Mass formation flypast of up to 20 Super Hornets this Friday 21 October BRISBANE

[Dennis]

For Brisbane, Sunshine/Gold Coast aeroplane enthusiasts

Mass formation flypast of up to 20 Super Hornets this Friday 21 October
by Royal Australian Air Force on Monday, October 17, 2011 at 11:31pm
There will be a mass formation flypast of up to 20 F/A-18F Super Hornets over the Gold and Sunshine Coasts, Brisbane and Ipswich, this Friday (21 Oct) as part of the welcoming ceremony for four new Super Hornets.
The arrival of the four new aircraft completes the Australian Super Hornet fleet to 24 aircraft.
Please join us on facebook to share your photos and comments on this historic day.
Sixteen aircraft will depart RAAF Base Amberley between 10 am and 10.30 am and will fly in a loose formation to a point off North Stradbroke Island, where they will form up and fly south, crossing the coast at Southport before flying down the Gold Coast to Tweed Heads.
The armada will then fly out to sea and reform at a point off the Sunshine Coast where it will join with the four new Super Hornets.
The formation will fly south from Noosa Heads down the Sunshine Coast to Brisbane where it will then fly over the CBD en route to Ipswich and RAAF Amberley. It is expected to pass over the base at 11.30am.
The formation will be accompanied at intervals by up to two Hawk Mk127 lead-in fighters.
The final number of aircraft flying will depend on operational and training tasks for the aircraft.
The mass formation flypast of up to 20 aircraft will be not only an historic event which may not be repeated, but an important training exercise for operational planners and aircrew.

Note: The aircraft will fly at approximately 2000 feet (609 mtrs) and up to 350 knots (648 km/h). Times and locations may vary dependant on the weather. The final number of aircraft flying will depend on operational, training and maintenance for the aircraft.

A more detailed itinerary is as follows:

Outward leg including Gold Coast
Up to 16 x F/A-18F Super Hornets

10.00 am 16 x F/A-18F Super Hornets commence their launch from RAAF Amberley.
1018 Springwood
1021 North Stradbroke Island
1023 South Stradbroke Island
1025 Southport
1026 Surfers Paradise
1026 Burleigh Heads
1027 Coolangatta (All times are QLD local times)
1028 Tweed Heads (All times are QLD local times)

Sunshine Coast
Up to 20 x F/A-18F Super Hornets
1104 Noosa Heads
1106 Coolum Beach
1107 Maroochydore
1108 Caloundra
1111 Bribie Island
1113 Redcliffe
1114 Fisherman’s Islands
1115 Manly
1116 Wellington Point
1117 Southern Tip Moreton Island
1119 St Helena Island

Brisbane – Ipswich
Up to 20 x F/A-18F Super Hornets following the Brisbane River
1120 Lytton
1121 Balmoral
Hawthorne
Kangaroo Point
Botanic Gardens/Captain Cook Bridge
1122 Highgate Hill
St Lucia
Indooroopilly
Kenmore
1123 Jindalee
Moggill
1124 Ipswich

More about the F/A-18F http://ra.af/eN6Xiu

Cheers

Dennis

[space oddity]

Not fair, should go down to Sydney. Cannot take the day off to fly up to Brissy.:(

[hotspur]

Ah-even fifty hornets would still not be as good as one F 1-11 :(

[Ric]

You lucky devils.

Should be some great photo opportunities there.

[StephenM]

Thanks for the heads up Dennis. I hope they are on time, as I have a meeting (at UQ St Lucia) at 11:30. It takes about 4 minutes for me to get from the roof of a nearby building to where the meeting is, so if they are on time at 11:23 I should be able to capture them.
I seem to remember though that the final F-111 flypast last year was about 15 minutes late...

