Serbia 2012
In 2012 Serbia celebrated 100 years of Serb military aviation with an air show in Batajnica. 4Aviation travelled to the air show with a group of 26.
A group of over 20 men gathered at Schiphol for the transfer to Belgrade on Thursday evening 30 August 2012. They were there to join the 4Aviation tour in honour of the celebrations for 100 years of Serb military aviation at Batajnica. Via Frankfurt the group arrived at Belgrade just after 11 o’clock PM. The bus was waiting there already and just after midnight all had found their bed in the hotel.
On Friday morning (31 August) after breakfast the group was complete. The non-Dutch participants also joined the group (a group of 26 people). This Friday was dedicated museums, wrecks and relics and collecting the press passes. The day started with a visit to the large museum at the airport of Belgrade (the Muzej vazduhoplovstva-Beograd). The remarkable building contains a rather large collection inside. This is completed by the aircraft preserved outside and the storage of dozens of aircraft around the building (although they are officially not part of the museum). After the museum, around noon, we went to the Belgrade city-centre to collect our press passes. This didn’t take too much time and soon after that we visited the Jastreb and MiG-21 of a technical school. After a visit to the UTVA-factories (with a preserved Orao and a short peek in the hangars) we arrived at the Dakota-fuselage on South side of the city later that afternoon. Obviously, our bus driver, like everybody that offers transportation in Belgrade, made sure we would pass the building of the Serb ministry of defence that was bombed by NATO. At the end of the afternoon we ended up in our hotel again.
For Saturday 1 September the press presentation was scheduled. The gates of Batajnica were supposed to open at 11 o’clock, so we took it easy that morning. We were hoping for a quiet day with only very few visitors. When we, on our way to Batajnica, ended up in a traffic jam 5 kilometres from the base, it slowly became apparent that this day would not unfold as expected. After we finally arrived at the base already thousands of people were present. Despite attempts by the PR department of the ministry of defence, close to nothing could be arranged for photographers. This was unfortunate, since many aircraft were parked way off and photography on the runway was very difficult because of a high fence and the distances. The air show itself was not too big that day, but the weather was awesome. At the end of the day we headed for our hotel again, with mixed feelings and hoping for a better result on Sunday.
On Sunday morning (2 September) we had to get up early. In order to avoid traffic jams we had decided to make use of the bus transfer that was offered by the ministry of defence. After an early breakfast we took our seats on the second bus of the day at 7 AM already. Within no-time we were at Batajnica. The plan for the day slowly unfolded and all chose, based on that, their position for the day. In the end it was a very nice show with large numbers of aircraft of the Serbian Air Force. Clearly, the Serbs had made an effort to show many aircraft and helicopters. Highlights were the large number of Gazelle helicopters (that made some nice passes), the four Oraos in the air (of which one was still carrying the old roundel) and the display of the MiG-21 with the MiG-29s. The temperatures were above 30 degrees Celsius again today and the sun was shining brightly. At the end of the day all went back to the hotel, tired but fairly satisfied after all.
The return journey was already scheduled again for Monday 3 September. After an easy morning, with a fine breakfast, the bus was awaiting us around noon to bring us to the airport for our flights to Amsterdam. We appeared to have just avoided the all Lufthansa personnel strikes!
