On June 10, 2007, the Royal Danish Air Force held its open house at Aalborg air station. Ramon van Opdorp contributes his photos and report on the air show.

Flyvevåpnet Åbent Hus 2007

On 10 June the annual open house of the Royal Danish Air Force (RDAF) was organized, with this year as home the Aalborg Air Force Station in the north of Denmark. Normally these shows are rather small and have no special participants. However this year, the Danish Air Force had a larger wish list, and some very rare participants were invited. After some months the participation was confirmed by every invited participant on the list, and therefore reasons enough for me to make the long trip up north, with blue skies and a very relaxed atmosphere in prospect.

Aalborg air station is the home of the Danish Air Transport Wing, ESK 721 operating the C-130J-30 stretched Hercules and the Canadair CL-604 Challenger, and the ESK 722, operating the Sikorsky S-61A SeaKing and the new EH101 Mk.512 helicopters.

The static display did not have the best layout that can be thought of. Every aircraft was fenced-in and were parked very close to eachother in a row. However this presented the possibility to photograph each aircraft in different angles and focus on the detail, which makes photographing more challenging. Also a photography challenge was the airshow, with the sun most of the day straight on show center, it were not the best photographic conditions. However with some imagination and creativity some good photographs could be made.

Temperatures reached up to 40 degrees Celsius on Saturday, which made watching the airshow very exhausting. But with a very relaxed atmosphere, tightly planned display schedule and some cold water, this airshow was great to watch and experience.

Participants

With almost every aircraft type of the RDAF participating in the static and air show, some rarely seen aircraft could be photographed. Furthermore there was a large delegation of international aircraft and display teams present. Highlights of this air show for me were:

The Italian Frecce Tricolore, which only have Aalborg and Fairford on their 2007 schedule besides shows in Italy. They gave a more than impressive display, especially that flown by the solo aircraft piloted by Maggiore Andrea Rossi. He gave a lesson in how to control and fly your aircraft at the outmost limit, with the "Crazy flight" and the "Tail slide" as the absolute highlights.

The solo demonstration of a USAF C-17 Globemaster III of the "Flying Pegasus" 729th AS / 452nd Air Mobility Wing based from March ARB, California. The take-off thrusted by the four fully-reversible Pratt & Whitney PW2040 series turbofans, each rated at 40,440 pounds (180kN) of thrust and employ thrust reversers that direct the flow of air upward and forward to avoid ingestion of dust and debris, was followed by a steep turn to the right of the runway. It finished the display with the same engines thrusting their power forward allowing it to stop in nine seconds or 500 meters, and even taxi in reverse.

A Hungarian Mig-29UB of the 2. Vadászrepülö Század based at Kecskemét, Hungary and a USAF LC-130H Hercules of the 109 AW based at Stratton ANGB, New York were on static.

And last but certainly not least the rarely seen Team Iskry from Poland, which has only Aalborg on their "out of country" show calendar, performed a very nice air display with their four TS-11-100bis Iskra's.

With five international display teams and five solo display teams, this airshow had one of the largest number of participants ever seen in Denmark. The five display teams were the already mentioned Frecce Tricolore and the Team Iskra, Patrouille de France, and two display teams flying the F-5; the Patrouille Suisse and the Turkish Stars. The solo display teams were the Dutch and Belgian F-16 Solo Display, the last performance of the Belgium Fouga Magister in Denmark, JAS-39 Gripen from Sweden and the very impressive display by the USAF C-17 Globemaster III.

Conclusion

Overall, this was a great air show with absolute great performances of the participating aircraft and display teams, besides that, the organisation was very good and made everything possible on both the media day and the show day. Minor disappointments were the layout of the airshow area with the sun facing the public, and the uncontrollable high temperatures. But this was all out of the hands of the organisation.