Things To Do At An Air Show.

- April 13, 2024

If you decide to go to an air show, there are a few things you should remember to do.

Thing To Do #1: Make sure you know how big the Air Show is.

We were familiar with the Aldinga Airport. It wasn't very big. We didn't think that any air show there would be much to get excited about.

"Let's go have a look." Roger imagined a few plane enthusiasts and the chance to wander around and have a close-up look and if we were lucky we might even get to have a close look at a helicopter.

Thing to Do #2: Ride your bikes to the Air Show. Both of you.

"I'll ride my bike and meet you there," I said.

I rode my bike along quiet gravel roads that trended gently downhill, until I met a very long line of cars 3km out from the Aldinga Airport, at which time I began to suspect that the Air Show might be bigger than I thought. I rode my bicycle along the table drain past all the cars, feeling very superior about being on a bicycle and not having to wait. Then I had to wait for Roger as cars poured into the dusty paddock parking lot so that I could put my bike safely in the car. And where was Roger?

Queued 3km back up the road with all the other cars, of course.

Things To Do #3: Look up while you wait.

Thankfully my wait-for-Roger spot was right at the end of the air strip, so I stood at the fence and watched as all these very talented people performed gravity-defying aerobatics over my head while behind me a rotation of yellow helicoptors churned out joy rides and beside me drivers argued with the volunteers managing the parking.

Things to Do #4: Make Sure You're In The Right Queue

We joined the queue for the gate. The aerobatics took a well-earned break but we were entertained by the yellow helicoptors, and then buzzed by a quasi-military (as in it looked military-ish but lacked essentials, like soldiers in uniform) with someone hanging out the door and taking photographs. What with that and lots of people disappearing from our queue because they had pre-paid their tickets and were in the wrong line, we were in the gate before we could say "We really should have remembered to bring our chairs."

We really should have remembered to bring our chairs.

Things To Do #5: Remember To Bring Your Chairs.

Way too many people lined the airstrip, all sitting in chairs they had been sensible enough to bring, some of them sitting on hay bales which had been scattered around the grounds for that purpose. There weren't enough hay bales to go round and some rude people in chairs had co-opted hay bales as foot rests which was definitely not in the spirit of things.

Not having snagged a hay bale, we went for a walk. There were lots and lots of aviation-related things to see:

Jets;

The police plane;

Not a plane;

Old plane;

Red and blue plane;

Right way up and up side down planes.

The RFDS plane. Aerobatic joy rides. Helicopter joy rides. Model jet planes. Model planes. Biplanes. The female pilots association, spruiking to get more girls into flying, provided free sunscreen. RAAF Air Cadets walked around in uniforms looking important and doing important Air Cadet things.

An Air Force jet demonstrated impressive low-level flying.

Sky divers trailed long coloured ribbons as they spiraled to earth.

Things To Do #6: Bring A Picnic

The food trucks all had long queues. We jumped on the shortest queue we could find and ordered our tucker. "That'll be a 30 minute wait," the lady said brightly as she took our money. I joined the collection of hungry people clustered beside the food van while Roger disappeared in the direction of the Air Force Band. The Red Bull plane started doing zoomies, distracting me from impending starvation.

I waited for over an hour. I really should have brought a picnic.

Things To Do #7: Check out the bar. They have seats.

We ate our lunch standing up, due to a lack of chairs and hay bales. Then we spied some free chairs in the bar and quickly bought a drink for the indescribable pleasure of sitting down. Oh my goodness, after hours of standing up and walking around, it was so nice to sit down.