Ysterplaat Wings and Wheels 2011

This year, those of us in the Cape had a rather dull airshow season. In fact, the only two were the one at Swellendam, and the one at Stellenbosch, and they could hardly be called airshows (more like fly-ins).

So when the time for Wings and Wheels rolled around, I was quite excited.

The show was on 9 and 10 December (Friday and Saturday), which is unusual; it's normally on Saturday and Sunday. I opted to go on the Friday, because I figured there would be less traffic and less people.

Despite leaving at 0600, I still ended up sitting in traffic for over an hour. But I still arrived before 0800, and I was greeted with loads of parking space, and not a single queue for tickets.

In fact, the place was empty. And it remained that way for pretty much the whole day.

Because it was a Wings and Wheels show, there were aircraft and cars. Unfortunately, there were more cars than aircraft, and the line-up of aircraft wasn't that great;
Dakota, 110 Squadron (Premier 1 and Baron), Lynx, Super Cub towing a banner, Silver Falcons, Working on Fire demo (x2 Huey's, a Spotter and Dromader) Oryx, RV Team, Solo RV, Yak, SAA 737 did a high fly-past, T28 Trojan, Pitts Special, Christen Eagle, Diamond, Provost, Hawk, L39 (x3) and the Gripen.

No parachutists, no Hercules, no foreign visitors.

The flying and car displays weren't very well-planned; they had cars racing up and down the taxi-way during an RV display. Do I watch the cars, or the RV? Hmmm... And the revving cars masked the sound of the aircraft.

The time between some of the displays was upward of 10minutes. At one stage, there was at least a 20min gap with absolutely nothing happening. That's when the cars should've done their thing.

So while it was great not having to wrestle with hundreds of other spectators, the overall feel of the 'show' was rather pathetic.

However... the Silver Falcons had two great performances. Their routine has a few extras (they modified it slightly in September, I think), which made it interesting. So a very big congratulations to Team 72.

The Hawk displays, flown by "Shark", were stunning. He flies a fast-paced, low display, that has you thinking "Please pull out of that loop/dive... come on, you're getting low. Don't hit the ground... Phew!". And the sound alone is enough to get people grinning.

And then there was the Gripen...
Flown by "Cobra", it was the best jet display I've seen in my 4 years of attending air shows. He kicked things off by taking off with a fairly strong tailwind, the aircraft handling it as if it was nothing.

His display consisted of many high-speed fly-pasts, tight turns (showing off the diamond paint scheme and underside well), loops, and rolls. The slow fly-past ('High Alpha') not only looked good, but sounded wonderful (especially as the engine spooled up as he prepared to climb away).

And then, saving the best for last... He did a high-speed fly-past, pulled up, vapour clinging to the wings (not something you see often in the Cape), afterburner glowing, and shot off some flares (which I missed... oops).

That display made the day worth it!

So all wasn't lost. But I hope that they plan things better next time.