Blue Mountains Crossings Bicentenary Flyover.

[Ross the fiddler]

May the 25th is the day we celebrate the crossing of the Blue Mountains by the explorers Blaxland, Wentworth & Lawson & this year is the bicentenary celebration of that event. http://www.bluemts.com.au/info/about...istory-detail/

As part of the celebrations a business man in Katoomba organised the biggest ever (in Australia) flyover event of various aircraft which started with the RAAF Roulettes with just some of the others that flew over for the next 3 hours. http://au.news.yahoo.com/nsw/latest/...ains-crossing/





And an airliner just happened to be heading west (a little further south), heavily cropped.




I decided thumbnails were enough for this many photos (except the 1st) & each one is linked back to my gallery. Most photos have been cropped & all the single aircraft have been heavily cropped (assuming they would not have been allowed to fly too low). I used my E-M5 & 75-300 lens.

Thanks for looking.

[pandora]

Re: Blue Mountains Crossings Bicentenary Flyover.

Quite an event Ross.

To view the thumbnails I will try on my laptop instead of the galaxy tablet but your thumbnails are asking for a password, presumably yours.

[pandora]

Re: Blue Mountains Crossings Bicentenary Flyover.

Nice to see you posting again, was beginning to wonder whether SWMBO had chained you to your work bench, or to a garden fork !

[Wee man]

Re: Blue Mountains Crossings Bicentenary Flyover.

Nice series Ross

[Imageryone]

Re: Blue Mountains Crossings Bicentenary Flyover.

Interesting day out, like the powered glider and the one man chopper.

[Ross the fiddler]

Re: Blue Mountains Crossings Bicentenary Flyover.

Nice to see you posting again, was beginning to wonder whether SWMBO had chained you to your work bench, or to a garden fork !

Thanks Mark. No, not quite, but I have been busy anyhow.

Nice series Ross

Thanks Ed.

Interesting day out, like the powered glider and the one man chopper.

I didn't actually go far & as I waited in a nearby park, the RAAF Roulettes flew up behind the trees with little opportunity for me to get a good view of them. They were actually circling a nearby school that was supposed to be the designated viewing location in our area (which also had stalls & wotnot), so I went back home instead & enjoyed the rest of the plains (or aircraft) as they flew overhead. It did continue for about 3 hours & there were several aircraft that I couldn't get a good focus on. There were 4 planes in the first group & 6 in another (as seen in the photos) but another V formation of 5 were too distant & not worth showing, but a total of about 70 aircraft were in the 'flyover'. I didn't get any work done, but I had fun & then met up with another photographer friend at the Norman Lindsay cafe (but didn't take any photos there) & compared photos for the day over coffee, scones, jam & cream. He got photos from the Glenbrook location (on the eastern edge of the mountains) where he got some nice close shots.

"like the powered glider and the one man chopper" I thought they were interesting too.

[PeterBirder]

Re: Blue Mountains Crossings Bicentenary Flyover.

Ah fooled me there Ross, I was expecting pictures of a bridge over a motorway in the mountains. Same words mean different things to different people.

What a great event and a tremendous range of aircraft to celebrate a milestone in your country's history.

Powered gliders are quite common now, a very efficient way of learning to fly gliders. When I learnt you either used a winch launch which meant a lot of short flights to start with or got a tow behind a Tiger Moth which meant you had to learn formation flying from the start.
The "one man chopper" is an Autogyro which has an unpowered rotor. A very early form of aircraft which has been resurected in recent years. One called "Little Nelly" was used in one of the James Bond films.
Nice to see a DeHaviland Chipmunk, the little plane with the red nose and fixed undercarriage. This was the standard RAF (and probably also RAAF) trainer in the 1950's. A former colleague of mine owned one, much to his wifes annoyance.

Thanks for sharing.

[Ross the fiddler]

Re: Blue Mountains Crossings Bicentenary Flyover.

Ah fooled me there Ross, I was expecting pictures of a bridge over a motorway in the mountains. Same words mean different things to different people.

What a great event and a tremendous range of aircraft to celebrate a milestone in your country's history.

Powered gliders are quite common now, a very efficient way of learning to fly gliders. When I learnt you either used a winch launch which meant a lot of short flights to start with or got a tow behind a Tiger Moth which meant you had to learn formation flying from the start.
The "one man chopper" is an Autogyro which has an unpowered rotor. A very early form of aircraft which has been resurected in recent years. One called "Little Nelly" was used in one of the James Bond films.
Nice to see a DeHaviland Chipmunk, the little plane with the red nose and fixed undercarriage. This was the standard RAF (and probably also RAAF) trainer in the 1950's. A former colleague of mine owned one, much to his wifes annoyance.

Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for your comment & info. The gyro appears to be an ELA Gyro flown by William Peters & the DG1000M glider was flown by Paul Tridgell (as published in the local paper in the FLYOVER PILOT'S ROLL OF HONOUR. The Winjeel trainer (with the red tips & nose, I think) might be the A85 Winjeel (or maybe a CA25) which was apparantly an Australian designed airforce trainer & that was flown by Steven Robinson. My father was an aircraft fitter in the RAF (& a POW), but this would have to be the first time I've actually applied myself a little in trying to identify these aircraft. Who knows, I might just end up going to an air show too instead of waiting for them to come to me at home.

Here's something else with wings I also photographed at home on the same day.


She's a Bower Bird (female), but I missed the two Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoos flying overhead earlier in the day (while I was waiting for the first aircraft to arrive). It would have been a nice shot if I had my camera in my hand & had I been able to focus on them quick enough too.