Cheers,
Stephen

[dj gravelrash]

Great Work Dennis--Will checkout the view from Highland Park over Southport:thumbsup:

[Dennis]

Forecast indicates possible morning shower or drizzle for this morning in Brisbane, but just in case the sun does come out to play….:)

In Jul 2008, I managed to grab a shot of five F-111’s flying over Brisbane. I have attached a full frame shot and a central crop to illustrate the results for the camera/lens used, as well as the histogram should anyone want to see what settings I used, which were as follows:

Canon 40D
Canon 400mm F5.6L
ISO400, 1/1600 sec, F5.6.

It’s going to be a tough shoot if the clouds are low….:(

Anyone have any experience shooting aeroplanes against a grey/white, cloudy background?

Cheers

Dennis

[bartman]

Cant wait to see some pics!!!!!
Hmmmm...
This is happning whilst GHOGM and the Queen is here?
Bartman

[StephenM]

Hi all,

I can confirm that there are 16 heading outbound. I captured them over Archerfield (quite a way from where I am) about 15 minutes ago. That should mean 20 in formation on the return leg, which should be much closer to me!

Cheers,
Stephen

[koputai]

Jeez, one carefully detonated device could take out our entire air force!

[traveller]

Knock, knock, sir, we are from ASIO :lol:

[koputai]

Well it wouldn't be the first time......

Cheers,
Jason.

[thunderchildobs]

They arrived over brisbane CBD at 11:27, a few minutes late.
Very impressive sight.

[mldee]

Canon 1000d Sigma Zoom, lousy operator.

[naskies]

Nice job, Stephen. I can confirm that 16 F/A-18Fs flying past in formation makes for a great alarm clock in the morning :lol:



Nice! You can really see the formation... I was wondering what pattern they'd be flying in. It must be nerve-wracking to be one of the 19 pilots (not in front) following that closely at > 600 km/hr!

(Looks like you might have a few dust bunnies on your sensor too :P )

[StephenM]

A nice bit of formation flying! :thumbsup:

[Ric]

Nice photo Mike, it would have been fantastic to watch them pass over.

Great shot as well Stephen, that last shot is a beauty.

[FlashDrive]

As an ex' RAAF man .. can't let this go without a comment ;)

I still prefer the F111C ( which I worked on ) .. but hey .. these are still a formidable Aircraft to reckon with.

Pic 1: Up nice and close
Pic 2: Doing a run up the Gold Coast
Pic 3: Heading towards Brisbane
Pic 4: Sound Barrier ( low pressure system over wings )
Pic 5: Head to Head

Flash :hi:

[h0ughy]

some fantastic shots fellas

[iceman]

Nice! That would've been quite noisy I bet!

[Dennis]

Great photos everyone.:thumbsup:

I’ve just got in from work so I’ll settle down and process my set, taken from Luggage Point at the mouth of the Brisbane River. I thought that the formation of 20 aircraft were very quiet compared to the F-111’s.

I saw a few commercial aircraft taking off from Brisbane airport a scant minute or two before and after the fly over – what close coordination of the air space!:eyepop:

Cheers

Dennis

[Dennis]

Okay – here is my best for the day. I used the Canon 400mm F5.6L. It was a little tricky with the variable cloud, lighting and sun direction, not to mention the speed of the aeroplanes, but overall, I’m quite pleased with the results.

What a wonderful sight the formation was as the swarm of black dots grew in size!:)

Thanks for looking!

Dennis

[ballaratdragons]

Fantastic images guys :thumbsup:

Yeah, I gotta admit, the F-111 had something special the newer breed of fighters don't have.

But then again, I'm also a sucker for Phantoms and Mirage's too. Droooool.

[hotspur]

Still think these are not as impressive as the F1-11,I prefer quality rather than quantity.These little ones just do not have the magic of the F1-11.

Great lens work Steven and Dennis,How on earth did you capture 2/3 Dennis?they must have been fairly close-was that at home or work? what settings used?.Yes-awful day with all that glare from the clouds-would have been a challenge to get these,the pilots did a great job with the formation flying-they really are the special ones here,not the planes.

Just looking at the right wing-looks like they got a dummy AIM 9L sidewinder?,cannot image it would be a live one,must be for some sort of training.

