Hungary (2013)

Hungary 2013

Quite a large group was interested in visiting the 2013 air show at Kecskemét in Hungary. The group enjoyed a couple of days in Hungary with a nice air show in perfect weather.

Maps were disabled by the visitor on this site. Click to open the map in a new window.

1 August 2013

The second 4Aviation tour to the air show at Kecskemét in Hungary started on Thursday 1 August 2013. While the weather forecast was perfect and the participants list very interesting 21 people gathered at Amsterdam-Schiphol on this day for the KLM flight to Budapest. At the end of the afternoon we arrived in Hungary on time and were greeted there by another Dutch guy and a group of British men that brought the total size of the group 29. The, rather tight, bus was already waiting for us and we were heading for the hotel soon after that. A stop at a supermarket made sure that all were able to buy a number of bottles of water to compete with the tropical temperatures. After arrival in the hotel, some food and a drink all went to bed. A substantial part of the group had bought a spotters pack for one or more days of the event. For these spotters packs you had to be in Kecskemét very early and we were one hour away from the city. In other words; on Friday the bus would start moving at 05.45 AM.

2 August 2013

According to plan the bus did start moving at 05.45on Friday 2 August. As almost always all participants showed up perfectly in time to collect their breakfast bags from the cooler. One hour later we were at the spot where part of the group got off the bus to make use of the spotters pack from then on. The rest was dropped in the approach area for the arrivals and rehearsals. Awesome weather and very nice participants were typical for this day. Apart from two German Tornados all expected participants showed up. Very nice during this Friday were the Ukrainian Flanker, the Bulgarian Frogfoot and the Romanian MiG-21. At the end of the afternoon the group came back together and headed back for the hotel. Since the spotters pack registration on Saturday and Sunday (the actual air show days) was to start an hour earlier we unfortunately had to decide to depart the hotel at 04.45 already on Saturday.

3 August 2013

The Saturday (3 August) started with a large number of sleepy eyes. The departure at 04.45 made sure that we were in Kecskemét by 6 AM and we were meant to be there then already. The spotters pack users were dropped off at the right spot again. The rest headed for the public entrance and waited there for the gates to open. The air show itself started early in the morning already. The perfect weather was rather persistent and temperatures would rise to 35⁰C today. The number of options for shadow were limited but there were plenty of spots to get drinks. The whole day solo displays were flown and brought displays of the demo teams. The Hungarian Air Force showed its capabilities during an air power demonstration. During the day they had fallen behind on schedule considerably. The consequence of that was that one of the highlights, the Russian Nights, could not start their display with Flankers until 18.30. This was very late, but as a consequence the position of the sun was very fine for photos. After this demo all came to the bus again and we drove back to the hotel. We decided to leave an hour later the next day (still at 05.45 AM though…). A small part of the group decided to opt for the swimming pool in the hotel for the Sunday.

4 August 2013

Therefore Sunday 4 August did not start early for all. First we dropped of the people that wanted to go to the air show (with a pack or without). The rest continued towards Kecel for a visit afterwards. A fair number of aircraft is preserved in Kecel (and even more vehicles). It is not pretty per se but certainly remarkable that part of the collection is suffering from corrosion as a result of iron contaminated water they use for spraying the lawn. After a visit to Kecel the bus took us to Szolnok for the Air Force museum. The collection in this museum is preserved quite well and the major part is positioned in such a way that photography is very well possible. After all were happy with the visit the bus headed for Kecskemét again. After arrival there it was possible to enjoy the air show for some time. The Russian Knights had displayed around noon on this day. This meant that we could leave at 18 o’clock according to plan (either at 6 PM or after the display of the Russian Knights, whatever comes last). What followed was the final evening and night in the hotel, with another meal in the open air again.

5 August 2013

Monday 5 August was the final day of the tour. Part of the group decided to head for Budapest on their own (city or museum). The rest was awake early again to witness the departures from the air show this day. Because of our return flight this day we had to leave the air base during mid-afternoon. This appeared to be nicely timed since all that took the spotters pack for this day were able to capture the departure of the Russian Knights just before we had to leave. Before driving to the airport of Budapest we stopped at a supermarket again for water. It was still scorching hot and thirsty weather. The weather conditions, the photo opportunities and the nice line up of participants all contributed to everyone being very happy with the end result of the tour. After a return flights are it should be we arrived back at Schiphol during the evening and shook hands.

Hungary 2013

Hungary 2013

Random feedback

Terms

Fly to

Contact

Hungary (2013)

Hungary 2013

Hungary 2013

Share this entry

Random feedback

Terms

Fly to

Contact