Luchtmachtdagen Day 1,  19 June 2009

As said before, I live very close to Volkel AB, so today we decided to visit the first day of the Luchtmachtdagen with the family. Around noon my son Damian, girlfriend Angèl and her mum arrived at Volkel AB where we first started to take pictures of the static display. These shots can be found in the static display section of the Luchtmachtdagen page.

When we were finished with the static we walked further towards the "Onze Luchtmacht" area to see the remaining part of the airshow. Here we first had a very short rain shower, which was the only shower we had during the Luchtmachtdagen. So despite the rainy forecast for the weekend we can't complain at all.

First we saw the mass take off of fifteen F-16s followed by a very nice airpower display. When a the F-16s were safely back on the ground we saw the impressive solo display of  the Dutch F-16, using lots of flares. This was followed by the new Hunter of the Dutch Hunter Historic Flight, painted in the colors the Hunters wore in the 60s and 70s.

Unfortunately we missed the solo display of the RAF Typhoon which was in the morning. But as both the Typhoons were planned to depart later in the afternoon I had some good hope to take some nice shots of them during take off. Too bad, they really messed up the departure as they both climbed as a rocket right after lift off.

When the Typhoon were almost reaching the moon another British participant took off for a very impressive display. The Beech 200 did some aerobatics which I didn't know the Beech was capable of. After yet another RAF display, the Red Arrows it was finally time for one of the highlights of the Luchtmachtdagen. The display of the mighty Vulcan.

The real highlight of the airshow today was the Polish MiG-29 which did a really nice and low take off. If only the Typhoon jockeys could see this! After a very nice display and a very nice knife edge pass the Fulcrum landed again. This was for us the moment to pack our gear a drive back home.