And here are the very expensive planes.
Make sure to check out part 1 and part 2.
USAl C-17 - I've seen an Australian one at riverfire before, but cool to see another.
And another big plane - the P-8 Poseidon. This is a US Navy patrol aircraft.
You can see the torpedo / missile bay open here.
Now for something awesome, the MV-22 Osprey. Is it a helicopter or a plane???
Bird.
And finally, the RAAF F-35A Lightning II. These only cost a cool $140 million each? and over $50,000 AUD per hour to run. At least they look cool.
At this point of the day I'd realised I could fairly reliably get fairly sharp photos if I shot at 400mm rather than 500mm, so these aren't as close or sharp as I would have liked, but still quite nice. It also helps that I took 812 photos of the one plane, so it's hard to not have a few good ones.
So sleek.
It has landing gear that magically appear.
A sneak peak of the insides.
They let out an insane amount of flares overhead at the end as they disappeared into the clouds which was pretty awesome.
If you're interested in more photos of any of these let me know and I can dig up some more, otherwise check out first and second PA2026 posts!
PA 2026 Schedule
According to the website on the day:
- 10:18 - Gold Coast Skydive - Feat Emma Mcdonald
- 10:27 - YAK110 - Jeff Boerboon (USA)
- 10:34 - Twin Vipers - Strikemaster & Jet Provost
- 10:43 - PC-9 Display - Solo Aerobatic Display
- 10:52 - Strikemaster Solo - Jason "Easty" Easthope
- 10:59 - Gravity Industries - Flight 1: Jet Suits X 2
- 11:05 - ADF Red Berets - From RAAF C-17
- 11:13 - QFD Fire Attack Demo - Queensland Fire Department
- 11:22 - Australian Wingsuit Demo Team - Jason, Jeff & Chris
- 11:31 - Roulettes Formation - With 100 Squadron Spitfire & Mustang
- 11:38 - RAAF 100 Squadron - Mustang, Spitfire & Pay's Aviation
- 11:46 - Merlin Combine - 100 Squadron & Pay's Aviation Spitfire
- 11:54 - RAAF Roulettes - PC21 X 6
- 12:13 - Westpac Lifesaving - EC-135 SAR Display
- 12:29 - Red Star Roolettes - Nanchang CJ-6 x 6
- 12:54 - C-17 Demo Team - Pacific Air Forces
- 12:20 - Rod Flockhart - Extra 300S
- 13:02 - Jeremy Miller - Yak 55
- 13:10 - MV-22 Osprey Display - United States Marine Corps
- 13:23 - Southern Knights - Multi-Ship Display Team
- 13:39 - Mat Hall 3-Ship - With Kris Sieczkowski & Jason "Easty" Eastope
- 13:53 -
Withdrawn C-130 Display :( - 14:03 - P-8 Poseidon - United States Navy
- 14:10 - Screaming Diamonds - Pitts 3-Ship
- 14:22 - Emma Mcdonald - Extra 300L
- 14:29 - CAC Mustang & P-40 - Warbird Aero, Andrew Kennedy & Scott Tabener
- 14:43 - Gravity Industries - Flight 2: Jet Suits X 2
- 14:49 - BO-105 Helicopter - Bryce Nietvelt
- 14:58 - Mat Hall - MXS
- 15:11 - T-33 Silver Star - Greg Colyer (USA)
- 15:23 - YAK110 - Jeff Boerboon (USA)
- 15:41 - F-35A Lightning - RAAF