Australian War Memorial Open Day
One of the joys of living in Canberra is that every few months a bunch of aircraft do fly overs of the city. Today was the Open Day for the Australian War Memorial and so we were treated to fly overs by several Navy helicopters, a RAAF C-130 Hercules and F/A-18 Hornet (shown above) and several historical aircraft from the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society, which are based in Albion Park near Wollongong. So I headed up to Mount Ainslie which is directly behind the War Memorial and took a few photos which are below. It was a spectacular display!
The show was kicked off by the Army’s Red Beret Parachute Team and was followed by a fly over of two Navy Squirrel helicopters and a Navy Seaking helicopter, the latter landing in the grounds of the War Memorial.
Next up was the C-130 Hercules and then several heritage aircraft including a Dakota, Catalina Flying Boat, Neptune and WWII Wirraway & Harvard fighters.
To finish off the display we were treated to a fly over by one of Australia’s first jet fighters, the Dragonfly, and then by an F/A-18 Hornet that flew only 300 metres above ANZAC Parade at about 700 km/hr. Just over the War Memorial the Hornet pitched up and went vertical right in front of us who were on Mount Ainslie. Incredible!
Following the flyovers I headed down to the War memorial to check out some of the displays. I got a close up look at the Seaking helicopter and my friend Wes couldn’t resist pressing the big red button on its side 
I also witnessed the firing of a 105mm howitzer by the 23rd Field Regiment.
I also checked out the RAAF’s displays of mobile radar equipment and the Army’s mobile satellite communications platform. The ADFA Precision Drill Team also did their stuff in the parade ground in front of the War Memorial.
