Four of the 6 photographers travelled to Katowice in Poland on Thursday 14 September for the first part of the journey. After an easy flight we picked up our 5th member of the group and our rental van. Before we knew it we were close to Ostrava. Noteworthy is that the display line at Ostrava is in a 90 Degree angle with the runway. This means that during rehearsals, photography is very good at the Western part of the airfield as you are at show-centre and the sun is in your back. Little after lunchtime we arrived at the right spot for photography and we were treated with great demonstrations of, amongst others, the French Mirage 2000s, Slovak MiG-29, Hungarian Gripen and two Czech L-159s. In the meantime several support aircraft arrived plus some participants for the show. Our sixth member of the group had joined us in the meantime making the group complete. Before we knew it the day was over and the general conclusion was that it was good!
Friday (15 September) was destined to be another day of arrivals and rehearsals. Supported by the handy app of the show we were well informed about the schedule of the day and the morning would be mainly arrivals. We decided to locate ourselves in a position near the runway and saw a number of arrivals including a Lithuanian L-39, Turkish E-7 and Canadian CF-188. Most of the aircraft could be photographed while the sun was shining. In the afternoon we redeployed to the other side of the runway for the rehearsals. The weather had turned grey but at the end of the day it was sunny again, just in time to photograph the B-1, B-52 and KC-135 being towed over the runway. Another great day out!
Saturday 16 September was the first of two show days, but unfortunately the weather forecast was not so good. We arrived quite early at the base and entered after the first showers. The static show was hard to photograph due to the cramped lay-out. Besides the air show, the NATO Days also feature a lot of demonstrations with cars and tanks, really impressive to see. The air show was according to the plan in the morning but in the afternoon the Saudi Hawks had to cancel due to the low cloud base. During the take-off of the French Mirage 2000s one of the aircraft went tech so this show had to be cancelled as well. Luckily the Slovak MiG-29 performed as well as the Slovakian aircraft in the fly-past. Besides that we were able to catch some support aircraft flying in and out.
With the weather forecast for Sunday (17 September) being even worse we decided not to go to show today. A good choice as most of the demonstrations had to be cancelled during the day because of the bad weather. We decided to go for some preserved aircraft on our way to Katowice, where we arrived at the end of the afternoon. Our hotel had a MiG-21 in the garden, the ultimate aviation hotel! We had a relatively short night as our flight to Eindhoven (on Monday 18 September) was scheduled to depart very early. Despite the bad weather in the last days it was a great trip with great company!
