AIRSHOW PERFORMERS THE MASTERS OF ‘STICK AND RUDDER’ FLYING

The thundering jets may make the most noise, but for many airshow visitors the magic of aviation is still best found in the pure “stick and rudder” antics of the light aircraft performers.

Those magnificent men and women in their flying machines are often flying purpose-built aircraft created by cramming the most powerful engine available into the smallest, lightest possible airframe.

And in the name of eye-popping roll rates (often greater than one complete 360-degree rotation per second), these airframes are designed to be short and short-winged, light on stability, mostly with tailwheel undercarriages, all of which can make them quite a handful on landing and takeoff.

The excess of power is what makes it possible for these small aircraft to literally “hang on the propellor” maintain tight turns and loops and rapidly build airspeed to maintain safe flight even in the middle of spectacular displays that may appear to border on being out of control.

And display pilots do it with little in the way of mechanical help: there are no autopilots, powered controls, flight computers or ejection seats here, not even a G-suit to help offset the effects of snapping between high positive-G and high negative-G in less than a second.

For many, it is this lack of any artificial barrier between pilot and machine that makes this the purest form of aerobatic flight.

As part of the Friday Night Alight program, Rod Benson Skydive Australia produces one of the more ethereal and highly popular moments in the program, with a night skydive and parachute descent topped off with pyrotechnics.

Rod Benson displays throughout Australia and worldwide, carrying on a tradition started by his father Ben, who began putting his skydiving skills to commercial use in flying flags, company logos and signs on behalf of clients. From father to son, the Benson’s have been part of the Australian International Airshow ever since it’s inception.

Crowd favourites at AIRSHOW, the Scandinavian Airshow Skycats will perform an aerobatic wing-walking act on “Catwalk”, a highly modified Grumman AgCat biplane. In flight the two Skycats will climb around the wings and pose in different positions with names such as Lazy Cat and Super Cat, while the aircraft performs numerous aerobatic manoeuvres such as loops and barrel rolls.

Awesome Aviation’s Mark Jefferies is a former UK Aerobatics champion, having flown more than 130 types of aircraft including Hawker Hunter and BAE Hawk jets. He now flies one of the most highly capable specialist aerobatic aircraft in Australia, the Awesome Extra NG. The Extra NG was unveiled at Oshkosh in July 2019 as a new, all composite, technically advanced and innovative aircraft type. The Awesome Extra NG VH-XEO, serial no NG007, is the first of this type to be imported into Australia.

The Paul Bennet Airshows SkyAces team consists of two to four aircraft performing dazzling formation aerobatics in very close proximity. Not only do the SkyAces performances entail skilful formation loops and rolls but also dynamic head-to-head stunts, which are guaranteed to leave spectators gasping in awe! Pilots Paul Bennet, Glenn Graham, Jesse Jury and Glenn Collins are all qualified to perform the stunts to surface level, giving the audience maximum viewing for the display.