An overcast day proved an ideal backdrop for viewing the legendary Roulettes perform over Avalon, near Geelong.
The cloud cover spared the crowd gathered by the runway from having to squint up as the Royal Australian Air Force’s close formation aerobatic display team performed rolls, choreographed turns, and formations overhead.
Flight Lieutenant Peter Brewster of the Roulettes said that with certain loops the powerful Pilatus PC-21 could generate a gravitational pull on the pilots of six Gs, or six times the force of gravity.
“It puts a lot of strain on your neck and back,” Brewster said, not to mention the effects of the blood pulling away from the pilot’s head with the multiplied gravitational pull.
Without training and the use of a G-suit, pilots would black out in such moments, he said. (A G-suit constricts the lower body to push blood up to the brain when needed.)
Brewster said the feeling was “unique” because “effectively, everything is weighed down. You have to move your arm and you find you can’t actually move your arm.”
RAAF Roulettes perform the “burst”.Credit: AAPIMAGE
To facilitate this, the aircraft’s controls are designed with buttons at the pilots’ fingertips, ensuring accessibility during “high-G manoeuvres”.
From the ground, the plane’s 1600-shaft-horsepower engines make a clear piercing sound that turns into a growl as the planes zoom by and change elevation, pitch and speed.
On Friday, the cloudy weather prevented the Roulettes from performing some of the team’s trademark vertical manoeuvres, although, as Brewster said, “that’s part and parcel of aviation.”
RAAF Roulettes during a media preview of the Avalon Australian International Airshow at Avalon Airport in Avalon, Victoria on Friday.Credit: AAPIMAGE
“We can’t control the weather.”
A flock of birds flying in the vicinity forced the team for pause for a moment, too.
But nothing diminished the impact of the aerial show – which culminated in the “burst” manoeuvre, which is the planes advancing toward the audience in formation and then splitting off in different directions at the same moment.
The Roulettes are comprised of pilots drawn from other types of military flying: fighter jets, transportation planes, and P8-Poseidon maritime patrol planes.
Between the Roulettes public events, they teach other Air Force pilots to become instructors at RAAF’s Central Flying School at RAAF Base East Sale in Victoria.
“It’s a lot of hoops to jump through, but it’s a job a lot aspire to,” Brewster said.
Asked if his line of work ever gets old, Brewster said it doesn’t.
“I hope I get old,” he said, “and I’m still doing this.”
The Roulettes will take part in Air Force flying displays during Avalon Airshow, which runs from March 25-30.
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