ADAA Visit to RAAF Amberley
On Tuesday 25 November, 36 ADAA members and family friends travelled to Amberley on the outskirts of Brisbane for a personal tour and viewing of the C17 Aircraft. ADAA President Barry Gannon had spent the past couple of months getting the logistics of being able to do this, into place.
Operational activities were always a threat to our visit and approximately 1 hour before our scheduled time to tour, the massive C17 lifted off on one of it's 'operational activities' and disappeared!
Not to be too disappointed, the ADAA Committee had a brief management meeting whilst everyone else 'had a chat' and eventually we all had lunch at 9FSB with the troops on duty.
Our wonderful 'Captain in Charge' for the day, Charmaine Benfield, then guided us by car convoy, over to the RAAF base for a quick look, just to see if she could talk her way into anything for us to view! It worked! WE all parked our cars and managed to get a walk up to and right next to one of the C17's which was being washed down ready to head out the next day on overseas operational duties.
A number of photos were had all round and off we went again in car convoy to suddenly stop, peer to the left and that 'disappearing' C17 was coming in to land right in front of us! Wow! We all jumped out of cars, cameras in hand and snap, snap, snap, snap - what a great surprise - we couldn't have asked for better.
What was missed though was an inside look in the C17 and the plan is to attempt another day in 2009 with better luck.
The day finished with an inside look at the RAAF gym, of all places! A couple of the ladies came out gasping at the 'bodies' they spotted inside and wanted to hang around a bit longer!!!! Didn't they Marie???
The following links are all to information on the C17 for those who may be interested, and of course, we have provided some photos here for all to see.
http://www.aviationnews.com.au/News_Stories/Archived_Stories/0006972-C17.htm
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/australia-to-spend-up-to-15-bn-on-4-c17s-updated-01971/
http://www.globemaster.de/c-17/index.html
http://www.military-aircraft.org.uk/transport-aircraft/boeing-c-17-globemaster-iii.htm
Images from November 25
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||