Joe Kurr

As promised, part 2 of my report. Sunday morning started off with quite a bit of rain, so we decided to wait a bit and eventually arrived at the airshow arount 10:30. At that time it had stopped raining, and the clouds were breaking. Due to the weather the show had been altered a bit, so we could still see the opening flypasts. On Saturday we had already seen that the Hungarians like to show off their flying skills, which resulted in this very nice formation of two An-26s, which couldn't have been closer to eachother. The Mi-24 'Golden Hind' also gave a stunning demo... ... with lots of flares at the end! There were several aircraft at the airshow which were new to us, like this Serbian Soko G-4 Super Galeb, which seems to have a lot in common with the BAe Hawk. Unfortunately, the Dutch demo F-16 J-055 was broken, so the team brought two standard gray F-16s instead. The routine was the same however, with some nice flare drops. Unfortunately my pictures of the demo weren't as good as I expected, so I only have a picture of him taxiing back to the flightline. The Belgian Solo Display also had a problem, they had brought the FA-101 with 1Sqn Stingers anniversary paint as their spare aircraft. This Swedish Gripen pilot was very satisfied with his routine :) The Hungarian MiG-29 demoteam had a completely new routine for this year, which unfortunately might be their last ever, since the MiG-29s will be replaced by Gripens. Unfortunately the routine didn't include a Cobra, but the MiG did perform a tailslide, and dropped a nice trail of flares. Sunday afternoon we found a nice spot along the fence, right in front of the Patrouille de France. This gave us the opportunity to see the entire preparation for their demo, and take some very nice pictures of them. Meanwhile, other aircraft taxied by, like this Jak-11. One of the highlights for us was this Serbian J-22 Orao, which we had never seen before. Zoltбn Veres flew a very spectacular, although at some points rather dangerous, demo routine with his Extra-330. Several times he almost touched the ground, and even flew straight at the crowd at only a few meters above the ground, which looked really scary. Just like on Saturday, Peter Besenyei took on the challenge of racing a Red Bull Formula 1 car, with Hungarian race driver Lбszlу Palik behind the wheel. Palik also raced a MiG-29UB, where the MiG pilot tried his best to stay behind the car. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of these runs themselves, because our view of the runway was obstructed by two C-160 Transalls and ten Alpha Hets. After the show we waited for the MiG-29 to land, and take some pictures of it while it taxied back to the flight line. After that we set off to the exit, when this An-2 surprised us with some very low flypasts over the crowd area. We estimate its last flyby to have been at about 20 meters off the ground. Time flies when you're having fun, and this weekend went by way too fast. Monday morning we had to get up early and take the train back to Budapest. After some problems with the passengers list, the plane finally left to Brussels. Just after take-off, we made a wide turn over Budapest, which resulted in this last picture. Click here to see all pictures All in all this airshow trip was a success, and I'm thinking about doing this more often. Now let's see what's on the airshow list next year...

Funny, everyone at the airshow called them JAS-39A, although I did notice the refuelling probe, which I had never seen before on a Gripen.

No, unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures inside those cockpits. Yes, the Serbian airforce were there with a J-22 Orao and a G-4 Super Galeb. I will post pictures of those two aircraft in part two of my report :) The Orao did some extremely low passes, the lowest at about 1 meter altitude. Unfortunately I don't have pictures of that pass, as it was too low and too fast, so my camera couldn't focus.

