UP AND AWAY

California’s famous Pacific Airshow landed – for the first time – on the Gold Coast in August 2023, for three days of non-stop, sky-high thrills.

- JOSIE SARGENT

IT COULD BE any ordinary day on Queensland’s famous Surfers Paradise beach – sparkling water, warm, golden sand, children shrieking and jiggling in the whitewash, hundreds of colourful umbrellas swaying precariously on thin poles nearby. But today is far from ordinary. A loudspeaker crackles to life: “Here they are, ladies and gentlemen!”

Way above the shimmering skyscrapers, 13 small planes launch into a spectacular sky-high, synchronised dance. For more than 10 long minutes, the single-propeller aircraft leap and twirl in perfect unison, trailing long ribbons of smoke behind them. With sleek bodies glistening, their wingtips are no more than a few metres apart.

“Here comes the pass!” Two planes hurtle towards each other, head-on. From my sandy seat, I can barely watch. My stomach churns, convinced I will bear witness to some devastating air disaster. At the last second, the planes each deftly flip onto a wing, their bellies streaking past each other and missing by a whisker.

This is the Freedom Formation Display Team, an Australian troupe of daredevils who present just one of the acts on the sky-high stage of the Pacific Airshow on the Gold Coast. Astoundingly, these pilots are amateurs. Most of their planes were built in garages and sheds across the country, by the pilots themselves.