Al Ain Aerobatics Show 2009
While many of the world’s airshow organisers and display teams are enjoying the “off-season” in late January, one of the first airshows of the year is taking place in the desert of the United Arab Emirates. Each year, a select group of display teams from around the world gather at Al Ain International Airport for what has become a very highly regarded airshow. Acts range from major national display teams to unlimited aerobatic solos as well as some of the rarest warbirds. With almost guaranteed warm sunny weather, it makes a welcome change to the grey, damp seasons the UK has endured for the past couple of years and is a stunning venue to watch some of most exciting flying displays in world.
Paul Johnson/Flightline UK reports. Photography copyright of the Author, Guy Westgate and Peter Wells.
The United Arab Emirates has seen rapid development in recent years and become a popular tourism destination. In support of a burgeoning tourism industry, some of the Emirates have started to host major international events. Later this year, Abu Dhabi will host its first Formula 1 Grand Prix. However, Abu Dhabi also has its own international airshow in the form of the Al Ain Aerobatics Show held on the outskirts of its oasis city.
Since 2003, the show has grown to become one of the most prolific in the world. The UAE currently has no major display teams which has meant that acts have been brought in from several countries around the world. The display line-ups at Al Ain can never be repeated at any of the more traditional international air shows held in Europe or the USA. The Al Ain Aerobatic Shows itself is a very high-profile event in the UAE attracting sponsorship that many UK airshows could only dream of. The Al Ain Aerobatics logo even appeared on the side of mineral water bottles in the run up to the event. The importance of the event to the UAE was highlighted on the Friday when UAE leaders arrived in the Boeing 737 BBJ and B747.
Al Ain International Airport is a huge facility. The main runway is 13,124 ft long (4km) and it is not only home to an airport terminal but also the UAE Air Force’s Khalif bin Zayed Air College, an equivalent of the RAF’s College at Cranwell. The airshow site itself is not positioned along the main runway, but on one of the many areas of hardstanding with the display line running perpendicular to the main runway. The actual showground is much smaller than you would expect to see at an equivalent European show with no sprawling crowd line. Instead, the crowd had a massive grandstand to sit and watch the displays from while much of the rest of the crowd line was taken up by corporate and VIP hospitality. Behind the grandstands was a very neatly laid out and well-prepared exhibition area. A mock-up of traditional Arabic buildings was populated with several shows and exhibits highlighting the traditions of the Emirati and their culture. Also on display were more familiar exhibitions by the local police, emergency services and armed forces. Around them were some static aircraft. Pre event publicity and even the airshow brochure advertised an international gathering of types from the UAE, Kuwaiti and Bahrain Air Forces. In the event only a UAE AF Hawk T63, Pilatus PC-7 and an AH-64A Apache were on display alongside the familiar Pilatus PC-12 demonstrator and a float equipped Cessna Caravan.
The show itself saw some major changes in 2009 over previous editions. Much of the organisation has been passed on to civilian organisers from the UAEAF and the Aerobatics competition had also gone. In its place, Al Ain hosted the first 2009 round of the Aero GP, a multi discipline event. The commentary instantly brought a “home-from-home” feeling to the show with Joe McGrath as lead commentator. Joe has commentated at many of the major UK shows such as Kemble and is now “MC” for the Red Bull Air Race World Series. The daily flying displays got underway shortly after lunch each day with the first of the British acts. Will Curtis made a special one-off return to display flying with his former mount, the Sukhoi Su-26M2. Will rented back it aircraft from its new owner in Ireland for the displays at Al Ain under the sponsorship of his current employers, Rizon. Will clearly not lost any of his showmanship at the controls of his Sukhoi with stunning performances in the clear skies.
Sharing the same engine as the Sukhoi was Scandinavian Airshow’s unique Pitts Python. The Python is essentially a single seat version of the dramatic Pitts XII aerobatic biplane which is powered by the Russian M14 engine which makes it one of the most powerful biplanes in the world. It was flown at Al Ain by Jacob Hollander who put it through a stunning sequence of tumbles and low-level aerobatics. Jacob’s normal job is captaining Airbus A321 airliners for Novair. Jacob made a second appearance in the afternoon, this time flying a Grumman 164A Ag-Cat biplane with two wingwalking “Skycats” on the wings. The Skycats for Al Ain were Cerina Rydalv, Jenny Ahlen and Hella Stening. As well as using a traditional wingwalking rig over the top wing, the skycats also climb down onto the wires between the wings before Jacob performs some aerobatics!
Al Ain’s show encompasses as many forms of aviation as possible in the flying display. One thing that did catch the eye were some amazing Radio-controlled models. All the models on show were powered by miniature jet engines and the large-scale models were quite simply staggeringly beautiful. The author’s favourite was a F-104G Starfighter flown by Mark Hinton from the UK. Other stunning displays came from a pair of Aermacchi models performing and formation and a Hawk with thrust vectoring!
The UAE Parachute Display Team provided a quiet break from all the noise and smoke of the aircraft displays flying the largest UAE flag in the world from the feet of the team leader. They were joined for the last two days of the show by a pair of Paramotors. This are not often seen at UK airshows, but the agility and graceful passes made for an interesting display.
Making their Middle East debut were the Swift Aerobatic Display Team. The team sent their “combination” display of Piper Pawnee, Silence SA180 Twister and S-1 Swift glider. Gliders were something novel to the local crowd as there are no gliders based in the UAE or even the neighbouring Qatar or Oman! The small SA180 Twister won many new admirers in the hands of Pete Wells in its solo slot while Guy Westgate did his best to wow the crowds breaking his record for rolling on tow behind Paul Moslin in the Pawnee. Guy Westgate added a further twist to his display at Al Ain with a couple of passes through a limbo!
