Türkiye 2023
A very popular destination for understandable reasons is Anatolian Eagle at Konya in Türkiye. With an always spectacular field of participants combined with the hospitality of the Turks who organised not one but two spotter days this year, it was not surprising that the 4Aviation group consisted of no less than 72 participants.
On Monday 8 May, this group flew with two flights from Schiphol Airport and one group from Düsseldorf via the two airports of Istanbul to Konya where the group arrived early in the evening. Two buses to the hotel in the pleasant city centre where we would stay for three nights.
The next day, Tuesday 9 May, we set course for the base in good time to make sure everyone had gone through the formalities on time and could take up a good spot which is normally no problem at Konya as there is ample space for the 600 (!) spotter day participants. Check-in at the entrance went smoothly and most of the aircraft were still in their covers when we arrived at the apron. This soon changed and not much later the platform was buzzing with activity.
Kudos to the Turks who had really pulled out all the stops to arrange things for us as well as possible. For instance, unlike last year when all planes took off via the furthest runway, all planes now took the nearest runway so you hardly suffered from heat haze. It was also possible to stand on the opposite side of the taxitrack so the distance to the runway was also a lot shorter. Unfortunately, this was not so favourable for taxi shots. As if this was not enough, in the afternoon the whole party was taken to the other side of the field after which the active runway was also changed so that here, too, brilliant photos could be taken of the aircraft on the nearest runway. If all this was not enough, a formation flight was held in the afternoon with aircraft from all participating countries accompanied by the Turkish Stars and the Solo Turk also gave a demo and to top it all off, a third Azerbaijani Su-25 flew a test flight after being modified by the Turks. A visiting UAE C-17 concluded this first day and enthusiastically the group returned to the hotel for a pleasant evening in town at one of the many restaurants.
The second day (Wednesday 10 May) saw a repeat of the programme of day 1. Despite the fact that Konya is in the heart of Turkey and you would expect non-stop brilliant weather there, weather conditions are erratic. Fortunately, these days remained dry and the temperature was pleasant but there were clouds. Because we were on base for two full days, every wave could be photographed in the sun at least once on one of the days. Thus, at the end of this day came an end to yet another super cool Anatolian Eagle. Where else can you photograph Turkish Phantoms and countless F-16s, Azerbaijani Su-25s, Pakistani and UAE F-16s and RAF and Qatari Typhoons so beautifully in almost perfect conditions on a single day? A deep bow to the Turkish Air Force, the hospitality and kindness during the spotter days, even by the security personnel, is heartwarming.
Early on Thursday morning, 11 May, the exodus of participants back to the Netherlands began and late in the evening the last participants were waved goodbye at Schiphol Airport. Hopefully, many more such spotter days will follow.
