| 2010 Air Shows |
Kecskemet International Air
Show-- Hungary, August 7-8
|
Location: Kecskemet
AFB, Hungary |
Admission: Less
than $20 |
Parking: FREE |
| Value: Excellent |
|
The
Hungarian Air and Military show is held at the Kecskemét AFB,
in City of Kecskemét, about 1 hours drive south east of Budapest
by car. It was also possible to take trains and buses to Kecskemét,
and if arriving by train, a direct bus service was available to the
AFB.
|
The air
show is held every two years, and it is one of the best air shows
in Europe, if not in the world. Due to the huge success of the 2008
air show, organizers decided to make it an annual air show but due
to economic downturn experienced in Hungary and the rest of the world
the 2009 show was cancelled. Therefore the 2010 was eagerly awaited. |
Things did not look good on Friday before the air show. Scattered
thunderstorms throughout the day made difficult for aircraft to go
up for rehearsal. Most of the participating aircraft had arrived
at the base by Thursday thus avoiding the horrible Friday weather.
By Saturday morning the heavy rains had stopped but the skies over
Kecskemét were overcast with low ceilings. The gloomy weekend
forecast called for showers on Saturday and Sunday. That did not
stop people from coming to this very popular air show.
|
| The venue
has plenty of food vendors and sanitation facilities. It is also
a good place for families since there are many activities for children.
|
The gates were open around 7:30 AM.
It is best to arrive as early as possible to avoid heavy traffic
jams and to secure a good viewing spot on the field. For photography
a 300mm lens or a zoom covering this range will give excellent results.
The best entrance point is by the main gate and there are several
buses stopping at this location, where the walk to the main grounds
is much shorter than from the parking lot gates. Once inside the
airbase one notices how big this place is. By 8 AM there were already
hundreds people walking around the many vendors, static aircraft
and open hangars. For several hours it was unclear if the flying
display would start at all, but finally by 1 PM the skies cleared,
the sun came out and the best air show in recent memory was allowed
to start. And what a show it was! The flying did not stop until well
after 7 PM. This air show has such a packed flying schedule that
is best to bring your own sandwiches and water and hit the toilet
before the show starts so that you do not miss any flying action.
One should also plan to attend both days, one for the flying display
and the other to walk around. Due to the late start on Saturday not
all the planned air displays took to the air.
|
Sunday’s weather was hot and sunny with occasional
dark clouds. It was another full day of air displays starting at
7:45 AM and over at 6:15 PM.
|
The stars of the static displays were the Israeli F-16I Sufa and
an Ukrainian Su-27. Among other on static were 2 Eurofighter Typhoons
from Germany, USAF F-15E and a Romanian MIG-21 Lancer. Both days
had terrific flying displays. There were no less than 6 different
flying display teams, with the highlight being the Frecce Tricolori
from Italy celebrating their 50th anniversary. The best individual
performance was by the French air force Rafale with a fast and loud
routine. The Dutch and Belgian F-16 Demo teams also had a fantastic
display. Some of the flying aircraft deployed flares during their
displays making them very dramatic. This is something that we do
not see at air shows in the United States. The grand finale was a
demonstration by the Hungarian air force Mig-29s, Grippens, Mil-24s
and a fly over by an AN-26.
|
Major Aircraft/Performers Presented:
|
- Frecce Tricolori -- Italian Team flying MC-39
- Patrouille Suisse F-5E Tiger II Swiss Air Force
- Turkish Stars Team flying NF-5A/B
- Red & White Iskras -- Polish Team TS-11 Iskra
- Wings of Storm -- Croatian Team
- Breitling Team -- French Team L-39C
- F-16AM from Holland
- F-16AM from Belgium
- JAS39C Gripen Hungarian Air Force
- F/A-18C from Switzerland
- and too many others to list.
|
Over
all we highly recommend the Hungarian air show at Kecskemét
for any serious military aviation enthusiast, due to the variety
and the number of countries represented and of course due to their
flying display.
|
Rating:
10 out of 10
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Review and photography Peter Thivessen |
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