[ZS-VAN]

Well I've been off-line for a few days now and for good reason, I've been out of Cape Town attending the TFDC Airshow at AFB Overberg! And what a show it was!

I left early on Friday to get a press pass so that there would be opportunity to see the aircraft fly the their validations for the show and get photo opportunities. That said, I switched from my EOS 50E to a friends 350D. Not a great idea doing an airshow with a camera you don't know.

The weather was foul! First time we've had bad weather at the show. It was very windy with a storm front approaching so the light was bad and the occassional showers had us darting for cover where there was hardly any to be found. The C130 came in pretty handy.

The weather force us to retreat and head for our lodgings and supper. There was to be a limited airshow for some wine auction guests but we were unable to get a positive response for the communications officer. The net result? We MISSED IT!!! The first live fire of an air to air missile at an airshow. How did they do it? They fired a flare from a 120mm mortar and had a Cheetah D run in and fire on the flare. Absolutely spectacular in darkness!

Fortunately we were able to see three live firing the next day but not from a close as the night before. This was for the masses and safety was paramount. Still, I got a shot of the Rooivalk firing some rockets. ZS-Mike got a long range shot of the Cheetah D firing air to air missiles too. They did two runs and fired three missiles. On the second run they fired two in quick succession! Way cool. Those missiles blew the flares right out of the sky!!!

The rest of the flying was spectacular with the Lightning breaking the sound barrier with a wicked BA-BOOM!!! There were two Lightnings displaying, Buccaneer and Mirage III to name some of the rarer delights. The raspberry ripple Bucc flew in on Friday and was on static display. I will post some pics. Enjoy!

[ZS-VAN]

[ZS-VAN]

[ZS-VAN]

[ZS-VAN]

[ZS-VAN]

[bsmith13]

Very cool pics! I never see anything like that over here. Thanks for posting.

[STARMAN 352ND]

Wow ...Looks like that was a fun thing to go see....Why do those fighters have the Shell logo on them ??
Are they a sponsor for the planes ?
Thanks for sharing these pictures with us...
JP

[ZS-VAN]

The outfit that operates the 4 Lightnings, 3 Buccaneers and a good few Hunters called Thunder City is sponsored by Shell Aviation. Shell often sponsor fuel for these events. These birds are thirsty beasts. There is a Thunder City web site if you're interested, Thundercity - fly ex-combat, supersonic jets in Cape Town, South Africa

[smartd]

Damn,... absolutely fabulous. Live fire and all those golden oldies.
Show more when you can.
Thanks for the pix.