Winging it to the Richmond (Australia) Airshow.

christulk

Hi all,

This is my first post in this thread, so I hope it is ok. I will start off by saying that I am a pilot in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) who was very lucky to be posted (assigned) to the RAAF Museum (http://www.raafmuseum.com.au/) for a little over a year. During that time the Museum purchased a DH82A Tiger Moth and myself and a mechanic colleague flew it from Coffs Harbour in northern New South Wales to Point Cook in Victoria - unfortunately I didn't take my camera. So when the opportunity arose to fly to the Richmond airshow, I made sure my camera came along.

The Tiger Moth is an old bi-plane that was designed in the early 30's and this particular one was built in 1943.

The RAAF used them as trainers for many years, and as a result the Museum decided to have a flying example in it's collection. This is it after our fantastic volunteers 'touched it up a bit'. It looks fantastic (IMO)






I digress.. This trip took place in October last year and was a real hoot! We set off in rather strong winds which made our ground speed about 40 knots (76 kph or 40 mph) which meant for some time we were looking down and being over taken by cars!!!

After the wind died down a bit, I was able to get my camera out and get a shot of the dry Aussie countryside:





The pilot in this aircraft sits in the back and I found it difficult to get my camera out whilst flying - fortunately there is a stick in the front, and Brett my 'starter motor' (the engine is started by hand swinging the prop) was able to fly while I tried to shoot.





Even though in October in Australia the weather is ok. at 3000' in an open cockpit, the temperature drops, so the woolen coats were a must.

Because of the strong winds and slowwwwww going, it took us three days to get there (could have driven there in 8-10 hours!)

The show was great - the museum sent it's CAC18 Mustang (Australian built version of the famed P51) which was hangered with a Spitfire from the Temora Aviation Museum;





When getting ready for my display, Brett took my camera and got a few shots of me taking off etc, but not before I managed to get a shot of Australia's best aerobatic pilot Pip Borman, doing his amazing display right over me!









The show as I said was great, with a large number of RAAF and aircraft on display. As Australia is buying the C-17, the Americans brought one over for the show - and put on a fantastic display. I got to look inside (and photograph) this lovely aircraft.







Unfortunately the Wx was a little drab, not great for photography, but that didn't stop 'em from trying!






It appears the jets were a bit loud for some:






I didn't get to fly the aircraft back, I managed to get a ride in the Rescue Chopper (S76), so my tiger journey ended on the last show. But is was a great trip!:D

ian408

I knew there was a great story in there! Thanks for sharing.

Ian

DJ-S1

Very enjoyable, thanks for taking us on the trip -

Awais Yaqub

very cool thanks for sharing

bsvirginian

Thanks for the trip. I'll be photographing a US Navy fighter wing (F-18) in two weeks. Nothing as exciting as you event. Just a command portrait with all 12 of their newly painted f-18's. BS:D

christulk

bsvirginian wrote:

Thanks for the trip. I'll be photographing a US Navy fighter wing (F-18) in two weeks. Nothing as exciting as you event. Just a command portrait with all 12 of their newly painted f-18's. BS:D

That sounds cool. Make sure you post some..please!!!

gus

Great shots mate. When does the 1st of the C-17's we bought arrive ?

Cool sky in that stormy shot.

christulk

gus wrote:

Great shots mate. When does the 1st of the C-17's we bought arrive ?

Cool sky in that stormy shot.

Thanks Gus,

Not sure of the exact date, but I think the first will be here before mid year?

ian408

bsvirginian wrote:

Thanks for the trip. I'll be photographing a US Navy fighter wing (F-18) in two weeks. Nothing as exciting as you event. Just a command portrait with all 12 of their newly painted f-18's. BS:D

Newly painted? Does this mean something other than grey w/black letters?
If so, I thought that only one or two planes of any squadron could be painted?

PossumCorner

So good, thanks for sharing these. And on your smugmug site, the Kid-shot of pilot Matthew - just magic.

christulk

PossumCorner wrote:

So good, thanks for sharing these. And on your smugmug site, the Kid-shot of pilot Matthew - just magic.

Thanks for the compliment. I think he's rather cute (biased of course!).

pathfinder

Great post. I love old Biplanes.

A few years ago my wife and I took a ride in Key West Florida in an old PT-40 trianer I believe. Two open cockpits with the pilot in the back and Nightingale and myself less than three feet behind the propeller and the big radial engine. What a blast!!

I have also ridden in Beavers and Otters in Canada fishing. There is a great museum in Sault Ste Marie of BUSH planes - ROWs mostly.