[FlashDrive]

Chris ... these AIM 9L Sidewinder Missiles were $250,000 a " pop " ... each that is ... and that price was about 12 years ago.

( no wonder some " dodgy " individuals become " Arm's Dealers ) ... thanks to the Military War Machine.

Flash :hi:

[hotspur]

Yes-there not cheap,there is a couple pf versions of these ones that can be fired and track an aircraft behind them,and ones that only track in front of them (the cheap ones?),from what I remember the Brits had the better version in the Falkland conflict,and the Agentines the more basic version.

The old F1-11's occasionally used to be seen with a white 'harpoon' style missile on one of their under ports.Not sure these were live versions or practice ones.Along time ago there was some footage shown of an F1-11 firing a live harpoon at an old navy warship,and there may have been a camera in the nose of the harpoon.I'm not sure these new tiny hornets can carry and fire these harpoons-which would not be good if they cannot.

Anyhow these images of todays show of Two Billion dollars of planes are of a very high standard-well done to all who took them.

[ballaratdragons]

Chris,

I know the name of the aircraft is said as F1-11 but it is actually designated as F-111.
Even though it is pronounced as F1-11 it is always written by it's true nomenclature system of F-111 (F-111C, F, & EF-111A).

Not trying to be pedantic, just letting you know because it looks weird the way you write it :thumbsup:

[Brundah1]

Quite a sight in Australian skies, not seen since USN nuclear carrier "Enterprise" first visited Sydney in 1964 and put up over 70 aircraft, all in the one formation! That included the full spread from nuclear capable long range NA Vigilantes to F-4 Phantoms.

The flying armada tracked right above Sydney airport - a sight I will never forget. Somewhere in my archives is a slide - rather shabby I would think now.

Great pics Chris

[StephenM]

Thanks for the comments guys.



Great shots Dennis! You picked up some nice detail with the 400mm. From my location the 70-200mm was just about perfect for capturing the whole group, but they were too high to pick up much detail on individual jets.

Cheers,
Stephen

[Dennis]

Hi Stephen

Your shots reveal the structure of the formation really well. From Luggage Point we got a side on view so although I could easily see the pattern; it wasn’t until I saw your photos that the true formation revealed itself.

Here’s a couple of more. The backgrounds vary quite a lot due to the variable cloud cover and the position/direction of the formation relative to the sun.

It was a tough shoot with the variable light, contrast and sun direction!:)

Cheers

Dennis

[hotspur]

These really turned out amazingly well,Dennis!

image 1 has a very good composition-the angle of the planes,and their poise.
Thanks for the details in the telephone conversation this morning.You certainly did extremely well in these 'glare' conditions.The use of the gimble sounds like it helped considerably.

What settings did your co worker have,as you mentioned his JPEGs turned out quite well too.You chaps had a very good position down there at the river mouth.

[Dennis]

Hi Chris

The 400mm really earned its keep in the tricky conditions, as I haven’t yet been to an air show to learn about the black art of aeroplane photography.:D

I arrived approx 10 mins before the scheduled time and quickly set up the tripod and Jobu Junior Gimbal Head. I managed to squeeze off a couple of shots of commercial jest taking off and metered of the dull, indistinct grey of some Port of Brisbane buildings that I judged to be approx mid-grey (i.e. 18% grey).:shrug:

Then, it all happened so fast that you really had to have the settings dialled in (I used Manual) as it would be a bit risky to change too much in the relatively short time window – the jets were moving reasonably fast across the skies.:)

Not sure what settings the guy at work was using, although his jpgs looked really good.

Cheers

Dennis

[troypiggo]

Fantastic shots everyone. Jealous I couldn't get out of meeting to even see it, let alone shoot it :(

[Dennis]

Here is one where I have (slightly) exaggerated the gloominess of the day as the formation approached from the North, before circling in Moreton Bay to then fly up the river.

Cheers

Dennis