This years Avalon Airshow saw a much better position for the public display of Gliding. Organised by Ian Patching of V M F G and with a lot of volunteer help from the gliding fraternity from Victoria and interstate, a display of homebuilt and modern gliders the site attracted many people who showed a genuine interest in gliding. But, we always wonder how many members we might get out of it all. Is it worth all the effort. Frankly – YES.
You have to start somewhere to attract people to gliding and where else but an air show with thousands of aviation enthusiasts, already there, can be better. Although –Gliding was the theme, not so much individual clubs, many got the message where to go.
Static display consisted of a Kookaburra, Duster, Woodstock, Moneri, DG 505 motorglider flown down from Boonah Qld by Mark and Julie Maddox, a Super Dimona flown from Caboulture by Phil Behnke and Burt Persson a Grob 109 flown from Murray Bridge SA, the club Janus and VMFG Pawnee and the Golden Eagle. A lot of interest shown in the home builts.
People asked about Manfred Radius the aerobatics pilot from Canada and seemed disappointed he was not appearing this time. They hoped to see him again some time.
The GFA were also asked to give an actual flying display and after much consideration it was decided to do the following. Alan Patching’s Golden Eagle (built 1937) would be towed by a Super Dimona Motor Glider and whilst climbing to height the Club Janus C towed by the V M F G Pawnee would take off do a 300 foot circuit, land on tow, taxi along the strip for 400 meters and take off again to climb to 1200 to 1500 feet. In the meantime the Golden Eagle would release, do a couple of turns then come in and land, taxi off the bitumen to stop in front of the crowd at stage center, facing the crowd.
The Janus would release do a couple of figure 8 turns then a turning dive to bring on a high speed (130 to 135 knots {Vne}) along the crowd line about 100 metres in front of them at 5 to 10 feet AGL. During the dive and speed run 240 litres of water ballast was discharged adding a little flavour to the display (Of course salt water was used). Upon slowing to 100 knots pull up gain as much height as possible ( about 250 feet) do a wing over turn to line up on runway 18 deploy the tail braking parachute, land and run up to where Alan had stopped with the Golden Eagle turn off the runway onto the grass and stop beside the Golden Eagle facing the crowd. There were no aerobatics as the Janus cannot do aeros with ballast on board and besides, everyone and his dog were doing aeros and it was not worth trying to compete.
I was quite thrilled when asked to drive the Janus at the show and we flew on the Friday and Saturday. Unfortunately we didn’t get to fly Sunday as the program was quite full and we were on standby in case of low cloud as we only needed 1000 feet to perform, and others – like the jet fighters needed 2500 to 3000 feet. The cloud stayed reasonable high all day. The whole procedure was approved by R T O of South Eastern Region and CASA prior to the show, so no legal problems.
My crew on Friday was Neil Thompson, David Long, Cathy: Lincoln and Rowan Beggs-French, On Saturday and Sunday it was Shannon McGowan, Nathan Farrow, Kimberly Power and Rowan Beggs-French. And I thank them all very much for their efforts. Unfortunately, as I said, we didn’t get to fly Sunday but had to be on standby all day.
As a personal experience – for me it was great, quite a thrill but the in flight cockpit work load was quite high with all the things to do and at exactly the right time. On the Friday things did not go quite as planned as I reached near Vne too high and had to do my run down wind at 100 feet, deployed the chute too early and landed too short. Saturday was spot on and all worked out perfectly. One thing – you don’t have the time or the inclination to look at or wave to the crowd at 5 feet AGL at 120 knots.