Delhi India - Republic Day flypast and Rehersals

[Borispole]

Every year on 26th January on the occasion of Republic Day there is a flypast by the Indian Air Force over New Delhi and specifically directly over Rajpath and India Gate which is at the heart of the Government area. The main event for the amassed VVIPs is actually a parade which lasts some 2 hours. At the start of the parade there is normally a flypast by a number of Army and Air Force helicopters and at the end of the parade is the main flypast with typically around 25 military aircraft.

As might be expected, there are a number of flypast Rehersals in the days leading up to the event although the knowing which dates in advance can be difficult. This year however the Delhi Police have used their Facebook page to advise of traffic restrictions so this is a useful indicator.

In past years there have been IL76, An32, 748 and Do228 participation but this year (probably in light of the USA being the major guest nation) the flypast has focussed more on the more recent acquisitions. This year the flypast has consisted of the following formations in the main flyby:

3 x Mi35 formation
3 x C130J formation
P8 with 2 x Navy MiG29, one on each wing
C17 with 2 x Su30, one on each wing
5 x Jaguar formation
3 x (or 5x) MiG29 formation
3 x Su30 formation, split when over India Gate
1 (or 2) single Su30

Unfortunately due to other morning commitments I have not been able to witness the early helicopter flypast but here are the aircraft noted so far on the main flypast part of the 2015 rehersals:

Monday 19 Jan 2015
Rehersal flypast - didnt know in advance so missed it

Tuesday 20 Jan
low viz in fog so many aircraft were only heard overhead. Those seen and identified were:
Mi35: Z3134, Z3136
P8: IN324/ARK
Su30: SB406

The end of this day left me feeling very frustrated!

Wednesday 21 Jan
It was still foggy but not as bad with most aircraft identified this time.

Mi35: Z3133, Z3134, Z3136
C130J: KC-3801, KC-3804, KC-3805
P8: IN324/ARK with MiG29 IN675, IN677
C17A: CB-8007 with Su30: SB403, SB409
Jaguar: JS129, JS133, JT051, JT053, JT054
MiG29: 3x unidentified
Su30: SB041, SB056, SB148
Su30: SB406
Su30: SB408

Thursday 22 Jan
no rehersal flypast (raining and foggy again)


Friday 23 Jan
Best weather so far, cloudy with sunny patches (but not when the flypast happened). Most aircraft identified once again.

Mi35: Z3134, Z3139 plus one unidentified
C130J: KC-3801, KC-3804, KC-3805
P8: IN324/ARK with MiG29 IN673, IN810
C17A: CB-8007 with Su30: SB406, SB409
Jaguar: JS124, JS129, JT051, JT053, JT054
MiG29: KB717, KB726, KB3114, KB3297, KSU3306
Su30: SB308, SB314, SB148
Su30: SB403

In addition there were 2x Allouette 2 Chetaks on Traffic patrol, one of which was identified as Z2857

All the above were identified from photos but none are of publishable quality unfortunately.

At the moment its is unsure whether there will be another rehersal flypast on Saturday but it seems unlikely, but it does seem certain there will be no flypast on Sunday. So probably there will be only one more this year, on the 26th itself.

If anyone else was in Delhi this week and can help fill the gaps above I would love to hear from you!

[Borispole]

The aircraft identified in the actual Republic Day flypast are listed below. Anyone who saw the parade on TV would recognise that the weather was less than ideal for the event. Early in the morning the weather could best be described as "abysmal" but by the time of the flypast it had improved to just "poor" with rain and fog with a cloudbase around 1,300ft. A major challenge was trying to catch the fastjets in particular as they momentarily emerged from the fog for a couple of seconds at best. The MiG29s again proved the most frustrating with none idntified from the 5 ship formation. On the plus side I was in position to catch the helicopters at the start of the Parade so all was not lost.

Monday 26th Jan 2015

Start of Parade:
Mi17: ZP5205, ZP5206, ZP5217, ZP5138 plus spare ZP5221
Dhruv (Army): IA1104, IA1108, IA1132 plus spare IA1129

End of Parade:
Mi35: Z3133, Z3134, Z3139
C130J: KC-3801, KC-3804, KC-3805
P8 IN324 with MiG29s IN810 plus one unidentified
C17 CB8008 with Su30s SB403 plus one unidentified
Jaguar: JS102, JS124, JS129, JT051, JT054
Mig29: 5 unidentified (grrrrrr!)
Su30: SB148, SB308, SB314
Su30: SB215 single ship salute over India Gate

SB215 is a new serial batch to me, but its 100% from the photo.

Lets hope 2016 has better weather, the fog and smog in Delhi has been here for at least 3 weeks now.

[Borispole]

Here are a selection of shots from the rehersals and the main event. The first 13 shots are from the rehersal on 23rd Jan and the last 7 are from the Republic Day itself on 26th. As prevously mentioned, the weather was far from ideal and none of these are of publishable quality. Indeed, I had the shutter speed as high as possible in order to ensure the serials were readable on the fast moving subjects, hence frozen props on many of the shots.

Anyway, hope they are of interest and give an idea of what to expect.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/9n47e8qaok7x ... METna?dl=0

[canberra]

Very cool - not too often you see a 5-ship Jaguar formation these days

[Bennie]

Very nice, given the circumstances!!!