Zeltweg (2019)

On Friday 6 September we woke up early for a 5.30 am departure to the Zeltweg airshow. As breakfast wasn’t open yet, the hotel prepared, as agreed in advance, nice lunch packages for everyone. Due to a small traffic jam near the Zeltweg exit we arrived around 7 o’clock at the gate where we could immediately enter the show-ground. As always at Zeltweg, static photography was almost impossible with almost no space between aircraft and the fences around them. For those having a spotterspackage there were no less than 18 designated spotter areas to view the airshow from.

The weather on this day was completely different to the day before. Today it was only 14° Celsius with clouds and rain from time to time. Nevertheless, there were almost no cancellations in the flying display (only the Belgian A.109 cancelled due to technical issues) and all of us enjoyed the day from various spots. Some even positioned thereself at the north side of the runway, in the middle of the display area. Highlights on this day for many was the intercept of a Da.900 by two Austrian Air Force Typhoons, the J-35 Draken from the Swedish Air Force Historic flight and the Polish Air Force Su-22, of which many wonder if it already stopped firing flares by the time you read this report.  Making its debut in the airshow were the in 2018 acquired Da.40 Twin stars from the Austrian Air Force, of which three flew a formation with four PC-7s, the 4th Da.40 acquired was in the static display. Also nice was the (International) helicopter display with participation from Slovak, Germany and Austrian Air Force in combination with many helicopters owned by the famous Red Bull “Flying Bulls”.

At 1900 we travelled back to our hotel where some went to a restaurant, where others already had dinner at the Airpower showground. This evening the 24th traveller was met.