Another day at Avalon started with rain on the way down and a few very light showers at first. Once they stopped, it was cool for the first half and then warmed up around midday.
On arrival I went to chat with the DC-3 crew and find out what was news in their world before heading over to the Green Room. From here, I spent most of the day marshalling aircraft from a RAAF 707 to a Rutan Long Eze. I also got to help out with Jurgis Kairys and his three aircraft team called the Air Bandits – very crazy show they put on.
It was a little quiet just before the airshow and we took a break for lunch. About then my friend Carlo came over to chat with a film crew he’s working with. We had to cut our chat short though ‘cos I had to get back out onto the tarmac to help with aircraft going to/from the show.
After that it got busier and we were bringing jets in and out along with a few lighties that landed on Avalon West and had to track either via the loop or up through the “zig zag” taxiway between paddocks in Green & Blue.
One of the last items on the airshow was a P-3 but it had to cancel its show after a single pass due to a minor technical issue. Turns out they had indications of imbalanced flaps (not pleasant) but experimenting with them during various orbits above us indicated it wasn’t an issue. Still, they cancelled their show and returned to Edinburgh in South Australia.
Following this, a number of aircraft were lining up to leave, including a Caribou that wound up waiting at Bravo holding point right next to us for a while. Many hand signals and smiles between crew and ground staff as we waited for them to be slotted into the departures.
Around 5pm, all had been sorted out and we were getting ready to leave when a few lighties came in on Avalon West and we had to get them around the loop. Then the RAAF 707 fired up to leave but I had to hold it at Bravo & Charlie while we waited for a Jetstar A321 to leave and get out of the way.
After that, it was over and I could finally leave. At least today most of the problems with ground comms were sorted out (they’d had interferance on the UHF channel they’d been using). Tomorrow’s shaping up to be a busy one as we start the trade show and have more aircraft arriving. I’m looking forward to the warbirds arriving – they’re always a lot of fun.
