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Avalon Australia

Warbirds, Replicas and Nostalgic photos in here please.
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MADWOP
Posts: 122
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2022 3:51 pm

Avalon Australia

Post by MADWOP » Tue Jan 21, 2025 9:30 am

In 2007 and 2011 I was very fortunate to have access to the trade days at the Australian International airshow at Avalon, Victoria.
To say it was challenging photograpically is an understatement it was blisteringly hot, freezing cold, windy, dusty, raining, appalling light and sometime brilliant light.
A little like the U.K. really!!
The highlight of 2007 was being present at a talk by Charles 'Chuck' Yeager on his career in front of a mock up of the Bell X-1 in which he broke the sound barrier in 1947.
I thought better of asking for his autograph after he was quite disparaging about the British during his talk, (this bitterness towards the Brits is mentioned in his Wikipedia page).
Nevertheless an honour to be in his presence.
The show:-
Very much like our Farnborough, a lot of civil participation - business jets etc and quite a lot of military.
Fortunately for me the Australian military had just signed a contract (2006) to purchace 24 F/A-18F Super Hornets.
For the show itself two jets were borrowed from VF-102 Diamondbacks, the display jet to be flown by Boeing's chief test pilot at the time and the spare was used to take dignitaries
for a demo. flight. The commentator took great delight in informing us that some of these dignitaries had been somewhat ill apparently!!
Front line fast jet pilots are a breed apart but this guy was something else, he chucked that big jet around like it was a toy.
Any way onto the photographs, to save from boring everyone to death I'll do it in two parts.
My apologies for some repitition, a/c were repositioned and as I said light levels were all over the place.
When I get some time I will get to 2011.
Hope you like them.

PART 1

1
ImageIMG_1170e-DeNoiseAI-low-light by Mike Speroni, on Flickr

2
ImageIMG_3582e-DeNoiseAI-clear by Mike Speroni, on Flickr

3
ImageIMG_3585e-DeNoiseAI-clear by Mike Speroni, on Flickr

4
ImageIMG_3589e-DeNoiseAI-clear by Mike Speroni, on Flickr

5
ImageIMG_3600e-DeNoiseAI-clear by Mike Speroni, on Flickr

6
ImageIMG_3628e-DeNoiseAI-clear by Mike Speroni, on Flickr

7
ImageIMG_3630e-DeNoiseAI-clear by Mike Speroni, on Flickr

8
ImageIMG_3874e-DeNoiseAI-clear by Mike Speroni, on Flickr

9
ImageIMG_3879e-DeNoiseAI-clear by Mike Speroni, on Flickr

10
ImageIMG_4001e-DeNoiseAI-clear by Mike Speroni, on Flickr

11
ImageIMG_4002e-DeNoiseAI-clear by Mike Speroni, on Flickr

12
ImageIMG_4003e-DeNoiseAI-clear by Mike Speroni, on Flickr

13
ImageIMG_4005e-DeNoiseAI-clear by Mike Speroni, on Flickr

14
ImageIMG_4050e-DeNoiseAI-clear by Mike Speroni, on Flickr

15
ImageIMG_4052e-DeNoiseAI-clear by Mike Speroni, on Flickr

16
ImageIMG_4053e-DeNoiseAI-clear by Mike Speroni, on Flickr

17
ImageIMG_4087e-DeNoiseAI-clear by Mike Speroni, on Flickr

18
ImageIMG_4215e-DeNoiseAI-clear by Mike Speroni, on Flickr

19. The great man.
ImageIMG_4260e-DeNoiseAI-clear by Mike Speroni, on Flickr

20
ImageIMG_4261e-DeNoiseAI-clear by Mike Speroni, on Flickr

21
ImageIMG_4265e-DeNoiseAI-clear by Mike Speroni, on Flickr

22
ImageIMG_1259E-DeNoiseAI-clear by Mike Speroni, on Flickr

23
ImageIMG_1378e-DeNoiseAI-clear by Mike Speroni, on Flickr

24
ImageIMG_1754e-DeNoiseAI-clear by Mike Speroni, on Flickr

25
ImageIMG_1815e-DeNoiseAI-clear by Mike Speroni, on Flickr

26
ImageIMG_2078e-DeNoiseAI-clear by Mike Speroni, on Flickr

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Petepilot
Posts: 1267
Joined: Mon Nov 29, 2010 9:48 pm
Location: York

Re: Avalon Australia

Post by Petepilot » Tue Jan 21, 2025 12:14 pm

Nice, thanks for sharing. The F-111 looks nice....and the Hawk with brake-chute....and the Caribou! :clap:
Looking forward to 2011! :pop:

MADWOP
Posts: 122
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2022 3:51 pm

Re: Avalon Australia

Post by MADWOP » Tue Jan 21, 2025 12:46 pm

Petepilot wrote:
Tue Jan 21, 2025 12:14 pm
Nice, thanks for sharing. The F-111 looks nice....and the Hawk with brake-chute....and the Caribou! :clap:
Looking forward to 2011! :pop:
Thank you.
2007 part 2 just posted, 2011 soon I hope.

derek hopkins
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Location: Philippines
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Re: Avalon Australia

Post by derek hopkins » Wed Jan 22, 2025 1:12 am

Brilliant set

matt e
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Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2011 8:00 pm

Re: Avalon Australia

Post by matt e » Wed Jan 22, 2025 6:47 pm

nice set especially the Caribou

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teeonefixer
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Location: East Yorkshire

Re: Avalon Australia

Post by teeonefixer » Sat Jan 25, 2025 11:38 pm

Well done Mike, I enjoyed the intro as well.

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hbxov
Posts: 33
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Location: Scotland

Re: Avalon Australia

Post by hbxov » Fri Mar 21, 2025 12:24 pm

Hi Mike, thanks for posting these. I was there in 2007 too; volunteered as part of the marshalling team, so these brought back lots of memories! Great stuff.

My profile picture was taken there during the night show on the Friday night.

Andy

MADWOP
Posts: 122
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2022 3:51 pm

Re: Avalon Australia

Post by MADWOP » Fri Mar 21, 2025 5:16 pm

hbxov wrote:
Fri Mar 21, 2025 12:24 pm
Hi Mike, thanks for posting these. I was there in 2007 too; volunteered as part of the marshalling team, so these brought back lots of memories! Great stuff.

My profile picture was taken there during the night show on the Friday night.

Andy
Hi Andy,

Glad you enjoyed them. Yes it brought back memories for me too - it has been years since I had looked at them.

You guys do a marvellous job, not just at Avalon but at airshows around the world, without volunteers many shows (if any) just
wouldn't happen. Thank you.

I have promised to post some from 2011 however I lost my father recently so my head has been up my backside, hopefully in the next few weeks I will get around to it

Thanks again

Mike.

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paddyboy
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Re: Avalon Australia

Post by paddyboy » Sat Mar 22, 2025 4:47 am

Aussie ‘Vark & Caribou :Wow:

Excellent set :thumbs:

Thanks for posting :thumb:

Paddyboy :clap:
XH558, always the first lady in my life
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KeBul
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Re: Avalon Australia

Post by KeBul » Sat Mar 22, 2025 8:28 am

Very nice,

Not sure how I missed these first time round, but great viewing, really enjoyed them.

Thanks for sharing

Condolences for your recent loss.

Kev

MADWOP
Posts: 122
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2022 3:51 pm

Re: Avalon Australia

Post by MADWOP » Sat Mar 22, 2025 9:58 am

Thanks guys, I will get around to 2011 soon I hope.

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