Melsbroek air show

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2008-09-14 03:23pm

The 15th Air Transport Wing did an air show today to celebrate their 60th anniversary. Mostly it was the usual air force paraphernalia - C-130's, F-16's, T-shirts for sale, but here and there it had a few interesting things. Like heli demonstrations: going down, and going up too. This was shot with a regular photo camera so it's grainy as hell.

Police helicopters:

Taken against the sun, but hey, it looks half-decent:

The highlight of the show, for me, was this Dutch B-25, donated to the rebuilt Dutch Air Force after a Dutch unit used it during WW2:

Scotland, represented here by an ancient death trap:

And the lamest plane decoration ever... yes, it's supposed to be an uBer 1337 mAtrIx painting thing.

UAV with a few parts missing:

This final picture is very blurry since I had to shoot in a hurry. Just before closing something loud took off; turns out the B-25 was going back to Holland under its own power.

J · Post by J » 2008-09-14 03:59pm

How is it an air show if all the planes are on the ground?

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2008-09-14 04:04pm

J wrote:How is it an air show if all the planes are on the ground?

Because I couldn't get there before 4, and most of the demonstrations stopped at 3

J · Post by J » 2008-09-14 05:06pm

We have the opposite problem in Toronto, we never get to see the planes up close since they park them in a remote cordoned off area at the airport. I think they used to have tours for kids in the Make a Wish Foundation and various other charities, but that was many years ago and I don't know if they still do it.

Anyway, I like how there's no barriers at all around the planes and people can walk right up to the aircraft and get fingerprints all over them.

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2008-09-14 05:10pm

... that's just because I frame my shots without the fences in them. Zoom helps, too. The only planes you could get up close to were the static displays in the hangars and one Hercules, the other were behind barriers.

Ma Deuce · Post by **Ma Deuce** » 2008-09-16 02:55pm

J wrote:Anyway, I like how there's no barriers at all around the planes and people can walk right up to the aircraft and get fingerprints all over them.

That's how it used to be at the Ottawa airshow years ago (not sure if they still do that, I haven't been there since 2001). All but "sensitive" aircraft (i.e F-117s) were open to the public; on occasion you could even sit in the cockpit of modern fighters like F-16s, or wander around in the cavernous bay of a C-5 Galaxy before getting a look at the flight deck. The static displays were always my favorite part of that airshow. Alas, that was before the days I had a digital camera, and I cannot locate the photo prints I did have.

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2008-09-16 03:21pm

No Bell Triple 2's....I miss those birds. Nice Libs, though!

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2008-09-16 03:52pm

Chardok wrote:No Bell Triple 2's....I miss those birds. Nice Libs, though!

The helicopters were part of the police exhibit - they had the aircraft used locally (couple of helicopters and a plane used for... something), plus copters from the neighbouring countries. I dont think any of them ever used Airwolf

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2008-09-16 09:12pm

Bounty wrote:
Chardok wrote:No Bell Triple 2's....I miss those birds. Nice Libs, though!
The helicopters were part of the police exhibit - they had the aircraft used locally (couple of helicopters and a plane used for... something), plus copters from the neighbouring countries. I dont think any of them ever used Airwolf

Which is a crying shame. The Triple 2's, aside from looking awesome, we're really.....

well, they looked awesome, anyway.