Don't panic! (when the zoomy planes go past) - UPDATED

I-filed: Yes, I noticed her too 🙂

FB: Thanks for your comments. Dick’s family appreciates them 🙂

I can’t see what the problem is with 77SQN paying their respects to one of their ex-Commanding Officers, especially when you consider that Wg Cdr Cresswell spent a fair chunk of his RAAF career being shot at by either the Japanese, Chinese and/or the North Koreans, whilst serving his country.

If we have to fly these things anyway, then it’d probably fitting to do it in such a way as this. I’m sure Dick was an amazing guy, that was never in question.

VY, are you deliberately trying to incite with that comment? If so I’ll bite. With reference to JB’s statement that they don’t do this for PM’s, that’s because Dick was FAR better man then any of our PM’s ever were, and I suspect any will ever be. Have a read about the bloke before you make the judgment about how honour him. I have had the privilege to know Dick and I know he would have been very humbled by the honour and he probably would said not to bother. I think it’s very fitting for a man of his calibre.

As Simto correctly said these things are flying around a lot anyway to keep pilots hours and experience up. The pilots get paid and we have to pay for fuel every time they go up, so instead of flying over the desert or the ocean why not get the pilots to fly over the city?

If that is the case simto (which sounds about right given my limited marine engineering experience), then yes they should definately parade them around to let the public know what we are paying for.

As noted each time we discuss this, they need to get a certain number of flying hours anyway to make sure that the people who fly ’em know what they’re doing. Either they can fly them around in the middle of nowhere (which is what they do most of the time), or they can fly them in populated areas for various presentational ways. The cost doesn’t change depending on where they are.

Now, if you beleive that Australia shouldn’t have this type of air capacity, that’s a different story altogether, and I’m happy to have that argument…

I do, but I’m not asking others to pay for my habit. Hell, half the $$ I spend on fuel goes to the public purse.

i thought you liked noisy wasteful gas guzzlers

[insert angry retort here]

Honouring our war heroes is good and all, but sheesh, what a waste of public money – do you lot know how much it costs to run these bloody things?