I don’t normally go to airshows. I hadn’t been to one for many years. So I went today.
Breitscheid airshow is the biggest, privately-organised airshow in Germany. It takes place only every third year.
If you wonder where Breitscheid is, it’s in the middle of nowhere…
…but it’s only a little over an hour by car from Frankfurt. So as the weather was gorgeous today, I decided to go.
Breitscheid is a VFR GA airfield in a very rural part of Germany (Westerwald). It has a 900-metre hard runway.
At first look, it is very well suited for an airshow, since they have that huge grass area to the north of the runway, which was turned into a giant car park today. Which was very comfortable… only two minutes walk from the car to the “flightline”.
But the bad news is also in that pic (north is up): since the runway is east/west, and the hangars/tower/taxiway/parking is on the north, this is also where the public stays, and on a sunny day like this, one ends up being blinded by the sun most of the time. It also ruins most of the photos.
That is a big negative point, and I’d say I might not go again due to this circumstance.
But here we go with the photos. I will show the photos just like I took them, so you will see static display and air display randomly.
Here are two of the SIAI Marchetti SF260s of the Belgian Air Force. They flew a display towards the end of the show.
Yak-18. This one is used by TOTAL for markting purposes.
TOTAL is having a hard time in the lower end of the German GA scene, since they have robbed many airfields of their mogas offer (~1.70€) and have given them UL91 instead (~2.30€). Just yesterday, I was “forced” to buy their UL91, as there was no suitable airfield with “real” mogas on my route.
One of the T-6s of Toni and Walter Eichhorn. They used to fly them a lot, but they recently changed from this one to the Extra 330, which they flew in display later on.
Twin Beech.
It was a very warm late summer day in Germany and I guess they had a record attendance.
One highlight of the show was the formation display of one private SIAI Marchetti SF260 and a (radio-controlled) model SF260.
The “real” one was flown by the father, the model one by the son.
Mustang warming up…
A Twin Bonanza (only on static display).
No airshow without a T-28 Trojan…
Also, no airshow without an air display of a Boeing Stearman. To be honest, it was a bit lame though.
A PBY Catalina was also doing a display. That was also a bit lame though.
Another Twin Beech. This is N45CF, the one which featured in “Captain America”.
A Yak-11 that I didn’t see flying.
The son of the above mentioned “father and son combo” flying the SF260 does also fly the “real one”. He is 21 years old and had lots of attention from the girls…
Ryan PT-22. This is the same type as the one Harrison Ford crashed in this March.
It flew a very nice display. The 5-cylinder engine, turning a max of 1.600 RPM has a very distinctive sound.
Cessna O-2. It also flew a display but I wasn’t so excited. It seemed like the flew the entire display at reduced RPM (maybe 2.500?) so that the characteristic noise of the push-pull didn’t really happen.
The Stearman on the ground.
The Catalina on the ground.
A Cessna 120, behind the flightline (not really “on display”).
Next was the formation flight of Walter and Toni Eichhorn (legends on the German airshow scene).
This is Walter Eichhorn. Note that he is now 79 years old and still going strong (he rather looks like 59…).
Debriefing the flight with his son.
Next was probably the best performance of the day: a flight of three TB-30s of the French Air Force. They were doing a 17-minute display and they showed some extreme formation flight (not seen on these photos)
Yep, these were built by Socata (as can be noted by the tailplane…).
Then, there was a formation display by the Mustang, together with a Spitfire. Both are powered by a Rolls-Royce Merlin 12-cylinder engine.
In flight, the Spitfire definitely looks better than the Mustang. But on the ground, I would say it’s the other way ’round.
By the way, there were about 25 “normal” light GA aircraft parked on the south side of the airfield.
The last major event was a formation flight of that Belgian SF260 formation. They normally fly in four, but since their 4th pilot got injured playing football this spring, they have to fly in three this year.
Hope you liked it. I also took a bit of video footage, and even though I am an absolute beginner in video editing, I might be able to get something decent out of it and will then add it here.
Very nice! (One image has the wrong caption, that’s a YAK, i think, not a Hurricane)
I haven’t been to an airshow for years … might as well fly to one of the next ones.
Great post, many thanks! It is good to see one can add value here without actually flying… ;)
That said, some minute details from an ex-spotter’s detail-oriented mind:
-) second the remark about the Yak9 vs. Hurricane
-) not really fair to complain the Catalina’s display was a bit lame – what else could one expect from a grand old lady who was only designed for patrolling anyway? Kudo to the chaps that keep her flying!
-) really funny the comment about the 4th SF260 pilot missing due to some football mishap – I don’t want the whole world to believe my country has only 4 able 4 SF260 pilots! But of course we do take football very serious ;) ;) even by our professional pilots ;) ;)
-) the French TB30’s I saw in Southern France one or two years ago, and also at the Vichy homebuilders’ meet-up. They were five then, four of them performing. I thought their show less than impressive, but of course I am a poor judge. Surely I saw much closer/tighter formation flying today at my home field’s open doors today, from 2 Pitts plus an Extra.
You are right. I corrected it.
Here’s the video summary of the airshow highlights:
Very nice. I thought the photos looked good, despite the sun…some very nice aeroplanes there. Especially the twin Bonanza. That looked immaculate..
Very nice photos! Did they ever build a turbine version of the Socata TB-30? There are what look to be a couple of them flying past my office window every day, seemingly with the same bubble canopy, high aspect ratio tail and wing plan form, and I’ve been trying for a couple of years to figure out what they are.
The Kinner radial in the Ryan PT-22 runs a little faster than described but regardless red line is below 2000 rpm. The distinctive sound comes from that and the short exhaust stacks. On occasion we’ve had formations of 10 or 12 of them flying around here, which makes for a really odd sound, like a formation of 100 old tractors flying over.
There was a PBY Catalina based locally for a while and what impressed me was how majestic it looks when flying, the large wingspan plus 100 kt speed really does make it look like a flying ship…
That’s N3670B, a 1954 model belonging to the german “Quax” association. More details here:
http://www.quax-flieger.de/index.php/flugzeuge/weitere-oldtimer/214-beechcraft-model-50-twin-bonanza-n3670b
Quax is an association that own numerous vintage aircraft and maintains them through their own maintenance shop. See their entire fleet here: http://www.quax-flieger.de/index.php/flugzeuge
Pilots can become members like in a normal flying club and then fly most of their aircraft.
The display of the TB30’s in the video looks a good deal better than what I saw from them in real life. Even though it is hard to compare.
Bosco thank you for the great photos and write up. I am also a fan of the T-Bone Bonanza, the progenitor of the Queen, and subsequently the King Air.
I recently got one hour dual in the Warbirds Adventure SNJ-6 at Kissimmee – the instructor, Thom Richard, has 6,000 hours in the SNJ-6/T6. It was therefore good to see the ‘pilot maker’ on the flyer for the air show, and in attendance. I certainly would recommend the quality of the instruction at Kissimmee. The lack of any stall warning, and the pronounced wing drop make the T-6 a very demanding tutor. A beautiful T-6 is for sale in the UK, but I prefer my ’ warbird’s’ fuel consumption.
