My office has been reverberating to the sounds of jets all morning...going outside I see an F-16, an F-15 being chased by an F-18...Ah...its on again...Exercise Pitch black! At least 14 countries and over 150 aircraft are taking part this year...More to come.
Hmmm...pretty US centric...We have Australia, Canada, France (New Caledonia), Germany, Indonesia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, India, Malaysia and the United States to name but a few...This weekend they have a fly past of most aircraft on Mindil beach...and on Saturday an open day so you can see and touch and sit in all the aircraft, chat to the pilots with dozens of exhibits... The Asian pilots love to sell paraphernalia to make extra cash...they cant believe what the average punter will pay for a hat or badge! I remember going to the open day back in the 80s...I was about 11-12 and spotted one of my favourite weapons of all time...an M60 on the ground with a belt attached to it...I asked about it and was told it was loaded with blanks and anyone could have a go! What a thrill for a young bloke!
The Red Flag exercise is actually much more diverse than you think. This year the following nations participated; U.S, U.K, France, Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Australia, Japan, Canada, Jordan, Turkey, Greece, Pakistan, Brazil, Spain, Portugal, and Austria. I had never actually heard of Pitch black before this thread........
New Zealand? They don't actually have anything that flies beyond transports, trainers, and fishers these days? A109 Light Utility Helicopter Beech King Air B200 Boeing 757-200 C-130H (NZ) Hercules NH90 Medium Utility Helicopter P-3K2 Orion SH-2G(I) Seasprite Helicopters T-6C Texan II
Fuel tank ejected from plane during Pitch Black training exercise Came down near one of our workers in Power Water... Reminds me of a few years ago... The World Today - 4/08/00: Missile falls from FA-18 during training exercise
Lucky! Most I get to see are the very occasional air national guard F-16s, or the slightly more frequent C-130s. Far more frequently are the national guard Black Hawks and Chinooks.
Been watching Indonesiian (I think) F-16s all day...and a couple of 15s! We had a discussion today after the tank was dropped (trying to figure out whether there was AVGAS still in it or not...and I made the point that one of these aircraft are probably going to come down one of these days...take off and landing the most dangerous times suggest that it will come down somewhere in Darwin...not a nice thought.
Last day/night of flying today...here is some great pictures of all the aircraft...particularly like the Rafael and Sukhois from India...very cool. In addition this post has videos one over Darwin that was 360 view, not sure if it will work here...and the other the fly pasts from Mindil beach Darwin. Some really cool close ups of the Osprey Price! Some of the best pics ive seen for some of these aircraft. Pitch Black 2018: Royal Australian Air Force thanks the Northern Territory
