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Seinajoki International Airshow, June 10-11, 2017 |
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| Location: Seinäjoki Airport (EFSI),Lentokentäntie 7, 60760 Pojanluoma, Finland |
| Admission: adult 28€ or 45€ (2day) youth 19€ (<7 yrs free) /family ticket 75€ |
| Parking: 5€, near and easy access, also special shuttle from city |
| Value: Very good |
| Rating out of 10: 8 |
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Midnight Hawks of the Finnish Air Force |
| The Finnish Aeronautical Association is the national and central organization of sport aviation in Finland. SIL organizes one main airshow every year and usually it's in different location each year, last year it was at Rissala airport, Kuopio(home base of Karila Air Command).
This year airshow wasat the Seinajoki airport (EFSI) which is relatively small airport, 2000m runway with no regular air traffic. It's home base for Etela-Pohjanmaan Ilmailukerho (Southern Ostrobotnia Aviation Club) and they were main organizers this year. |
| Main attraction were fighter jets, because Finland is currently reviewing new multi role fighter to replace older F/A-18C Hornets. Now there was opportunity to see Eurofighter Typhoon, F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and JAS 39C Grippen in action. Also Saab had ground stand for more information, also there was one JAS fighter with impressive arms selection.
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| Organizer were expecting 10000 spectators, but already first day it was clear that there would be more than that, weather was excellent on thefirst day and I'd estimate that there were 10000 already at Saturday.
Interesting plane was old VL Viima II, tandem seater biplane, there were only about 20 made and only 2 are airworthy.
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Finnish Army had their own stand and they showed NH90 TTH is a medium-sized, multi-role military helicopter that replaced recently the Mil Mi-8 helicopters and Hughes MD500 Defender, a light multi-role military helicopter.
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Clive Davidson flew with Yakovlev Yak-11 ("Moose"), which is Russian trainer aircraft fromthe fifties. One regular guest at every Finnish airshow is Fouga FM.170 Magister, it was used by Finnish air force for long and I can say that I have grown up by listening that Fouga sound, those were located at air base nere my home. |
All fighters were supposed to fly on Saturday, but for some reason Super Hornets didn't take off, I heard that reason was too short rest time for pilots. On Sunday they flew, but I was a bit disapointed cause there were nothing to show, only some basic flying around airport. On the other hand Eurofighter Typhoon and Grippen gaved everything did really good show. Quite regular guest at Finnish air shows is the Finnish Airforce F/A-18C solo, I have seen that several times and it's ok with flares etc. |
Most impressive were the Midnight Hawks aerobatics group. Finland has 100yrs anniversary at 2017 and Hawks were painted like Finnish flag with blue/white. They started show with music (Finlandia/Sibelius), show was as good as always. The team's trademark is a very tight diamond formation, also they have formation called "swan" specially for Finland birthday.
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Next year this show will be at Tikkakoski and it is "Finnish Air Force 100 years" -show. Executive Director of The Finnish Aeronautical Association, Timo Latikka states: "This show will be the most spectacular airshow ever in Finland".
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Performers included:
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Agusta Bell/Bell 412 (Finnish Border Guard)
Hughes MD500 Defender (Finnish Army)
NH90 TTH (Finnish Army)
VL Viima II (Phil Lawton)
Yakovlev Yak-11 (Clive Davidson)
Douglas DC-3 (DC Association)
Autogyro Calidus (Heikki Kela)
Christen Eagle II (Martti Henriksson)
Extra 300 (Kimmo Jokela)
Cessna T206H Turbo Stationair (Local club)
Pilatus PC12/47E (Finnish Air Force)
CASA C-295 (Finnish Air Force)
Fouga CM.170 Magister (Fouga-Team Finland)
BAe Hawk (Midnight Hawks, Finnish Air Force)
F/A-18 Hornet (Finnish Air Force)
F/A-18E Super Hornet (US Navy)
F/A-18F Super Hornet (US Navy)
Saab JAS 39 Gripen (Swedish Airforce)
Eurofighter Typhoon T3 (R.A.F.)
Eurofighter Typhoon FGR4 (R.A.F.)
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| Report and photography by Pasi Ahola for |
