The AIRPOWER22 airshow was held on Friday 2 and Saturday 3 September. As always the place was on both days crowded with people attending the largest free bi-annual event held in Austria. Where on Friday the show was attended by 125,000 people, Saturday even attracted 150,000 people.
Expectations for this show were high. As always, AIRPOWER is late with announcing their participants. Highlights on this year’s participants list were a Croatian MiG-21 for the flying display, a Serbian Air Force Utva and Mi-17 for static and flying. Sadly the Serbian Air Force had to cancel at the last minute due to flight plan issues. A week prior to the show, the organisers of AIRPOWER22 (Austrian Air Force, the Steiermark region and RedBull) even announced the presence of absolute airshow highlights in the form of a PLAAF (Chinese Air Force) Y-20, making its European airshow debut. Reason for their presence was the fact that the Chinese recognise themselves as a potential C-130K replacement. For the same contest, also the Brazilian Air Force was present with a KC-390. AIRPOWER22 was also the final airshow for the Austrian Air Force Alouette 3s. Nowadays only 16 are operational, with no less than ten of these present! The weather forecast for both days were, two days prior to the show, not that good, both days however were enjoyed with a lot of sun that even required suncream.
On Friday 2 September, due to a small parking issue in Graz, we arrived 5 minutes too late at the exit on the highway, resulting in a 45 minute delay at the reserved parking spot. Nevertheless we were at 7.30AM on the showground. On Saturday (3 September) however we arrived 5 minutes earlier at the same exit, resulting in a 6.30AM presence at the showground.
Five of the tour participants stayed together at a beautiful spot along the center of the runway, where the other three obtained a spotters-accreditation in advance. Those with a spotters-accreditation were pleased with unlimited food, free drinks (mainly from sponsor and co-organiser RedBull) and no less than 18 different spots to view the airshow or flightlines. The airshow started on both days at 9AM with “Vibes in the sky”: a music composition with performance of nine Alouette 3s, one EF2000, three PC-6 and a single, making its airshow debut, Italian Army AW169. The latter will replace the Alouette 3 in the Austrian Air Force with first arrival expected at the end of 2022.
The airshow itself was similar on both days, with only minor differences. Highlight in the airshow were the presence of a Serbian Galeb G-2 flying formation with the Swedish Air Force Historic Flight Sk-35C Draken, a final salute from the Czech Air Force Mi-24 (with a Mi-17) and a Hungarian Air Force Mi-24 as well. As always, the Austrian Air Force showed on both days a QRA interception by two EF2000s of a C-130K. Both days ended with a mini-Tiger formation (the 2nd Staffel operating the Eurofighter is a probationary member of the famous NATO Tigers and is awaiting full membership). This Tiger formation included a German EF2000 and Tornado IDS as well as a Red Bull Alpha Jet a Austrian EF2000 and a Hungarian Gripen. Sadly the flypast of two B-52Hs on Friday, operating out of RAF Fairford, was cancelled due to operational commitments. However on Saturday they did manage to send one for a single flypast. Highlight for most was however the Croatian MiG-21UM. Due to operational commitments they were unable to operate out of Zeltweg, so the Croatian Air Force decided to send one of their MiG-21UMs for a full display on both days operating from its home country. For the numbercrunchers it was nice they sent a different aircraft on Saturday compared to Friday. Next to the spare aircraft usage of the MiG-21, also the Hellenic Air Force decided to use their spare ZEUS F-16 on Saturday as did the Hungarian Air Force with their Gripen. On the flightline were also a Turkish F-4E and F-16D and more Swedish Air Force JAS-39C and Belgian F-16 in tiger livery. Those four could only be seen up-close by those having a spotters-accreditation.
