Needless to say this was not a very good way to begin, but what was on offer for me as a photographer made it worthwhile. Add to this the weather was holding with no rain, some dramatic cloudscapes and sunny spells and it becomes clear I even took the walk back to the car in the evening for granted...
This was actually the first airshow I shot all-digital, mainly because of the distant display line and the continuously changing light. Exposure was manual throughout the show apart from a handful of taxiway shots, with typical values of 1/1250 - 6.3 for jets, and 1/320 down to 1/60 for rotors and props. I chose the D300 with its high pixel density (12Mp on DX format) with events like this in mind, and it all worked well with much use of the 300/4.0 AF-S plus TC-14E. Here are my visual highlights of the first day.
First foreign guest to perform: Belgian A109.
Standard asset only in Austria: the Saab 105.
Sheik's well-known take-off. Still a great sight with this backdrop, and one of the best F-16 schemes I ever saw.
Coming in with single-seater 30+40.
Blaniks back on the ground. Their display is a rare demonstration of flying skills.
The Croatian team taking off.
I love those spirals.
Eye2eye with the Six.
Kudos for the amount of choppers in the air, including a nice contingent of AB212s.
Real plane visiting: 2408 taxiing in.
OK, fancy colours, but still a flying Cobra in Europe. Great sound on N11FX.
The shades of grey are a bit dull to my eye, but aerodynamics make up for that.
Turbo Porters on their water drop run.
Time for the big props:
That's how you start a radial.
Incoming Canso.
P-38 in take-off, again the only one in Europe.
Stuck halfway in the time machine: Iren Dornier's Do-24ATT.
Roaring off in the B-25. It must be good to be a flying Bull.
1983, the first and probably last time I saw Karo As fly. Four Saabs in formation, three of them seen here, revived that event!
I will be back later, with a selection of Saturday.
Erik
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Thank you so much, as that is indeed something I strive for.