Croatia 2024
To celebrate the intoduction of the Rafale into the Croatian Air Force and to say goodbye to the MiG-21, an air show was organised at Zagreb/Franjo Tudjman. Since this was one of the last options to see an operational MiG-21 in Europe, we decided to go there with a group of sixteen.
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Spread over the day and evening (Thursday, May 9), the sixteen participants of this trip arrived at Zagreb airport to visit the AirVG airshow on Saturday. Upon arrival at the hotel, everyone was warmly welcomed with cake and schnapps. In the evening, a local restaurant was tested by a large number of participants and found to be very good.
On Friday, May 10, luck was tried from outside the field in the hope of seeing some of the participants of the planned open day on Saturday. After stocking up on supplies at a local supermarket to get through the day, we headed to the airport. The easterly wind direction meant that runway 04 was in use. After a bit of searching, a legal parking spot for the vans was found and we walked to the beginning of the 04 in the hope of photographing a MiG-21 on the runway. There were already several flight movements, which is of course not surprising at Zagreb’s civil airport. But luckily it didn’t take long before some military aircraft were seen in the form of some Croatian helicopters. Around 10:30 am what everyone had come for happened: the taxiing and take-off of a Croatian MiG-21, shortly followed by one of the Rafales. These could be captured well (also during the landing), partly due to the lovely sunshine. Around 2 p.m. they moved to the other side of the field to be able to observe the flight movements without backlight. The day ended in the same restaurant as Thursday.
Saturday (11 May) was the only show day. First, provisions were stocked up for the day. From 10 AM, the photo passes could be picked up in the old terminal building for all accredited spotters (including our group). The photo pass meant that you were allowed to photograph the limited static about 45 minutes before opening to the public. A section of the of platform was also cordoned off to be able to stand in front of the public during the demonstrations. The static show was of course not super big but provided most types of Croatian Armed Forces including fortunately some additional MiGs. Around 1 PM, most of our group moved to the other side of the field to watch the flying with the sun in the back. The flying display program was limited, which is almost inevitable at a civil airport between regular scheduled services, but in addition to a MiG-21 + Rafale, it contained OH-58s, Bell 206, a Zlin and the national pride Wings of Storm with their PC9s. The successful day and the score of Croatian aircraft was celebrated in the evening with a good grill meal and a couple of drinks.
Today (Sunday 12 May) was already the day of the return trips. In a handful of small groups, the participants were taken to the airport, and everyone went back to their respective home base.