Making a second appearance at Al Ain after a highly successful debut were the Italian Pioneer Team. The team fly the Alpi Pioneer, a small two seat touring aircraft designed in Italy. The team’s aircraft all wear a smart red, white and blue scheme and are fitted with smoke systems. In addition to a traditional diesel/ondina based smoke system, the team carry pyrotechnic smoke to add some extra colour to their displays. The team have proved a popular addition to the European circuit as well as Al Ain. Their display borrows heavily from Il Frecce Tricolori and the team even wear the Frecce’s Squadron Badge on their aircraft and flying suits. In the tradition of Italian air displays, the team have a “finale grande” with the aircraft firing off coloured flares before returning to paint a large Italian flag across the sky.
A second Italian-based team at Al Ain were Yakitalia. The team are very similar to the UK based Yakovlevs flying a mixed formation of Yak-52 and Yak-50 aircraft albeit with one Yak-50 and three -52s. The team were first formed in 1999 and have gradually expanded into the four ship they presented at Al Ain. The team fly a pleasing display of formation and solo aerobatics with all their aircraft painted in an elegant colour scheme. A nice twist to their display was the flying of UAE flags on their last past from the rear cockpits.
More Russian hardware came from Russia itself with a collection of Russian Warbirds. The team had an interesting few days in Al Ain with a couple of mishaps. First to suffer was the familiar Polikarpov I-15bis that has been based at Duxford for many years. Though the weather was kind with clear skies and bright sun, it could get quite windy and the stubby little fighter could not quite cope with the crosswinds and ground-looped on landing damaging the lower wings. However, these are tough machines, and it was quickly repaired in time for the show using some bed linen sheets, glue and silver dope! While that was being repaired the rest of the aircraft were being test flown. Among the lineup were a pair of Polikarpov Po-2 bombers, and one of these suffered a further mishap when it lost its propellor – luckily, they carried a spare in their containers! Alongside the single seat I-15 was a two-seater variant of the type known as a DIT-2. This is an especially rare example, the DIT-2 were used to train Stalin’s son to fly the I-15 fighters and were only built in small numbers. Both versions showed off the agility and power of the type to great effect during the show days. The Po-2 bomber aircraft were a complete contrast to the powerful fighters. These aircraft won fame in both the second world war and the Korean war for daring low level bombing raids, often gliding in complete silence to their targets!
The action at Al Ain was not just restricted to the air. On the ground, legendary American stuntman Mark Hager presented an exciting stunt show in front of the spectators with motorbikes, pickup trucks and cars. Mark has an impressive CV having performed stunts for films like The Dukes of Hazzard and The Punisher. He and his team are also involved in coordinating the live stunt shows for Disney World.
One of the highlights of the show was the Aero GP. Like the Red Bull Air Race this is a take on an aviation-based motorsport. The competitors compete in three different events – target bombing, air to air combat and low-level pylon racing. Away from the competition, Aero GP pilots provided two stunning aerobatic solo displays. Marking Jefferies proved his Extra 300S is still a very capable machine at unlimited aerobatics. Mark is expecting to take delivery of the latest generation of Extra competition aircraft this year in the form of the Extra 330SC. However, Zoltan Veres’ display in his brand new MXS was an unbelievable mix of pilot skill and aircraft performance that stole the show. The MXS was fresh out of the factory and arrived at Al Ain still in it’s matt grey primer. In the air, Zoltan’s display was just showstopping with some amazing low passes and huge vertical manoeuvres. Zoltan went on to win the Aero GP in the MXS showing just the potential this aircraft has, not only in Aero GP but also in the Red Bull Air Race world series.
Military enthusiasts may have been slightly disappointed by the flying line up with just a solo display by one of the prototype Pilatus PC-21 advanced training aircraft and the Saudi Hawks in the flying displays. The UAE Air Force is currently looking at modernising all areas of its structure and one of the prime contenders to replace the ageing fleet of PC-7 aircraft is the PC-21. The PC-21 is a much higher performance aircraft than the PC-7 and incorporates a lot of the technology being seen on the latest generation of fighter aircraft. The daily flying displays highlighted the fast jet like performance as well as the great handling which make this such a great training aircraft.
One of the last teams to arrive at Al Ain were the Saudi Hawks. They arrived early on Thursday having already missed Wednesday’s show. Their two support C-130Hs arrived later in the day on Thursday. The team validated just before the show on Friday allowing spectators two chances to see their display. The team were first formed in May 1998 and are officially designated the 88th Squadron of the Royal Saudi Air Force. They were the first national jet aerobatic team in the Middle East. As well as performing at national events in Saudi Arabia, the team have also performed in Bahrain and at Al Ain. The team hope to hold their European display debut this summer at the RAF Waddington Air Show. Their display is very reminiscent of the Red Arrows; not only because they fly the BAE Systems Hawk T.Mk.65, but also the input the Reds have had into the Saudi’s display. Many members of the Red Arrows have gone on exchange tours with the team as advisors.
The Al Ain Aerobatic Show is defiantly a unique experience. No other airshow in the world brings together such varied acts for one show. The lack of military involvement maybe a disappointment to some, but you are almost assured of seeing something new at Al Ain. The late January slot is perfect with sunny warm weather and some stunning light for photography with the backdrop of rolling sand dunes. The nearby town of Al Ain is very traditional compared with some of the more famous destinations in the UAE with several attractions: Where better for a winter getaway for the airshow enthusiast?
