once before so things went a little more smoothly, and the half hour earlier start to proceedings meant it made photography a little easier for the first half of the day.

Being the first major Warbirds Down Under airshow at Temora in six years, it was interesting to compare this one to previous years and other airshows. The organisors were obviously 'finding their feet' again with a large scale airshow, the last they had run being the Covid attendee numbers restricted RAAF Centenary Airshow back in 2021. A number of changes have been happening at Temora Aviation Museum over the past couple of years, particularly in management and some of the facilities at the museum such as the new cafe arrangement and the flight simulators. It was interesting listening to the views of a number of other attendees about the event and how it was run, what aircraft were participating, and the like. The 'usual suspects' came up regarding number of, range and locations of food and drink outlets; portaloos; location and loudness of the PA speakers; parking in relation to locations and proximity to the event, traffic and parking control in and particularly traffic control at the end of the day; I am sure we've heard them all before.

What was noticeable was the lack of a souvenir event program (the organisors had decided shortly before the event not to produce one due to the fluid situation with potential particpants and the predicted weather being likely to cause changes to the planned program on either day) so had posted the event details via their social media channels the days just before the event, repeated in an email from the event ticketing agency to all ticket holders the day before the event. There was also a lack of event specific souvenir items for the general public, the museum had its usual range of TAM aircraft type souvenir items, altho the participants and VIP guests of the event did get a special souvenir event cap.

Ando as always provided the commentary to the two days proceedings, and the comments I heard from a number of people about his style and the information he conveyed and how he conveyed it were positive. As always, there were a number of times where he went quiet, to allow the sounds of the engines of the participating warbirds provide the soundtrack to their performance in front of the crowd. That was appreciated. His mantra of sunscreen, hydration, noise, with the added new one of no drones allowed, kept the attendees who had not been to a major all day airshow before clued up on what to do and not do.

I will be going through all my Sunday photos in the coming week and will eventually post up a smaller selection of highlights photos from the Sunday performances in due course.

For some of you, see you at Omaka in Easter 2025, or otherwise back at Temora in 2025 and for Warbirds Down Under 2026.

[planecrazy]

Thank you so much Col, great coverage for those unable to attend.

[chrisr]

There are comments on facebook that last weekends flights are the final flights for the Canberra. Did you hear anything about this at the show?

[planecrazy]

Wasn't at the October show but did attend the September showcase, seem to remember there
was a comment about the Avon engines recently getting electric starters as apposed to the
previous cartridge starters. Maybe wrong but it would seem unlikely they would go through all
the hassle of converting to electric start then grounding her?