The Centenary of Military Aviation Airshow was held at Point Cook on 1-2 March. I came across the Airshow on a drive to the Great Ocean Road on one of those understated, flashing orange, portable, road-side freeway signs.
It couldn’t have been a less fitting indication for the roaring awesomeness that was!
I have never personally been to an airshow and was super excited from the start. Getting there was a bit of effort but they couldn’t exactly have fighter jets breaking the sound barrier over the Melbourne CBD. The sun was out and as we pulled into the parking lot the RAAF Roulettes roared overhead, just overhead…
The RAAF Roulettes being Roulette-y
There was a lot of hardware on the ground. I don’t know much about military aviation but the crowd contained a lot of seasoned aficionados who were happy to help. There was a host of fearsome helicopters, troop carries and jets on the ground ready for public inspection. A particular crowd favourite was the new F-35 which are on order (and cost a fortune!). Unfortunately it didn’t get any airtime this time around. Whilst the history and the grounded future were interesting the crowd (and me) were there for one thing. The fighter jets.
We weren’t disappointed. The pilots pulled out all stops and did things that defied my understanding of physics. A particular OMG moment was when one took a right angle turn towards the sun in a vertical screech that would have broken my body and soiled my loins.
All in all I was very happy with my first foray at an airshow. Additionally I was even more pleased, perhaps surprised with my organisational skills that saw the foresight to Google ‘airshow what to bring’ beforehand. A tip don’t go without sunhat and earplugs at the ready.
-Ruki
