page_title: Roulettes
section_title: History and organisation
hierarchical_section_title: Roulettes / History and organisation
context_page_description: The Roulettes are the Royal Australian Air Force's formation aerobatic display team.
  They provide about 150 flying displays a year, in Australia and in friendly countries around the Southeast Asian region. The Roulettes form part of the RAAF Central Flying School at RAAF Base East Sale, Victoria.
context_section_description: The Central Flying School formed its first official aerobatic team in 1962, the Red Sales, using De Havilland Vampire Mk 35 jet trainers. On 15 August 1962 the team was involved in a major incident with the loss of five lives and four aircraft.  The Telstars were formed in Feb 1963 still using Vampire aircraft. They were re-equipped with Macchi MB-326 aircraft in Feb 1968, but were disbanded in Apr 1968 due to budget restraints.
  In 1970, the Roulettes were formed to celebrate the RAAF's 50th anniversary to be held throughout the year of 1971. The Roulettes first air show was at Point Cook in Dec 1970. Their last air show using the Macchi was at Lakes Entrance in June 1989.  Initially, they were equipped with four Macchis, growing to five aircraft in 1974 and seven in 1981 before cost-cutting saw the team reduced to five again in 1982. Towards the end of the 1980s, the Roulettes flying hours had to be reduced as the MB-326 fleet developed premature metal fatigue problems and a replacement aircraft type was investigated. In 1989, with the new Pilatus PC-9 trainers starting to arrive and MB-326 airframe hours severely limited, the Roulettes flew just a single pair of Macchis. The Roulettes switched over to the new PC-9s in late 1989, and arrived at the composition they have used ever since: six PC-9s plus a spare.
  The aircraft are painted in the bold red, white and blue scheme, with a large "R" symbol on the tail. The RAAF has since adopted this scheme (minus the "R") for all its PC-9 trainers, except for the PC-9s at ARDU and FAC, which allows an aircraft to be swapped into or out of the team to equalise fleet airframe hours by just repainting the tail.
caption: Pilatus PC-9A A23-061 of the Roulettes at Avalon airport, March 2005
exif: {"Image Make": "FUJIFILM", "Image Model": "FinePix A303", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Digital Camera FinePix A303   Ver1.00", "Image DateTime": "2005:03:19 09:12:58", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "", "Image ExifOffset": "249", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1237", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9559", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/220", "EXIF FNumber": "7", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2005:03:19 09:12:58", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2005:03:19 09:12:58", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "39/5", "EXIF ApertureValue": "28/5", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "839/100", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "21/2", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1280", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "960", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "2427", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "2427", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "3", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1089"}