Saturday the 11th of April saw Chantelle, the kids and myself make the drive through to the Stellenbosch Flying Club in order to hand over some money and spend the day watching all manner of aircraft blasting past with the most magnificent backdrop in the world – The FASHKOSH 2015 airshow had finally landed!
A clear, beautiful day, with the beauty of Stellenbosch and the roar and excitement of airplanes all around – no wonder I was as excited as a little girl who had just been given her very first puppy!
(Chantelle couldn’t get over the fact that I just couldn’t stop grinning the whole morning long!)
Needless to say, my phone is not particularly great at taking photos of all these magnificent beasts of the air (the Mustang, really, really enthralled me), but thankfully aviation photographer Renier Siebrits Flickr captured some pretty nice shots!
See, much better!
Ricky Fouché wrote up a nice little piece over at Pilot’s Post, giving a quite a nice breakdown of the spectacular day:
“The first Air show of the 2015 season was held on the 11th April at the Stellenbosch air field and was organised by Alewyn Burger and his team from the Stellenbosch Flying Club. “Air Boss” Rikus Erasmus compiled the program and ensured that most of the various aviation sectors were represented.
Displays ranged from Sky divers to Business Jets. In the mix we had the opportunity of viewing, among others, a Power Paraglider, Glider, Magni Gyro and Warbirds in the form of North American T6 Harvards, Aero Vodochody L39 Albatros, Aermacchi Bosbok and a North American P51 Mustang.
On the General aviation side we had a very rare Howard, a Husky and The Absolute Aviation Group entertained the spectators to a formation display of a King Air 250 and a Beechcraft Bonanza G36. NAC displayed a Bell 407. Business jets were represented in the form of a Dassault Falcon 50 EX .
The South African Air Force were represented By the Silver Falcons, Super Lynx on static display and 35 Squadron that set up a very interesting display in one of the hangars.
Working on Fire did a simulated fire fight. Mark Jackson and the WoF team from Stellenbosch did a display that included fire bombing from an Air Tractor AT 208 and a Bell Huey using a Bambi Bucket. They also demonstrated how a line of “fire Beaters” go about their business.”
Sadly, it turns out that an airshow isn’t particularly exciting for a toddler and a four year old little girl, so needless to say they were rather chuffed to be leaving the proceedings a little on the early side (we had another engagement on the day, Damen’s birthday braai if I remember correctly).
Lesson learned – next time the airshow rolls into town, the girls are definitely staying at home, and I’m bringing a better camera! :)
Related Link: Renier Siebrits Flickr | Pilot’s Post