Avalon 2025

We're back! As they say: "There's no show like the airshow!" And they started with a bang!

And oh boy, what a disaster. It started the previous day already where one of the show planes crashed (pilot survived, but not in good shape). Which made it questionable whether it would even still run the next day. But it did … kind of.

The airshow (which was scheduled for 10:00) only started at 13:30. Which was good for us, as departing at 08:45 for the 50km drive meant that we arrived at 13:00. The traffic management was that bad. Presumably the people who arrived earlier found out why the airshow itself only started that late. Possibly them waiting for people to arrive. Possibly the low clouds. It was not exactly a blue skies, blisteringly hot day.

And following the crash, either all other participants refused to partake or weren't allowed to anymore. But the only people left to put on a show was the Royal Australian Air Force. And all of the 5 fighter jets they brought: two F35's, two FA/18's, and an F22 (that failed its checklist and didn't fly). They briefly had a Mustang and Spitfire joining them. But the military, military and military stuff kind of got old pretty quickly.

At the very end of the day we got some more interesting acrobatic plane and formation flying. But it kind of wasn't enough to save anything anymore. This year the show was a complete flop. And the 2.5 hour drive to get out of that place again did not help either.

Having an opportunity to visit Melbourne was nice though.