Last weekend I visited the airshow at Kecskemét Airbase in Hungary, together with Wasserfall and Munir. Early friday morning we took the train to Brussels Airport, where our flight to Budapest would depart later that day. The flight itself was uneventful, and less than two hours later we bounced over the runway in Budapest. The landing was less than perfect, we made one or two jumps before the plane finally settled down. At the airport there are buses which take you from the aircraft to the gate, a distance of about 50 meters. At first we planned to rent a car in Budapest, but this proved to be twice as expensive as was advertised on the Internet, so we decided to use the public transport instead. This proved to be quite a challenge, as the departure schedules at the train stations only state when a train will depart, but not the platform. This information is only announced over the speakers, and since we only know one or two words Hungarian, we couldn't understand what the announcer was talking about. Most of our fellow travellers didn't speak English or German either, but we made it to our destination, without getting lost. When we arrived at Cegléd Station, the next step was to find out how to get to our camping. A taxi was the best option to travel the last seven kilometers, and we arrived at the camping a few minutes later. Saturday morning started off cloudy, but warm, and the rain thad had fallen during a very heavy nightly thunderstorm was all gone. We found out that there was a train station some 10 minutes from our camping, where we departed to Kecskemét for our first day at the airshow. At the train station in Kecskemét there were buses which took us to the airfield. We decided to concentrate on the static show on saturday, and find a nice spot along the runway on sunday. One nice thing about Hungarian airbases is that they park stored aircraft everywhere, like this nice line up of L-39ZO Albatroses. A little further back on a platform behind the Albatroses were a MiG-29 and two Mi-8 helicopters hidden under a camouflage net. I guess they didn't want us to see these aircraft. Somewhat further on we came across this SA-6 installation, with several vehicles we recognized from Lockon. The Hungarians also preserve old aircraft, like this Mil Mi-1 helicopter, and the Yak-11 behind it. There was also a Polikarpov Po-2, but it was too crowded to take some decent pictures of that plane. There were several brand-new hangars, which will house the JAS-39A Gripens the Hungarians have leased to replace their MiG-29s. One of these hangars was occupied by the RAF with two of the four Harriers and two Tornados in front of it. Another hangar was used to display several aircraft parts, such as a K-36D ejection seat and an RD-33 jet engine. Inside there was a MiG-29B, where we were allowed inside the cockpit. The K-36D is rather comfortable, and a MiG-29 is a lot more spacious than a MiG-21. On both days the closing act was a race between a Red Bull F1 car and an Edge-540, Bell AH-1 Cobra and a MiG-29UB. The F1 team was there with two cars, one of which was Vitantonio Liuzzi's Toro Rosso. In the afternoon we found a spot along the runway to see some flying activities. There were some demoteams which I had never seen before, one of which was Krila Oluje from Croatia, flying with five PC-9Ms. Peter Besenyei was also present with his Edge-540, flying a stunning 10 minute aerobatics routine. The Turkish Stars also flew a nice demo, accompanied by their very funny commentator. The Hungarian national airline Malév sent a Boeing 737-600 which preformed some flyby's on both days. The first flyby was a practice approach with the gear down, at about 5 meters above the runway. The second was a high speed run (about 500 or 600 km/h) with the gear up, flying at about 8 meters altitude. The Turkish Stars brought their special red and white C-130 Hercules with them, and allowed us inside to take a few pictures. We had a chat with one of the crewchiefs in there, who proudly told they had been at Volkel two months ago, when he heard we were from the Netherlands. End of part one, I will post the rest of this report in the evening when I'm finished sorting the pictures from Sunday.

At the moment we're concentrating on a version for the Cougar, because it already has the ability to attach another grip. We have looked at other sticks as well (Suncom, X45, etc), but adapting these is much more complex because of all the electronics in the grip, which we would have to fit into our model. To do this, we would have to reverse-engineer the electronics, and make a different circuit board for each set. There are plans for a dual throttle, but first we want to finish the stick, and then we'll see what we can do for the throttle. This may take a while ;)

Some more: The Belgian F-16 Solo Display coming in for a touch and go Same aircraft, taxiing back after its demo One of the highlights: the Royal Air Force VC-10 taking off Some Rafales taking off for the High COMAO Followed by an F-16 which turned towards us just after take off The Greek Corsairs also went airborne A Greek Phantom is always welcome Close-up of the A-7E Corsair, while it taxied back to the static line The Italian F-16's performed a very nice flyby And then pulled some very tight turns into the circuit Another one for our Czech friends This Rafale B was brand new Close-up of one of the Danish F-16s. The pilot is wearing the new helmet with HMD. Just before we left, the VC-10 came in for a flyby and landing This shows how close we were to the taxiway. I made this picture using my 18mm wide angle lens And one last picture of the F-84 which was outside the paintshop

The KB team have succeeded in organizing yet another excellent spotters day. This was the ninth time I visited the airbase, and it's still getting better, although it's getting more commercial as well. It was really great to meet Groove, and have another face behind a name :) Anyway, here are some pics I made: One of the local F-16s taking off for the morning mission A Belgian Alouette II coming in to land just behind us The Operational Conversion Unit (OCU) had its 20th anniversary, which they celebrate with a very nice tail Around 10:10, the QRA flight was scrambled. Notice the live Sidewinders and AMRAAMs! A French Alpha Jet also visited the event, but didn't take part in any mission Yet another special tail, this one from 1 Sqn at Florennes Airbase One of the Czech Gripens posing for the spotters A British Eurofighter Typhoon makes an early landing, supposedly with a technical failure. More to come :)

Baha.be has published details about the layout of the spottersday: This is the overview mentioned in Daniel's message:

Yes, ladders. More and more spotters take a small step ladder with them, to be able to take pictures even when they're on the second or third row from the fence. A few years back though, it was the other way round at KB: the people with ladders were at the fence, and the others had to look at a 3m hight wall of people. To avoid this, the organisation has created special areas for people with ladders, and keep the rest of the fence free of them.

