In addition to the Australian Defence Force (ADF) assets the Avalon Australian International Airshow 2017 also included international military flying displays from the USAF and RNZAF. The USAF solo handling displays were performed admirably in a General Dynamics F-16C Fighting Falcon (aka “Viper”) multi-role fighter and the always impressive Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor air dominance fighter of the USAF Raptor Demo Team. Noisy and fast, just the way we like it!
The Kiwi’s conducted a polished tactical handling display in their RNZAF Lockheed C-130H Hercules transport. It was good to see our Commonwealth cousins from across the ditch participate in the air show.
There were also plenty of static displays at Avalon 2017 including numerous international military aircraft and some interesting civilian transport aircraft that were not part of the flying display. These included aircraft from the US Air Force, US Army, US Navy, Republic of Singapore Air Force, Royal Canadian Air Force and French Air Force.
Avalon 2017 was primarily an Australian Defence Force show but the international presence is always welcome to spice up the air and static displays. Hopefully one day it can be arranged for our Asia regional neighbours to bring some of their Russian fighter tech!
Aces Flying High 
Those F-16’s are fantastic aircraft – I was blown away when the RNZAF’s were cancelled along with our fighter arm. Good to see one of our antique Hercules over there. I still have vivid memories of a low-level cargo penetration exercise in one of them across northern Hawke’s Bay – I was the tag-along journalist – which involved careful pre-flight planning to ensure we didn’t hit any 66Kv power lines. Those Hercules can really get down and dirty, and their ability to contour-follow is astonishing when you consider how big they are, relatively speaking, for that sort of work.
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That was a shocking decision back in 2001 (from memory). The Herc is a great aircraft no matter what model. Sounds like you had some amazing experiences back then?
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Journalists’ junkets. I was defence correspondent for NZ Wings at the time, a couple of UK mags, and freelancing to local newspapers. I got to see a lot of atuff. Whole scene has changed since.
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Sounds like it was a good gig
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