International Sanicole Airshow DVD
Produced by Sanicole Airshow. Available from Sanicole Airshow priced €20 – DVD
The International Sanicole Airshow is one of Europe’s most spectacular events featuring displays from across Europe and beyond. Though it is a civilian organised show, the event also enjoys strong support from military air arms from across the world and is therefore able to present an amazing variety of display acts.
2015 saw a three day feast of aviation for enthusiasts starting on Friday with the Sunset show. While Saturday was a rehearsal day at Sanicole ahead of the main show day on Sunday, the nearby Air Base at Kleine Brogel hosts a Spotters-day allowing enthusiasts an opportunity to see many of the display aircraft close-up.
The Souvenir DVD produced by the event’s own team of videographers captures the action from all three days over the 90 minute feature. There are no extra “special features” but like the actual event, the DVD offers commentary in English or Dutch. The English language commentary comes from Ric Peterson, a well known airshow commentator at North American events who provided the english commentary at the event. Interspersed amongst the film are a small number of interviews introducing three of the four national display teams participating at the event.
This production covers three days of action very comprehensively with all the participating displays enjoying coverage with the 90 minute film. There is a very good array of different ground based angles plus extensive use of mini-cams fitted to a great number of the participating aircraft. An added bonus is some beautiful air-to-air footage from the Aviation Photocrew taken as aircraft arrived for the show. One slight niggle is that on a small number of ground-shot sequences, the footage appears slightly oversharpened which does degrade the image quality.
The sunset show provides some real stand out footage capturing many of the special pyrotechnic effects with both ground based and on-board shots. The special formation which saw the solo F-16 from the Belgian Air Force head a formation of the leaders of the Red Arrows, Il Frecce Tricolori, La Patrouille de France and Patrouille Suisse.
A sh0rt section from the Spotters-Day also offers the chance for the cameras to get on board the Breitling Lockheed Super Constellation as well as some behind the scenes footage of the Patrouille Suisse preparing to fly. Both Swiss participants also feature well during footage from the main airshow day with on-baord footage from their unique formation together from both the Constellation and the F-5s. On-board cameras also capture the NH90 role demo and the unusual Brossard and Cri-Cri combination very well from the air.
Overall, this a great reminder of one of the best airshow weekends of the year and represents great value at just €20 (approx £14).