Do you have any more photos of the plane you were flying parked on the ground, perhaps??

ivar

christulk wrote:

I will start off by saying that I am a pilot in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) who was very lucky to be posted (assigned) to the RAAF Museum (http://www.raafmuseum.com.au/) for a little over a year. During that time the Museum purchased a DH82A Tiger Moth and myself and a mechanic colleague flew it from Coffs Harbour in northern New South Wales to Point Cook in Victoria

I will start off by saying I never realized that the airforce was stationing people at air museums. But now that I do, what are the chances of a foreigner getting accepted to the australian airforce and being stationed at the museum? I love flying old planes.

Very cool shots, thanks for sharing. It's been a while since I've been to an airshow.




Poor kid, I love the shot though.

christulk

pathfinder wrote:

Great post. I love old Biplanes.

A few years ago my wife and I took a ride in Key West Florida in an old PT-40 trianer I believe. Two open cockpits with the pilot in the back and Nightingale and myself less than three feet behind the propeller and the big radial engine. What a blast!!

I have also ridden in Beavers and Otters in Canada fishing. There is a great museum in Sault Ste Marie of BUSH planes - ROWs mostly.

Do you have any more photos of the plane you were flying parked on the ground, perhaps??

Sounds like the flights in Canada in the beaver would have been fun - they are a nice aircraft.

Here are a couple of shots:

This is the Tiger Moth, and what I fly now, the Pilatus PC9




Here is a shot from the back:

christulk

ivar wrote:

I will start off by saying I never realized that the airforce was stationing people at air museums. But now that I do, what are the chances of a foreigner getting accepted to the australian airforce and being stationed at the museum? I love flying old planes.

Very cool shots, thanks for sharing. It's been a while since I've been to an airshow.




Poor kid, I love the shot though.

Thanks Ivar,

I was very lucky to get that job, there are a lot of people who wanted it!!

I was the only air force person there, all the rest are civilians. It was a great job - flying some old aircraft like this Sopwith Pup (our is a replica built in 1978), but still so much fun to fly.

Have you posted some shots of your aircraft?

bsvirginian

I'm not really certain but most of them were in the shop. They just inherited them from a reserve unit and a lot of modifications had to be done. Yesterday I visited a WWII era aviation museum that is privately owned. They let me walk around and photograph but none of the airplanes were outside. All but one of their planes were flyable except the "airacobra". A partial list of their planes include (and remember they all fly). P-51, Hurricane, V-1 rocket, Flying boat, catalina, A4D, all of the WWII Navy fighters, a few of the RAF fighters, a few of the Russian fighters. I'll have to go back and get a more detailed list a some better pictures. BS

ian408 wrote:

Newly painted? Does this mean something other than grey w/black letters?
If so, I thought that only one or two planes of any squadron could be painted?

bsvirginian

Hi Chris

Your images reminded of a private collector in this area, Virginia Beach, Va. Here are a couple of his planes from the Fighter Factory.





He has about 30 WWII era planes and they all fly. He's supposed to take his P-51 up tomorrow and I hope to get some images. By the way I've used the Orton process to antique these images. BS:ivar

christulk

bsvirginian wrote:

Hi Chris

Your images reminded of a private collector in this area, Virginia Beach, Va. Here are a couple of his planes from the Fighter Factory.





He has about 30 WWII era planes and they all fly. He's supposed to take his P-51 up tomorrow and I hope to get some images. By the way I've used the Orton process to antique these images. BS:ivar

That is one clean hangar floor!

The second aircraft is a Tiger Moth - the same type I flew to Richmond. Both aircraft in these shots look beautiful.

ivar

christulk wrote:

Thanks Ivar,

I was very lucky to get that job, there are a lot of people who wanted it!!

I was the only air force person there, all the rest are civilians. It was a great job - flying some old aircraft like this Sopwith Pup (our is a replica built in 1978), but still so much fun to fly.

Have you posted some shots of your aircraft?

I have a surprisingly small amount of airplane photos actually.

I have some here. Most of the planes I flew are not in there though. Most of the photos I have of them are on film. I'll see if I can dig up some. Some personal favorites (include but are not limited to): J3, T28, AN2

ian408

Hey Ivar! Seeing the Seneca reminds me of some film shots I did for a
friend many, many years ago. We flew out of Alameda NAS to the
Farallon Islands. Back over Point Reyes National Seashore.

One of the nicest things I've ever seen.

Seneca

Our very own Chris top-gun pilot! Coolness.