After four years of absence, Austria's famous airshow was finally staged again at the fighter base in Steiermark. Staying east of the field, I followed directions early Friday morning to the public parking area closest to the entrance from that side... which turned out to be some 4km from the showgrounds! It is said shuttle buses started service around 9 o'clock - the same time the flying display starts - so I joined the herd of people taking the long walk and reached the place where it all was to happen just as the show started.
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