Saturday morning 28 July was the same recipe as the day before, an early morning walk to the airfield, albeit a bit earlier with the gates opening at 8am. With our credentials we had access to a special enclosure and quickly our group had settled for a long day at the airshow. The flying displays were held twice throughout the day, the first starting at 9h00 and finishing at 15h00 and the second block starting at 16h00 and finishing at 21h00 with a fireworks show.
During the show day, we could enjoy the Romanian aviation industry in all its different forms. Aeroclubs with small aircraft such as Cessna’s and Zlin trainers, aerobatic Extra 300s, paradropping An-2s, a crop spraying Ka-26, a Tarom Boeing 737 and BN-2s from the aviation institute INCAS were among the civilian contribution to the flying display together with the Flying Bulls. The Bulls were a main sponsor of the show and therefore displayed their B-25, T-28, Corsair, Alpha Jets and Bo-105. On the foreign military side we saw a single high pass of a RAF Typhoon, demo’s with Gripens from Czech Republic and Hungary, Austria with their SAAB 105, a Spanish F/A-18 and demoteams from Poland (Team Iskry) and Turkey (Turkish Stars).
Even though the list of civilian and foreign military participants was interesting enough to warrant a visit to the show, the main reason for going was of course the Romanian Air Force participation. Except for the grounded IAR99 and MiG-21, the air force showcased most of their aircraft in both aerobatics and tactical capability demonstrations, such as four Yak-52s, two Alouette 3s, five F-16s, C-130, C-27 and 12 Puma’s including the locally designed gunship version.
Both days at BIAS the weather was exceptionally fine. Forecasts were pointing at heavy rain and thunderstorms on both days, but luckily the Baneasa area was mostly hot and sunny. Heavy rain and thunderstorms were passing by at close distances but the crowd of 50.000 people went home with a smile and a bit of a sunburn.
