Having nothing to do on Saturday the 4th October, I had the stupid idea to head off to the biannual Amberley Airshow. I thought this would be awesome, Just got the new Eos 50D so I could push its high frame rate to its limits, and plus I’ve never been to an airshow. “So why was this a stupid idea? planes are cool man, and war is awesome” I hear you say. Well firstly, 3 hours of traffic to get there. This usually takes about 30mins on a non air show day.

They even closed the Highway down so all lanes headed to Amberley. This helps a bit but the traffic backed up to a stop for approx 60km. The most fun part of the day was when Emma pulled out the street directory and mapped out a back street route to bypass this insanity. This played out like an episode of The Amazing Race, hoping to be greeted by Phil at the finish line with the words “Congratulations. You are the first team to arrive!”.

Ok so there was some awesome machinery on display which was pretty cool, but I find my self torn between the coolness of the fighter planes and the fact that I’m a war protester. I mean, thats what they are built for in the first place. Not to mention the carbon emissions. What are the RAAF doing to offset a show like this. Plant an entire country of trees ? Probably not although its a nice thought.

The Heat was also way over the top. Burning sun belting down onto black tarmac runways, not exactly a comfortable day out. The only shade available was under the wings of planes. And although frigg’n huge, they weren’t enough to provide more then about 1% of the crowd with a cool resting place.

So now we’re hungry, Might get a hotdog. Don’t usually eat crap food like this but we didnt really have much to choose from. So Hotdog with the lot it is. After lining up for 20 mins in direct sunlight, we finally received the sausage like length of dodgy meat. Which was cold in the middle. Not cool, but completely cold. Still ate it though, I mean they are so full of preservatives anyway. So Now its Icecream time. Haven’t had a soft serve choc dip cone in years. And after yet another 15 minute line up in direct sunlight, Emma asks ” Sprinkle cone and a choc dip cone please”. Which was answered by a very sour young lady “NO. Machines broken” I just walked off, resisting the urge to punch a chick in an icecream van, and Emma suggested they put up a sign as someone WILL eventually punch her!

we were only there for 2 hours and then it was time to leave. Once you’ve seen one plane barrel roll, the rest just gets tedious. We thought that by leaving at 2pm we would miss the bulk of the exit traffic. But no. Took us 2 and a half hours to get home again.
After a nasty bout of heat stroke and 5 and a half hours of siting in traffic to see war machines fart around for a couple of hours, Ive decided this was my first and last Airshow. Camera works pretty well though.

If someone asked “should I go to the Airshow in 2010 ?” I would suggest this.

1. Avoid the traffic. either get there early before it starts, or get there at 12-1pm. All the jets and cool stuff starts in the arvo anyhow.

2. Take a Packed lunch! Unless you have a bag to carry enough Gold bullion to pay for cold hotdogs

3. Take LOTS of water. We had 3 liters on us, but that was no where near enough.

4. Wear a sumbrearo. The sun is HOT HOT HOT and nowhere to escape. So Large hats are a must.

5. Secure a good spot on the front line. If you go with a group you can set up a little shelter on the front line which some people did. That way the fancy photographer types can stay in one spot and get the money shots while others are free to roam and gather drinks and check out the displays.