Leeuwarden 2011 Opinions

[mikek1357]

@ parking sticker wonderer(s): Paying and not checking the payment sticker is not new, noted that in earlier editions. But who cares, if payment is obviously needed? Food for thought: Ask yourseld how the civil busses are paid for. Could it perhaps be by means of the sale of these parking stickers? .

Ofcourse things have to be paid, I dont mind paying 5 euros, but I can imagine people thinking, I shouldnt have bought a ticket, they didnt check if I had one.

[flieger28]

Oh and was it me, or did one of the Black Cats Lynxes had a small problem. The commentators said it was due to the Orion not flying, though there was a gap because of it. On friday they landed at the same time, but on saturday they didn't.

Don't know but i guess they extended their show with an solo demo because of the absence of the german orion.
Btw for me living in germany / Nordholz kind of embarrassing that they didn't make it to the Open Dagen since they have bought the P-3 from the Netherlands. Strange behaviour

[Mats Egbutt]

I was there friday and saterday. Friday the weather was perfect. The flying displays were most of the time impressive. Highlights were: Team Viper, F-18 and Mig 29. Love the smoke.

The organisation was perfect. We didn't have to wait for the busses.

One point of criticism: Why do need some spotters steps in front of the railing. If you are in the background, I can understand it, but when you are at the first row.....?????

I made some shots with a camcorder and several times you see the heads of spotters standing on steps in front of you.

At Fairford it is not allowed. There you may use steps about 10 meters backwards. Now it is very irritating. (See the photo)

[marcel32us]

One point of criticism: Why do need some spotters steps in front of the railing. If you are in the background, I can understand it, but when you are at the first row.....?????

I made some shots with a camcorder and several times you see the heads of spotters standing on steps in front of you.

At Fairford it is not allowed. There you may use steps about 10 meters backwards. Now it is very irritating. (See the photo)

What are you moaning about?
1. He's not in the front row.
2. If you were filming from that position, there'll be more then one head in your view.

Not that I really understand why he uses a stepladder, but if he wants to carry the thing around... whatever.

[ebauer]

My personal highlights:

Static:
Ilmavoimat F-27 (Incredible to see a full operational and foreign military F-27 in 2011!)
Polish Fitter

Airshow:
Team Viper with their Hunters
Black Cats
Red Arrows (Even with only 4 aircraft they were able to show everyone an atractive demo. I'm still considering this team as the best one you can get worldwide!)
Apache demo RNLAF

A bit disappointing:
-the weather...
-The static itself. (I was wondering why our DHC choppers were parked in such a narrow corner of the airbase and to see 4 F-16's at only one static display line. A Czech hind with a large cover over the cockpit section).
-The absence of the Bundesmarine P-3C and Italian C-27J

Nevertheless my son and I got a nice day at Ljouwert! It was good to be back at Frisian soil again!
Credits for the organisation > Wat ik nog sizze woe, ek sneon wi it Fryslan Boppe!

[Mats Egbutt]

What are you moaning about? Strange reaction. If you (marcel32us) will take photos and there are people standing in front of you at a stepladder, you don't moan?

Allright, he is in the second row. But there are a lot more of these fellows. But it seems allright with you. I know a lot of spotters which find it irritating too.

I have heard that thursday ay the spotters-day steps were forbidden, so they agree with me.

And as I say at Fairford it is also forbidden.

People like this fellow are only thinking of themselves.

[Coati]

- nice aircraft
- good facilities
- good logistics
- good (enough) weather, even on Saturday
---------------- +
- Great day

No complaints, only a big compliment for the organization again. Nice to see the Mi-35, the Finnish Hornet display was awesome, and the Turkish F-16 and AMI Tifone were also great. And my nephew of 8 had the day of his life, he wants to become a Hornet pilot now...

Love the fact that flares are not forbidden like in the UK.

For next time? maybe add a few real high speed passes in the program (MACH 0.95-0.98). Airpower demo old style was better indeed, although the idea was nice for the new style. but indeed hard to see from a distance.

[Slijfie]

Well, I though this was pretty asocial behaviour.

[marcel32us]

about stepladders: If I recall correctly, stepladders were prohibited at spottersday because they didn't want the trouble of transporting all that hardware, not because of anti-socialness.
And of course I don't like them in front of my camera, but that's why I prefer to choose position at the fence and you have no trouble.

About the commentary: I actually quite liked it, even though of course I spotted some mistakes too. But then again, it didn't annoy me in past years either. I was even quite impressed with the very relaxed presentation of a non-pro in this field.

