Aldinga Airshow 2024

Just got home from the show and it was a bloody good day judging by the number of people who turned up!

Great program

Parking was abit of a drag, but you get that with so many people.

Did anyone else go?

Yes, I flew down from Port Pirie yesterday, and home after it finished this afternoon. It was unusual to have both Matt Hall's Red Bull team AND Paul Bennett Airshows on the same program. There is obviously a certain amount of rivalry! The local amateur team, The Silver Sharks, all flying RV's just keeps on getting more polished every performance I have seen. A surprise low(very!) level handling display by an Air Force Posiedon was a feature. The sheer number of spectators (easily 10,000+) was surprising given the Gather Round of AFL in Adelaide was also on this weekend. 

Aldinga has always been a top airfield and always busy, being home to about 80 aircraft in all taking in Adelaide Biplanes joyflights, Flying schools, Parachuting, Corporate charter ops, maintenance and a great cafe overlooking the field.

Only one strip was in use yesterday with the unicom operator juggling  both left and right hand circuits when I arrived. Same with today's departures after the show. - a very fast moving sequence well handled.

Yeah i was looking at your Aircraft with the EA81 motor, definitely stood out as one of the more interesting experimental machines in the line. Easy access to the starter motor through the cowl inlet if it needs a tap to get it going?

It was actually abit concerning having kids and people with no idea just wandering around the parked fly in aircraft which were mostly unattended potentially proding/poking and moving things ect.

The Posiedon show was awesome, i was chatting with some of the Adelaide biplanes guys at the time, saying it's not such a bad gig to take a multi-million dollar defense asset for a burn and 'fly it like you stole it' which they pretty much did!

Silver sharks were impressive and on point.

I think it would have been Pat Normoyle on the radio who works as a pro ATC in the Adelaide tower, but is also on the Aldinga airfield board and has been a key organiser.

Any photos/vids?

I went and it was a very good Airshow.  It had a fairly continuous flight display from 10:30 onwards, keeping most viewers entertained.  The variety of acts was impressive. The aerobatic displays wowed the crowds, the Poseidon display drew a lot of positive comments that I could hear, the classic Tiger Moths/Chipmunk were appreciated and the Silver Streak RV display was a good advertisement for homebuilts.

The only downsides to the event were the lines for the toilets and the food vans which were too long.  More toilets and more food vans for the next one would be appreciated.   Car parking was an issue also which may need to be looked at how it could be arranged more efficiently to reduce access times.

The crowd numbers were excellent and I reckon there is a lesson there for the sport aviation bodies (RAAus, SAAA etc) that if the big annual event could be held in closer proximity to a major city, the ability to combine an enthusiast fly in with a dedicated airshow could bring in crowds that could offer some return to the organisers and be a great promotional tool for the recreational side of aviation.

13 hours ago, bushcaddy105 said:

Yes, I flew down from Port Pirie yesterday, and home after it finished this afternoon. It was unusual to have both Matt Hall's Red Bull team AND Paul Bennett Airshows on the same program. There is obviously a certain amount of rivalry! The local amateur team, The Silver Sharks, all flying RV's just keeps on getting more polished every performance I have seen. A surprise low(very!) level handling display by an Air Force Posiedon was a feature. The sheer number of spectators (easily 10,000+) was surprising given the Gather Round of AFL in Adelaide was also on this weekend. 

Aldinga has always been a top airfield and always busy, being home to about 80 aircraft in all taking in Adelaide Biplanes joyflights, Flying schools, Parachuting, Corporate charter ops, maintenance and a great cafe overlooking the field.

Only one strip was in use yesterday with the unicom operator juggling  both left and right hand circuits when I arrived. Same with today's departures after the show. - a very fast moving sequence well handled.

 

 

 

hey.

was great to meet you.
(im the oilpath guy, just recognized your plane in the display photo)
thanks for the chat and the story's.
part of why I enjoyed the event was basking in the shared enthusiasm for aviation.

I don't think they expected anywhere near the attendance number.

and so many young families and teenagers
purchased some art, and talking with the artist as he was packing up (had him hold it, so I wasn't walking around the show with a tube)
and the gate numbers were confirmed to be over 10'000.

reckon they had almost every food van in Adelaide there

was there a STOL display,
saw a Vixxen and carbon cub on the flight line, but missed them flying.

only thing I heard disappoint was the Citabria just doing circuits around lunch time.
I understand that the focus was women in aviation - and it was a young 17 year old girl - I guess showcasing youth flying.
but with such a action packed display, it just seemed out of place. Heard a few people voice the disappointment during its flight not understanding why or what it was about.

(I am 32 and found it bloody hard to hear the commentary when you had the helicopter flights departing every 30 seconds, had to be standing right under a speaker.
I did catch in an interview later that she was meant to be talking while flying but the PA system malfunctioned during her flight).

Was a great day out, well worth the admission.
 

Looks great.

Glad to see the enthusiasm hasn't all gone. The Place has potential . When I went there in SAG (my7ECA) I had enough fuel to just make Adelaide from Lethbridge. There was some (do) on then  involving aeros and I didn't successfully get a response from anyone on the radio when I  was arriving..  There was a Russian warplane of similar size to a Spitfire there.  Nev