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Re: Melbourne Air & Space Show

Posted: Fri Mar 31, 2017 3:46 pm
by OwenORourke
Wow, they scrubbed their site of the Harrier pretty quickly - like it never was even on the schedule! I think they took it off the posters as well. I applaud them for making the effort not to advertize something that won't be present.

Re: Melbourne Air & Space Show

Posted: Sat Apr 01, 2017 2:35 am
by RyanS
On the other hand, scrubbing it off of the site is NOT the same as announcing the cancellation. I am not sure applause is warranted for how they handled it. Too many airshows do this sketchy stuff these days.

Got lots of video at the practice show today. The Hornet demo flew twice (one E and one F) and everyone else went except Panchito, but it did fly to give a ride. Unfortunately the jets have to use the far runway (27L) which is not only far away it is behind a good amount of brush. The smaller stuff used the shorter runway which was a close to the fence as any I've seen. The Super Hornet touch and goes on it were amazing and it sounds like they might just use the short one for their takeoff tomorrow also. That should rival Cleveland!

The French were pretty entertaining, it isn't a super long routine at about 25 minutes I think. They had a few cool maneuvers but nothing was a super WOW moment. The colored smoke sure is nice! The A400 did not fly and you will not even see it from the airshow grounds. It is way across the airport on the terminal ramp.

Be prepared for long gaps in the show for airliners and also for extended taxis. The layout is not super conducive to a show and one act pretty much has to fully recover before the next can leave the chocks.

The Thunderbirds had a pretty messed up show, starting without #4 (I hope he is not sick and out the rest of the weekend) and soon after losing #6 to a warning light. They continued with the three ship 'diamond' and one solo doing low show maneuvers and #6 took back off on the last pass. They were going to practice more maneuvers but #5 ran low on fuel by then so he landed and #6 joined with the diamond to run through some of the delta maneuvers.

Before takeoff, Thunderbird #3 did the little pep talk from the cockpit and not only got his own rank wrong but also said they were proud to fly in Lancaster, CA. Bad day for them!

For those curious about the layout, there is one large parking lot at the field and I believe some other lots with shuttles. The GA crowd area is mostly to show left with a small area just right of the announcer stand. The photo pit in front of the announce stand seems good until the cars park all around it and the TBs bring in their commcart DIRECTLY in front of it. I'd be furious if I paid to go in there. Lots of tents for sponsors all the way down.

Statics are light, notable ones are an E-2, T-38, T-6A, the Hurricane Hunters C-130, and a civilian Huey. The military stuff is mostly coned off and might be roped off tomorrow. The crowd area is somewhat small and the general seating area to the left is VERY shallow, only about 20-30 feet from the fence to the back boundary.

Re: Melbourne Air & Space Show

Posted: Sat Apr 01, 2017 2:43 am
by Airplanefreak2000
Mike wiskus did not fly today and is no longer on the website. He must have scrubbed too. Couple photos from today:

Re: Melbourne Air & Space Show

Posted: Sat Apr 01, 2017 11:19 pm
by Airplanefreak2000
Photos from today:

Re: Melbourne Air & Space Show

Posted: Sat Apr 01, 2017 11:49 pm
by OwenORourke
Nice shots! Where were you shooting from, and how was the parking situation?

Re: Melbourne Air & Space Show

Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2017 2:51 am
by Airplanefreak2000
Thanks to my friends we were able to park in the orange lot which was right in front of where the patrouille are parked. We shot the show from the photo pit in front of the announcers stand. Few more:

Re: Melbourne Air & Space Show

Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2017 2:51 am
by Airplanefreak2000
Couple more:

Re: Melbourne Air & Space Show

Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2017 12:28 am
by RyanS
I'm curious if anyone went to the show today? I sat off site. I'm wondering how busy it was in there today and what the gates/security situation was like. Yesterday was a disaster.

Re: Melbourne Air & Space Show

Posted: Tue Apr 04, 2017 6:00 pm
by MattEv14
I was there Sunday. We arrived at the main onsite parking lot right around 10:30am and had no trouble with parking or entering the show. We began a very slow walk to the car as the Thunderbirds completed their last few maneuvers and were out of the parking lot with 10 minutes. We might've been lucky with our timing but no major issues to report.

I wish I would've been there on Friday or Saturday to see the Super Hornet do it's touch and go on the close runway.It didn't even do a touch and go on Sunday and honestly aside from the high speed pass and photo pass that were great, it was a pretty tame demo. There were scattered clouds around 1700 and it appeared it could have elected to do it's high show, but instead flew a flat show. Typically the hornet crews always seem to "find the patch of blue" in order to do their high show (recently Chicago last year comes to mind). Oh well.

I still thought it was a very good show despite a few disappointments (mainly the Harrier no-show). I thought the Patrouille de France put on a nice demo and it was great to see the A-400M for the first time. Ace Maker really stole the show on Sunday as did the F-35 with its two thunderous solo passes. I also thought despite going from a High to a Flat Show the Thunderbirds really brought it on Sunday making up for a tough day on Friday. Overall it was an enjoyable weekend in Florida to kick off the season.

Re: Melbourne Air & Space Show

Posted: Sat Apr 08, 2017 2:37 am
by RyanS
Earlier today I posted videos of the Patrouille de France and A400 on our blog. Stupid me goofed on the first PAF sequence but I got it fixed after that. Talk about baptism by fire for the new video camera! Lots of photos too, and I am just starting to go through them.

https://airshowstuff.com/v4/2017/watch- ... n-decades/