Arrivals & Rehearsals,  3 June 2011

In the early morning of Thursday 2nd of June our team (Mark Verstraaten, Mike Schoenmaker, Niels Hoogenboom and I) departed for Amsterdam-Schiphol inbound Munich. As we flew with Lufthansa the only option for us was to fly via Munich. When we arrived here we scored the first aircraft of the trip, a beautiful Boeing 737 of the Royal Thai Air Force.

Around four o'clock in the afternoon we arrived at Izmir-Adnan Menderes. During landing we saw several Coastguard helicopters and two Turkish Air Force CN-235s. After we picked up our rental car we first drove around Izmir-Adnan Menderes, without any result. Next stop was Izmir-Gaziemir, the small Army base which is located close to Adnan Menderes. A lot of new building were build here the last few years, so it was very hard to have a good view on the ramp.

In the early evening we decided to drive towards the Park Hotel Izmir where we stayed during this trip. Among us were many other spotters and friends, which made it a very nice stay here.

The next day we got up early again and drove towards Izmir-Çigli to attent the spottersday held on the Friday. It was all very well organized by the Turkish Air Force and really everything was possible during the day. We decided to take some shots of the static display in the shelter area first, as this wasn't possible during the show days, due to the general public. Around 9:30h the rehearsals started and we found ourselves a very nice spot along the taxi track on a small hill. From here we were able to take some very nice shots of both the Pakistani JF-17 and F-16A.

Around noon when we sunlight was parallel to the runway we decided to leave this spot and positioned ourselves in the grass along the taxi way junction. Here most of the arriving aircraft turned off the main taxi way, which resulted in some nice photo opportunities. Just before we were politely asked to leave the airfield we took some shots of the line of Turkish aircraft and helicopters parked at the Static Display. Unfortunately the helicopters were parked very close to each other, which was pretty challenging.

At 15:30h we left Izmir-Çigli and drove towards its neighbor, Izmir-Kakliç where the Turkish SF-260 fleet is stationed as well as some CN-235s, UH-1s and Cougars. From various locations we were able to see and read about 30 different aircraft. Most of them were temporary stationed at Izmir-Kakliç to participate in the Turkish Air Force Inventory Fly Past on Saturday the 4th. Around dinner time we arrived back at the hotel to fresh up and have dinner in a nice restaurant close to the hotel.