26 January 2009

Zoomy, bangy Australia Day stuff

26 January 2009 | johnboy

The Australia Day citizenship ceremony went to plan, but I was on Kings Avenue Bridge to try and get a picture of the fly-past of four F/A-18 Hornets.

In retrospect I should have shot video because the sound of 8 General Electric turbofans throwing out 11,000 pounds of thrust each was the most remarkable part of a short, sharp display over the lake.

It was followed by a 21 gun salute which blew occasional smoke rings and that was it for the zoomy bangy stuff until tonight’s fireworks.

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ant11:56 pm 26 Jan 09

The governor General being late thing would explain what they were up to. They were doing Ellipses, so they came and went, and kept doing it for quite some time. Killing time until she arrived, I guess.

imarty9:44 pm 26 Jan 09

bigfeet, fair enough, I suppose I placed too much ‘significance’ on the flypast and was expecting more.
After the display last year by a jet at the airport I guess my expectations were raised a tad high.

With regard the your above comment, it was amusing to see my young fella trying to look at the jets that he could see and the sound that was obviously a fair way behind and trying to work it out (he’s 2 1/2).

Die Lefty Scum9:44 pm 26 Jan 09

BTW I don’t mean that in a mocking way at all. It just reminded me of the song.

Die Lefty Scum9:44 pm 26 Jan 09

Elton John – “Daniel”

bigfeet9:32 pm 26 Jan 09

Die Lefty Scum said :

I’m blind.

Well, my cousin is blind (since birth) and we went to the RAAF airshow at Amberley, outside of Brisbane in the mid 80’s. The way he described how he experienced the F1-11 and Mirage flypasts was much more intense than the way I saw it.

It really gave me a totally different insight into how the blind “see” the world.

Die Lefty Scum9:16 pm 26 Jan 09

I’m blind.

BerraBoy689:09 pm 26 Jan 09

bigfeet said :

The intricacies of having an aircraft flying at that sort of speed arriving on target at a precise time is totally beyond me. But I am very glad to know that our defence force are able to deliver a mission with such intricate timing.

It says a lot for their training and profesionalism.

I was a guest of Boeing US at Farnborough Airshow in the UK a few years back. A great week except for this:

The highlight of each industry day was a low level fly-past by a B-52, the USAFs high altitude ‘precision bomber’ (Sweeeeet!). Come Thursday though the announcer says to look for the plane. We’re all looking for the heavy black smoke that these big birds out out… nothing. About 5 minutes pass and the announcer says the pilot has confirmed he’s over the airfield and has even taken the time to circle so the industry crowd can locate him. At this point someone in the Boeing tent goes “aw, crap”. We all turn to him and he says to look just over the horizon some distance away. There, in all it’s glory, was the B-52… circling the wrong airfield! It was very, very hard not to laugh.

bigfeet9:00 pm 26 Jan 09

imarty said :

bigfeet, seems intracacies and timing are not the only things beyond you. They were circling ant’s house.
Understand that they have to coincide with other proceedings, I was questioning the significance of such a minor part of the proceedings.

Damn! After I posted that I realised that I was answering a combination of two questions…I just hoped that no-one noticed.

I’m not sure what you mean by signifcance? There is no particular significance of the fly past, or of the PM arriving, of the GG’s speech, or the flag raising, or of any other part. It is all purely ceremonial and for public show. But still impressive.

imarty8:36 pm 26 Jan 09

bigfeet, seems intracacies and timing are not the only things beyond you. They were circling ant’s house.
Understand that they have to coincide with other proceedings, I was questioning the significance of such a minor part of the proceedings.

GottaLoveCanberra8:35 pm 26 Jan 09

Hell, next time tell them to circle my house! I love the sound of fighter aircraft, especially at speed. I heard the rumble of them and busted out my front door just in time to watch them glide over my place.

I’ll never forget watching a 2 Billion dollar B-2 Stealth bomber fly past at 500ft, coming out of the fog and slipping back into it at Andrews Air Force base when I was in the States.

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