Trips 2009

Valenciennes - Meeting Aérien

Every year on the French National holiday, the 14th of July, the meeting in Valenciennes is being held. As some of the participants first have to participate in the defilé over Paris, the meeting starts in the afternoon. This year some special military displays attended such as the British Red Arrows, the Alpha jet and off course the Patrouille de France. The French Air force had also sent the mighty Rafale demo and a spectacular tactical display of 4 Orange based Mirage 2000's.

Yeovilton - Airday : Arrivals

As a yearly tradition the Royal Navy open its days at RNAS Yeovilton in July. This year the annual Airday was being held on Saturday 11th of July. We went to have a look at the arrivals and rehearsals on Thursday 9 and Friday 10 July. The weather was cloudy with some rare sunny spells. As the Royal Navy celebrated their 100th anniversary, the line-up of aircraft was very nice. All the types in service in the Royal Navy were shown to the public, and off course the famous "Assault Demo" was one of the highlights. Various Navy forces from all around Europe came to Yeovilton to celebrate with the Royal Navy. 2 Spanish Harriers, the last appearance of a German Navy Atlantique and an Aeronavale Rafale were the most special birds. Other displays came from the F-16 of the Belgian and Netherlands Air Force, the French Rafale and displayteams like Frecce Tricolori and the Jordanian Falcons.

Reims - Meeting du Centenaire

In August 1909 the first international airshow was organised in France. To celebrate this, the city of Reims and the French Air Force organised a great airshow over the weekend of 27 and 28 June at BA112 Reims. As the mondial des patrouilles was organised as well this weekend, a lot of displayteams came to Reims. The weather was a mix of clouds and sun, and very hot weather.

Reims - Meeting du Centenaire : Arrivals

On Thursday the first participants already arrived. To make space for the airshow, the local based Mirage F-1's were temporary relocated to the nearby Saint Dizier. On Friday the rest of the aircraft for the static and flying display arrived. The highlight was the special decorated Mirage 2000 from EC.02/12 Picardie based in Cambrai that first made some nice low approaches before landing. This unit will be disbanded later that year. As Reims is a fighter base, a lot of foreign fighters came to the airshow.

Volkel - Opendagen

On Friday 19 and Saturday 20 June the traditional Dutch open days were being held, this year at the F-16 base of Volkel. A lot of interesting aircraft showed up for the static display, which was positioned very nice on the secondary runway. In the flying display the main highlight was the Vulcan that made a rare appearance outside the UK boarders. The display of the Polish Air Force Mig 29 which was specially decorated was very impressive. And no airshow without displayteam, and these were numerous at Volkel. Red Arrows, Patrulla Aguila, Patrouille de France, Turkish Stars, Royal Jordanian Falcons and Marche Verte all came to Volkel to please the large crowd. And off course no open days without the always spectacular Airpower Demo!

Meiringen : 19/03/2009

On Thursday there was night flying at the base, so again something very interesting to see. Again we moved a bit around the airfield, and we found a nice spot in the approach where you can nicely see the aircraft descending towards the airbase: a view that the pilots must be familiar with. Unfortunately the weather that day wasn't as good anymore.

Meiringen : 18/03/2009

As Meiringen offers a lot of options for aircraft photography, we went to other spots around the airbase where we could take the aircraft taxiing to the runway.

Alpnach : 17/03/2009

After some jet activity in Meiringen, we went to the main helicopter base in Alpnach where training on the new helicopters, the EC-635, was in full swing. Also some super puma's could be seen. We even saw a test flight of an EC-635 which wasn't being delivered to the Swiss Air Force yet.

Meiringen : 17/03/2009

On the second day of our holiday we first went to Meiringen again for the first mission of the day. Special light there was when the first aircraft arrived after their first mission.

Meiringen : 16/03/2009

As we went for skiing in Switzerland, the region was quickly chosen as there was a training course of the Swiss Air Force in Meiringen that period. Flying was very good with an average of 8 F-5's and 8 F-18's flying several missions throughout the day. Our first day was sunny, and before we went to the mountains for skiing we first went to the airbase to catch the first wave.