The 43rd Sanicole International Air Show took place last weekend in the Sanicole airfield in Hechtel, Belgium.
I attended the second day of the show, Sunday 11 September. The morning started with heavy fog that only started to clear after 10:30. As a result, the show only begun an hour and a half late, at 11:30 and the early morning performances had to be rescheduled or even cancelled.
Overall, it was a good show. Compared to last year’s show (that I also attended) there were fewer demonstrations of jet fighters. However there were also some very interesting ones, so overall it was ok.
Personally, I missed the Czech and Hungarian Grippens, the French Rafales and the Greek F-16 “Zeus team” from last year.
HOWEVER, we were able to see, for the first time in Europe, an excellent demonstration by an American F-35A (with a female pilot!). Moreover, it flew together with a P-51D Mustang, on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the USAF.
Apart from these, we saw again this year the Italian Eurofighter and M-346, and the Swiss F-18.
There were also a few aerobatic teams, like the Turkish Stars in their F-5As and the Saudi Hawks (in their Hawks).
In the show’s newsletter, they had also promised a pass-by… an F-22 but this did not happen. There was however a surprise pass-by by a… Mig-15UTI (not the same thing, I know).
This year’s Greek entry was from Team Daedalus with their T-6 Texan II, but unfortunately I have to say it was a mediocre performance.
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