Gunship
9th Oct 2005, 15:53
From Dean's SA Airforce (un)offical Web Site :ok:
You DO NOT know what you missed !!!
You should kick yourself over & over again !!
Besides the hot, dusty and windy conditions, it is the best air show I have been to in recent years.
Typical well-organised SAAF air show, ongoing, no delays, lots of action etc.
An interesting concept was to validate some of the displays before official start at 12 midday.
Thereafter it was the roar of jet engines, either taking off, displaying or landing.
Finishing time was 16h00, but it carried on until 17h00 at least with final MASS flypasts of JETS !!!
The high wind cancelled a lot of the mediorce stuff, such as a better Tiger Moth display, no Chipmunk (not a fighter anyway), model jet aircraft display.
Sorry to say the Hawk display was not impressive. The BAe pilot is claimed to be good, NOT by SAAF standards in my opinion.
He was mediocre. Kept well away from the crowd line, kept high, no slow flypast for the photographers.
Ettiene Potgieter, Glen Warden, Blokkies Joubert, Jan Mienie etc will tear strips of him if they can get an opportunity to fly the Hawk. Maybe he is used to English conditions, and displaying to Arabs etc but not to South Africans. Maybe he does not know our hot air conditions in the Highveld. Maybe he is a "display" pilot and not an "air display pilot".
The Hawk itself was excellent.
It was pleasing to see Mirage "800" the Black Widow, performing again, even though its last landing was without a parachute, it failed to come out and it used the full length of the runway.
The Zim K-8 "air display" pilot was excellent. Two K-8s were present. Pity the other SADC countries could not send their K-8s. eg Namibia, Zambia. The Botswana AF was sadly missed.
Finally, CONGRATULATIONS to Des Barker and his big team for an excellent air show !!!!!!!!!!!!
You DO NOT know what you missed !!!
You should kick yourself over & over again !!
Besides the hot, dusty and windy conditions, it is the best air show I have been to in recent years.
Typical well-organised SAAF air show, ongoing, no delays, lots of action etc.
An interesting concept was to validate some of the displays before official start at 12 midday.
Thereafter it was the roar of jet engines, either taking off, displaying or landing.
Finishing time was 16h00, but it carried on until 17h00 at least with final MASS flypasts of JETS !!!
The high wind cancelled a lot of the mediorce stuff, such as a better Tiger Moth display, no Chipmunk (not a fighter anyway), model jet aircraft display.
Sorry to say the Hawk display was not impressive. The BAe pilot is claimed to be good, NOT by SAAF standards in my opinion.
He was mediocre. Kept well away from the crowd line, kept high, no slow flypast for the photographers.
Ettiene Potgieter, Glen Warden, Blokkies Joubert, Jan Mienie etc will tear strips of him if they can get an opportunity to fly the Hawk. Maybe he is used to English conditions, and displaying to Arabs etc but not to South Africans. Maybe he does not know our hot air conditions in the Highveld. Maybe he is a "display" pilot and not an "air display pilot".
The Hawk itself was excellent.
It was pleasing to see Mirage "800" the Black Widow, performing again, even though its last landing was without a parachute, it failed to come out and it used the full length of the runway.
The Zim K-8 "air display" pilot was excellent. Two K-8s were present. Pity the other SADC countries could not send their K-8s. eg Namibia, Zambia. The Botswana AF was sadly missed.
Finally, CONGRATULATIONS to Des Barker and his big team for an excellent air show !!!!!!!!!!!!