Airpower 2009 June 27th

An early start to be collected at 0630 by my friend James (husband of my former German teacher) and we set off from a cool but clear-skied Viena to head off 190 km to the south west to Zeltweg, Austria. Site of the A1 Ring, location of the former Austrian F1 Grand Prix.

The weather was a concern as we have had very wet week in Austria with the Danube rising 2 metres or so and the Danube Island Festival under threat of cancellation. Anyway it had stopped raining and we were hopeful. As we drove into the alps (Zeltweg is at 2200 feet elevation) the weather became less appealing and we drive through low cloud at times.
Despite our early start the traffic was heavy and we arrived at the venue to see the opening acts from the car as we queued to get into our reserved car park on the airfield.

A view of the crowd from the balcony of the bar - hills and rain clouds at the rear provided an impressive backdrop.

A super opening act with an f16 flying back and forth releasing flares and a parade of helicopters.By the time we were actually installed in our reserve enclosure a Long Ezy was flying a display-memories of days in Darwin watching the same sort of plane doing displays.

Long Ezy

The air displays never stopped all day with a fantastic range of aircraft including ear shattering runs by Typhhon/Eurofighters, displays by Red Bull, Breitling , Turkish, Swiss and Polish teams amongst others). Displays by the Austrian armed forces, parachutists both civilan and military, an example of a Red Bull air race, aerobatics, warbirds, water bombing and replicas of a Bleriot XI and a Fokker DR1 triplane and an amazing aerobatic display by an Italian airforce cargo plane all contributed to a truly spectacular day.

This is the Italian airforce looping an Alenia C27J Spartan - "the little cousin of the C130 Hercules"

Breitling Display team

Red Bull display team

Bleriot XI

Catalina PBY-5

DC-2

Dornier D0-24

Typhoon Eurofighters

The weather was just on the edge with a couple of wet spells but not quite enough to stop the flying. When the show ended at around 1800 we were happy we had enjoyed a great day out.

A good run home with not too much traffic but the rain was heacy at times up in the Alps. Vienna had been dry all day but sadly we brought the thunder storms and rain back with us at about 2100. An early night as it is off back to Geneva again tomorrow (Sunday) for another work meeting.