• The Sunday crowd mingles with some big hardware from the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society. (Steve Hitchen)
    The Sunday crowd mingles with some big hardware from the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society. (Steve Hitchen)
  • Paul Bennet in his signature low knife-edge pass complete with trailing smoke plume. (Steve Hitchen)
    Paul Bennet in his signature low knife-edge pass complete with trailing smoke plume. (Steve Hitchen)
  • Two Pitts cross behind the Wolf Pitts as the Sky Aces present their aerial ballet. (Steve Hitchen)
    Two Pitts cross behind the Wolf Pitts as the Sky Aces present their aerial ballet. (Steve Hitchen)
  • A RAAF F-35 showed its stuff at on the Sunday of WOI 2021 after the weather prevented it from getting there on the Saturday. (Steve Hitchen)
    A RAAF F-35 showed its stuff at on the Sunday of WOI 2021 after the weather prevented it from getting there on the Saturday. (Steve Hitchen)
  • The RAAF F-35 Joint Strike Fighter heads skywards. With the retirement from service of the F/A-18 Classic Hornet, the Lightning II will be the mainstay of RAAF contribution to air shows for years to come. (Steve Hitchen)
    The RAAF F-35 Joint Strike Fighter heads skywards. With the retirement from service of the F/A-18 Classic Hornet, the Lightning II will be the mainstay of RAAF contribution to air shows for years to come. (Steve Hitchen)
  • A Royal Australian Navy MH-60R Seahawk Romeo turns its fighting end towards the crowd. (Steve Hitchen)
    A Royal Australian Navy MH-60R Seahawk Romeo turns its fighting end towards the crowd. (Steve Hitchen)
  • A farewell to arms: Jason "Easty" Easthope displayed a classic Hornet for the last time in front of an Australian audience. The type was retired from service at Williamtown the following day. (Steve Hitchen)
    A farewell to arms: Jason "Easty" Easthope displayed a classic Hornet for the last time in front of an Australian audience. The type was retired from service at Williamtown the following day. (Steve Hitchen)
  • Paul Bennet was a busy man, flying with the Sky Aces, solo in his Wolf Pitts and at the stick of several warbirds including Ross Pay's Mustang. (Steve Hitchen)
    Paul Bennet was a busy man, flying with the Sky Aces, solo in his Wolf Pitts and at the stick of several warbirds including Ross Pay's Mustang. (Steve Hitchen)
  • Improved weather conditions on the Sunday brought a sunnier disposition from the crowd as well. (Steve Hitchen)
    Improved weather conditions on the Sunday brought a sunnier disposition from the crowd as well. (Steve Hitchen)
  • Simon Hackett's new PC-12 NGX was flying the flag for Pilatus. (Steve Hitchen)
    Simon Hackett's new PC-12 NGX was flying the flag for Pilatus. (Steve Hitchen)
  • General aviation had its place with several displays set up on the inactive runway. (Steve Hitchen)
    General aviation had its place with several displays set up on the inactive runway. (Steve Hitchen)
  • The HARS Grumman Tracker contributed to a folding wing display with a TBM Avenger and an F4U Corsair. (Steve Hitchen)
    The HARS Grumman Tracker contributed to a folding wing display with a TBM Avenger and an F4U Corsair. (Steve Hitchen)
  • They did it! The primary organisers of Wings Over Illawarra 2021 relax towards the end of the show. L-R: Event Administrator Clara Pawelski, Ground Operations Manager Bob Bertram, Event Manager Lucy Mellor, WOI kingpin Mark Bright and Event Project Co-ordinator Jan Sinclair. (Angela Stevenson)
    They did it! The primary organisers of Wings Over Illawarra 2021 relax towards the end of the show. L-R: Event Administrator Clara Pawelski, Ground Operations Manager Bob Bertram, Event Manager Lucy Mellor, WOI kingpin Mark Bright and Event Project Co-ordinator Jan Sinclair. (Angela Stevenson)
Close×

Steve Hitchen

The only full air show to be held in Australia since March 2020, Wings over Illawarra (WOI) went ahead at Shellharbour Airport last weekend despite the odds being decidedly stacked against it. After being canceled for last year, postponed from May this year then pushed back a further two weeks, a lot needed to go right in order for the gates to open on WOI 2021.

Not everything went right, but enough did to give aviation a great party and the general public their first close encounter of the aviation kind for many a long month.

With the final approval for the air show coming through only a couple of days before hand, the event organisers Bright Events went onto war footing to make sure everything they did complied not only with the air show regulations, but also the COVID precautions dictated by NSW health. In the end, apart from the usual check-in Q-codes and double-vax checks, the health regulations made very little impact on the crowd's ability to enjoy the show.

That great slayer of air shows, the weather, baulked a few aircraft from getting into Shellharbour Airport in the days leading up to the show, and relegated other would-be fly-ins to getting there by car, but the die-hards that could get there did. On the Saturday, the weather kicked holes in the display program with the much-heralded RAAF F-35 and Hornet Four scrubbing, and the warbird assets of 100 SQN RAAF remaining on the ground at their Temora base.

But the show went on as the show must. With the weather switching with little warning between low overcast, drifting misty drizzle and outright rain, the ringmaster and his team put things in the sky when the weather allowed. Mainstays Paul Bennet and Matt Hall are always mesmerising regardless of the weather and the private warbirds of the Ross Pay collection provided enough action for the crowd to stop thinking about what wasn't there.

The hero of the day was the F/A-18 Hornet singleton routine from Jason "Easty" Easthope, who brought an example down from Williamtown for a swansong performance for the public. The Hornets, now dubbed "Classic Hornets" arrived in Australia in 1983 and entered service the following year. They've more that done their service including providing excitement at many Australian air shows over the years. With the F-35 coming assuming the fighter mantle, the original F/A-18 model was retired from service the day after the show.

Support for the last F/A-18 came on the Sunday after conditions cleared enough for one F-35 to make it through. Although it has only one tailpipe compared to the twin outlets of the Hornets, the F-35 display was as exciting as anything its Hornet predecessor had put on.

Even when there was nothing in the sky, there was always a lot on the ground. The Historical Aircraft Restorations Society (HARS) opened their doors and rolled out some large and memory-provoking aeroplanes for inspection and sent their Caribou, Grumman Tracker and Neptune out onto the flight line, although the Tracker was restricted to a ground demonstration of folding wings in concert with the Avenger and Corsair.

Part of the inactive runway was given over to the GA expo, with tents sheltering companies like AvPlan, CASA, Bose, Garmin and Sydney Flying College. The GA presence was thinned-out by the weather, but traders reported good traffic through the stands. AWPA and Women in Aviation also flew their flags over the weekend.

On the Sunday, the sky was more co-operative, permitting the 100 SQN fleet from Temora Aviation Museum to slip over the range and into Albion Park. The warbird turn-out of RAAF assets from years past looked a lot healthier with the Hudson, Boomerang, Wirraway and Spitfire all decorating the sky. One of the great sights for those in the know was the passes from the English Electric Canberra, which has been in deep maintenance so long that many thought she'd never fly again.

When the last engine shut down on the Sunday and the crowd turned their backs on the runway and headed for the gates, the organisation team took a well-earned few hours off before they had to think about packing up everything they'd worked so hard to unpack.

The general feeling in the outfield and the VIP tent was that we had just witnessed a miracle; one brought about by sweat and hard work more than prayer. To Mark Bright and his late wife Kerry, and the whole WOI organising team, aviation owes a great debt for putting on WOI 2021 when it would have been easier to just cancel it for another year.

 

comments powered by Disqus