Avalon Air Show 2025

[NickCorr]

Will be in Melb city this weekend for a wedding and thinking of visiting the airshow Friday. What will be the quickest, easiest and cheapest way to get here and back?

get the train, only way to bypass any traffic problems.

 

[mjt57]

Went today for the first trade day. Great flying and no additional fee to sit in the stands.

The traffic getting there was horrendous.

My son-in-law was attending the trade expo (he has an engineering business with defence contracts) and was going to get a ticket for me. Sadly it didn't pan out. I wanted it to avoid the crowds and the traffic mostly. Sounds like it wouldn't have mattered.

Post automatically merged: Mar 26, 2025

get the train, only way to bypass any traffic problems.

Is there a station at Avalon?

 

[zainman]

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Went today for the first trade day. Great flying and no additional fee to sit in the stands.

The traffic getting there was horrendous. I got to the freeway turn off for Avalon Airport at about 0830am. It took two (2) hours to get to the carpark!

Cannot imagine how bad it will be an the public days. It was fun seeing people driving along the service road beside the freeway and then discussing their route with the police.

Was planning to go on Friday but if it's going to be crazy traffic, I'm not so sure.

 

[NickCorr]

My son-in-law was attending the trade expo (he has an engineering business with defence contracts) and was going to get a ticket for me. Sadly it didn't pan out. I wanted it to avoid the crowds and the traffic mostly. Sounds like it wouldn't have mattered.

Post automatically merged: Mar 26, 2025

Is there a station at Avalon?

Shuttle buses from Lara Station.

 

[I love to travel]

Not a lot of detail yet

https://www.news.com.au/national/victoria/news/an-aircraft-has-crashed-during-an-aerobatic-performance-at-the-avalon-airshow/news-story/398af002a2977ef3ff63ba4a31666fe8

 

[Saab34]

Jetstar inbound from Sydney at this moment is diverting to Melbourne, even though many hours after the accident, they also had a A320 at the holding point while that aerobatic display was underway, they went back to the bay and flight delayed 4hrs. The Brisbane flight got out just before the display started.

 

[RooFlyer]

Jetstar inbound from Sydney at this moment is diverting to Melbourne, even though many hours after the accident, they also had a A320 at the holding point while that aerobatic display was underway, they went back to the bay and flight delayed 4hrs.

It might have been the flight held on the ground that had 'live reporting' from two on-board pax on ABC radio in Hobart yesterday. Conditions on board sounded pretty bad. But small in comparison to:

Sounds like pilot of crashed plane survived, in hospital but critical

 

[jb747]

I wonder what the planned "floor" for the display was. I've seen some frighteningly low outcomes at Temora. Going super low increases the risk exponentially, without improving the spectacle.

Reminds me of this: This F/A-18 Pilot Survived 75G Impact in Horror Hornet Crash - The Aviation Geek Club

 

[PERLHR]

Went to show today (Sat). Quite blowy. Flying display started after 1.30pm! It was ok. Rapture display cancelled due to tech fault. Thought the commentary over the PA was poor...trying to fill in gaps. Maybe it's an Aussie thing but there was more Qs for food and drink rather than watching the display! Rail to bus and return seems to work well.

 

[Saab34]

A lot of negative comments with the new commentator this year. You can’t tell me they don’t have any decent locals in the industry here somewhere that could nail it.

 

[jamesatfish]

We flew into the show on Saturday morning, worried whether they'd be doing any flying after the Friday incident. Apparently part of the issue with the late start was that the crash site was close to the pyrotechnics used for the wall of fire, which then had to be disarmed for the ATSB investigation and re-armed to be triggered before the flying could restart.

We were disappointed by the F22 cancellation but I enjoyed the rest of the flying, especially the F16 which seemed to be delivering a 110% performance to show up the newer jet pilots. The US commentator for the F35 displays was quite well rehearsed and I found that quite interesting, but yes the commentary for the other displays was a bit hit-and-miss.

The show itself was a lot bigger than I'd expected, with the delays in the flying we spent a fair bit of time checking out all the static displays and still didn't find enough time to get back to everything we wanted to see.

Queues for the food stands in the morning were crazy, but the minute the announced the F22 cancellation everything seemed to thin out and we didn't wait more than a minute at any of the stands after that.

The traffic in and out of the site looked horrendous, I grabbed this photo when we left about an hour after the show finished. The grid of lights around the airport precinct was the rows of stationary cars stuck in the traffic jam.



We flew down from Canberra, but there were a few light planes that came in from Moorabbin charging $200 a head return to avoid the road transport hassles. That sounds like a very good plan for any locals planning on attending in the future. Plane parking was right next to the grandstand where the Roulettes were based, no queues to enter or exit.

 

[ayebee]

This guy does quality camera work on plane spotting videos ... his effort from Avalon the other day.

 

[Dale Eastham]

I went Friday & Saturday - travelled by train to Lara Stn & on the bus from there, and there honestly was no drama, even when the massed mobs left after flying was finally called off on Friday following the accident (which happened right in front of me )
Was rather impressed by the public transport options, overall.

I couldnt stay for Sunday which was a real blow when the F22 got canned on Saturday as that was the main drawcard for me. That said, the other fast movers put on a great show and having not seen any of them perform before I went away happy enough.

Commentators were rubbish - even down to saying there would be a countdown for the wall of fire, then forgetting to do one at all; a lot of kids (& adults!) were caught looking the other way after waiting for >5mins for it.

I've got some opinions on the how & why of the crash, but they are only opinions & I don't want to speculate. Horrific to watch though, and I am astounded that he was pulled out alive quite frankly, as were most I'm sure.

Very much enjoyed wandering through the stands as well - shame the big tents weren't all open a lot longer, but Aircrews with their aircraft were all very happy to chat & answer questions which was great.

I don't have any fancy camera gear, but was pretty happy with this shot.

 

[jamesatfish]

A few of the shots my daughter took on the day.

 

[mjt57]

I couldnt stay for Sunday which was a real blow when the F22 got canned on Saturday as that was the main drawcard for me.

Commentators were rubbish - even down to saying there would be a countdown for the wall of fire, then forgetting to do one at all

Yep, same in '23. I got some of it after a quick pan around (and heaps of motion blur).

I don't have any fancy camera gear, but was pretty happy with this shot.

Like they say, the best camera that you have is the one that you have on you. That's a nice shot.