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Beauvechain 2010
Text : Serge Van Heertum
Pictures : Serge Van Heertum, Kurt Vanden Noortgate, Eddy Devroey - SBAP
©
& Vincent Pécriaux (les Ailes
Militaires Belges)
It’s a tradition since some years now, that in the first weekend of summer holiday, the Belgian Air Force present its annual airshow. This time it was not as usual at the Koksijde Air Base near the Belgian coast but at Beauvechain Air Base, home of the Belgian Air Force basic training wing and their SF.260’s.
On Friday before the weekend all
participants arrived and
therefore this day was especially dedicated to the spotters. Sadly we received
at our
redaction office some negative reactions about the organisation of the spotters
day but also from old Belgian Air Force pilots complaining about the miserable
quality of the VIP corner. It’s important to underline the fact that for the
first time the general organisation (except
flight, operations and security aspect) was outsourced to a civilian company
that
has probably
no feeling with the
spotters world or old Belgian Air Force team members expectations in
such kind of
manifestation.
Many of these people were a bit disappointed
with the way things were organised.
Regarding this matter, it’s also important to highlight the work of the Belgian Air Force team members during this weekend that did their best to provide a good airshow. For example the comments during the demonstration provided by Chris Christiaens and Christian Bultot or the drivers who assured the needed transportation even with such high temperatures registered that weekend. And there are many other examples like the team that brought water to the spotters left in the sun without any facilities on Friday.
But SBAP’s goal for this weekend was to give an objective account of the flying displays during these two days. And here at the redaction we are sure that mistakes of the past are the best way to learn for the future.
Saturday, the show suffered from bad weather conditions and heavy rain, most of the visitors chose to visit one of the different stand and other expositions. The most important event on Saturday was probably the opportunity to meet our spaceman the General de Brigade Frank de Winne and get an autograph from our national hero.
On Sunday the sun was back and the airshow could be held in optimal conditions. The flying display was a mix of old aircraft, spectacular jet solo displays and aerobatic teams. Sadly some of the announced teams (Orlik, Baltic Bees, Aguila) didn’t came to Beauvechain as planned due to technical or administrative reasons.
The headline of the airshow was the start of the Belgian presidency of the European council. To underline this event the F-16AM (FA100) had a special tail marking and the official opening of the the Airshow was made by four Belgian Alpha Jets with blue and yellow smoke, colours of the European flag.
Some of the displays were very special like a wonderful Douglas DC-6B from the Red Bull collection, the rare Saab 105Ö from Austria with a real special decoration, the participation in the air display of the Airbus A330 from the Belgian Air Force and of course the Hardship Red team with their newly painted SF.260’s. Between propellers, music and heavy jet noise from the last generation fighters, Beauvechain Airshow (we put emphasis on the show itself and not on the organisational matters) was a good edition and we are sure that thousands of aviation enthusiast are looking forward to the Belgian Air Force airshow 2011!
SBAP team would like to thank the Comopsair IPR team for the press facilities and also their usual kindness during our visit to the Airshow 2010.
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| Many activities and stand was proposed to the airshow visitors | |
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| The commentar podium with Christian Bultot on duty | The FA100 tail with the EU markings |
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Frank
De Winne and his wife giving autographs... and making some publicity for
SBAP... (courtesy Vincent Pécriaux) |
Our
national hero... (Courtesy Kurt Vanden Noortgate) |
The present article is devided in three parts :
The arrivals on friday with some interesting planes just came to Beauvechain
as support for some display team and left back the same day.
The second part is an (wet) overview of saturday.
The third part is a complete overview of the Sunday program.
Enjoy your flight !
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