Not working here... :(

So far, these are the people whom I know for sure will go to the spotters day: - Groove - HPO - Wasserfall - LigerZero - Emmer - Joe Kurr I'm carpooling with Wasserfall, LigerZero and Emmer, and will be at the gate around 08:00. There we'll meet up with HPO and some other friends. Some small reminders: - Double-check that you have your passport with you, else you won't be allowed to enter the airbase - The entrance fee is 20 Euros - The gate will open at 09:00, and close around 17:00 - Ladders are allowed, but only on designated areas - Use ear protection, remember that you will be less than 10 meters away from running aircraft

A small update from my side :) Some time ago I made a small circuit which we will use in the base of our stick, based on MJoy. A few days ago my gameport broke down, so I couldn't use my Suncom HOTAS anymore. Right now, I'm modding the MJoy circuit into the Suncom HOTAS, so I can connect the whole lot to a USB port. In order to keep the Suncoms programmable buttons, I decided to rewire only the potmeters, and leave the buttons wired to the original circuits. This is how it will eventually be connected: The console I put in the schematic will contain all buttons from the MJoy. I entered "16 BTN", because the easiest way to get things going is to use a piece of UTP, which has 8 wires. With those wires I can make a 4x4 matrix, supporting 16 buttons, which is enough for the first tests. The rest (12 more buttons and two potmeters) will be added later on. This evening I modified the original MJoy circuit to support the potmeters which are in the Suncom (I'm not replacing them... yet). In this picture you can see the wires running off to the throttle (left) and the stick (right) The three buttons are there from an earlier test, they will move to the console later on. I plan to rewire the potmeters tomorrow evening. When that is done, it's time to connect it to the PC, and run the first reallife test with our custom stick (the electronics at least) If all this works, I will have a total of 134 functions, of which 106 are programmable :) I will also have two more analog axes, which will also eventually be connected to the console. Another test I have also planned for this setup is to replace the original pots in the Suncom with Hall sensors. If my guesses are correct, this should be no problem at all, but I'd rather test it now, before we build a Flanker stick with sensors that won't work.

When there are more people who want to land on the same runway, there's always the option to go around, and line up a second time. No need to overtake anyone. Or do you land in both directions at the same time? (which may explain the need to keep left, in order to avoid headon collisions...)

I totally agree, although I'm not a ground pounder, but do aerobatics and some air to air. Ever since I flew my first mission in Flanker 2.0 I cleared the runway after I had landed, even if I fly solo missions and exit the mission afterwards. It's not that hard if you get the hang of it ;) Also, if you check if the runway is clear before entering it, why do you need a rule for overtaking? If the runway is clear, then there shouldn't be anyone there to overtake ;)

So there is a MiG-29 after all? :cheer3nc: Oh, and the aircraft which is mounted to that gun is an RNLAF (?) AH-64D Apache :)

That's quite close enough :D Nice pictures, I hope you'll have the same good weather during the weekend. All dutch airshows so far had at least some rain, let's hope Koksijde keeps it dry :)

I don't think the Su-27 has toe-brakes at all. While examining the buttons on the stick for our project (see this topic) we found that there is a button for the brakes, although we don't know yet if this is the airbrake or the wheel brakes.

Then I expect at least something like this one I made of an F-4F Phantom ;) Have a nice weekend at Koksijde, I won't be there unfortunately, I have other appointments...

If you are talking about the Defence Days, forget the Su-27 and MiG-29, they aren't coming (something to do with the absence of the correct signatures). Also, the flying display at Koksijde is very far from the crowd line (last time I was there, I had to use a 400mm lens to take decent pictures of an E-3A flying by). Better wait for Kleine Brogel, there you can take REALLY good close-up pictures :)

Didn't know the F-22 was a helo ;)

Great idea. If everyone who is planning to go to KB sends me a pm with their phone number, I can create a list and pm this to everyone who sent me their number.

Here is a quick image of which areas were accessible during previous spotters days. I've also marked the fields which are used as car parks. Most aircraft will be parked in front of the crowd area, on the parallel runway. The platform at the bottom, next to the white entrance line, will also be used for parking aircraft. Along the bottom crowd area, along the taxiway to the platform, there are several food and drink stands, as well as souvenir stands from participating squadrons. Given the huge number of aircraft and spotters expected, I don't know if they will use this layout again this year, we'll just have to wait and see. If this layout is used again this year, I will most probably be somewhere near the intersection between the taxiway and the parallel runway.

That would be cool. If all goes according to plan, we might even be able to do this in front of a real Flanker! It isn't confirmed yet, but they are working on 'something of Russian origin', and they stated some time ago they were working hard on getting the Indian Su-30MKIs which are at Waddington at the moment to KB, including their support aicraft, an IL-78. There are also rumours about Algerian MiG-29s, which they have ben trying to get to the spotters day for three years now. An update was planned for today, if I read more, I'll let you know.

The entrance fee is €20, which you have to pay at the gate. Parking is free, on a piece of grassland just outside the base. From the parking lot, expect a 10 minutes walk to the flightline. Don't forget your passport, because it will be checked at the entrance, and you won't be able to get in if you don't have it with you. Your bags will also be checked, but I haven't had any problems with that so far. Also don't forget ear protection, as you can get VERY close to the aircraft. This Canberra for example came so close I could touch it. I'll post a Google Maps screenshot showing the parking spaces, entrance and crowd area when I get home.

For those who have never been to Kleine Brogel before, and don't know what to expect, check the link below for some example pictures. Link These pictures were taken during the 2005 Spotters Day, and give a good indication of the photographic possibilities at the airbase :) At this moment they are expecting over 90 aircraft, with more being added on an almost weekly basis.