Just my opinion, had a great day on friday with nothing to moan about.

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

[maurits]

I am not understanding why all the spare a/c are placed at different places around the base, although at the eastern flightline (J-015 Polish MiG-29 and Solo Turk F-16) there was space enough to line up these spare a/c. I think a lot of photographers like to catch these spare a/c too. Also the eastern shelter area was almost empty, years ago it was full of planes parked on the right place with good balance between fences and a/c. (nice view with shelters and trees as background) Nowadays the fences were too close to the a/c....

Hopefully the organization will look at this point for next open days in 2013.......

regards,

Maurits

[polderbaan]

Well, I though this was pretty asocial behaviour.

Hello,

remarkable to see that nothing has changed at the dutch open days ever since I decided in the 70´s not to visit them any more, just because of similar anti-social behaviour.
Visited in later years various shows in Canada, where such behaviour is unthinkable.

Cheers,

Ab Gobets.

[Leadfoot]

Hi guys,

I visited the Luchmachtdagen on saturday (unfortunately my flight was booked well in advance, and could not change to friday). Actually, this was my first visit to the Netherlands. My impression is 99% positive. To begin with, everyone was very helpful and polite (and not only on the base - generally in Holland).
We were guided to the WTC hotel to park the car (I did not hear anything about any stickers, was I supposed to buy one?), then bus to the base, where they gave us free bottles of water and info packages in KLu plastic bags. These I kept as souveniers, since the Luchmachtdagen booths ran out of XXL T-shirts by saturday afternoon.

There were far less people than I expected, and we got a good place in the front row (we arrived quite early, around 7:30). The organizers did not commit the same mistakes their colleagues usually do for example in Zeltweg and Radom: loudspeaker towers and screens were not stacked in front of the crowdline, I was really happy about that.

Static dispay:
Loads of interesting stuff. Unfortunately the Pápa AB SAC03 was already closed when we got there. I'm really eager to have a look inside one of the SAC Big Macs. However, I always seem to be informed on Pápa AB open days after they have already taken place...
I wouldn't like to list all the great parts of the static - it would be a long list. I have to mention thouht, the display the KLu units put up was amazing. Each branch (SAR, armament, bird control, etc-etc) having separate exhibitions in hangars was outstanding. I would have needed both days to at least run through all of them.
I was happy to see the usual camo Su-22 from Poland, not the black one.

Flying display:
This was the first time I saw the Red Arrows - unfortunately, they flew only 4 jets. Nevertheless, it geve an idea what show they put on with 9 Hawks. I hope they will manage to fly with all 8 aircraft in Ostrava next weekend. Not a mistake from the organizers, but unfortunately the Luchmachtdagen was left without a major jet display team on saturday (not counting the 6-ship Hunter formation). I met the BBMF upon my arrival to the Eindhoven airport on friday afternoon, so not seeing them on saturday was not a surprise. I was a bit disappointed though, they were also supposed to appear in Radom, and they failed to do so. Maybe next year...
In addition to the Red Arrows, this was the first time I saw a number of other participatns who don't usually travel as far as Central/Eastern Europe (Black Cats, Royal Jordanian Falcons, etc.).
In my opinion, there was only one major mistake from the organizers' side: weather forecasts suggested that rain was expected in the afternoon, but the flying display sequence was not adapted to this, forcing some of the major attractions (for me - Solo Türk, Typhoon, Hornet) to fly in rain. Maybe, just maybe, this could've been avoided.

All in all, a great show. Thanks for all the useful info on the forum. I was only disappointed (jelous, to be more precise ) when seeing the weather on the pics from friday.

P.S.: I did not see this mentioned here, and I suppose the commentators must have told the crowd, but I don't speak Dutch. Why didn't the KDC-10 + 8 F-16 formation flypast take place. Low clouds, and shitty weather, I guess...

[aviodromefriend]

Why didn't the KDC-10 + 8 F-16 formation flypast take place. Low clouds, and shitty weather, I guess...

You're right. That was also the reason why they didn't take part in the rest of the Air Power demo (not that you missed much in that, as the fighters remained high on the friday).

[EHAM]

I was there on Friday only.

Likes:
*public transport. No troubles at all, very fast.
*airshow. No boring slow old stuff like Fokker 4 and KLHV
*weather. Very good when needed most: in the morning (as the light is bad in the afternoon anyway). Blue skies on a KLu Open Day is quite special .

Dislikes:
*static show. It was the worst I've ever seen at Leeuwarden. Even fences behind the 'fighter line'.
*J.C. was as usual way too loud. But fortunately I had my earplugs with me .