The Annual Open Dagen (open days) of the Royal Netherlands Air Force was held on Friday 15th and Saturday 16th at Volkel AB in the south of the Netherlands. Highlights included a Hungarian Jas-39, the Turkish Stars demo team and a Polish delegation (Su-22 and An-26).

It look’s like a tradition is born, because the was again an incident on Friday during takeoff of a RNLAF F-16. Last year a Blue Angle hornet suffered a blown tire.

The weather was pretty fair during the two days. Friday started with rain with the sun shining in the afternoon. The Saturday started with lots of sun, followed by a few showers and a severe thunderstorm at the end of the day.

Static

The static show was located on the secondary runway of Volkel, parallel to the main runway. A variety of aircraft both civil and military were on display. Highlights: A Polish Air Arms Su-22 with special c/s and it’s An-26 support aircraft. A first for The Netherlands was a Hungarian JAS-39. Another highlight was the NH90 helicopter wearing a split color scheme, right in overall gray and the left side in a camouflage scheme. Nice thing about the static show layout at Volkel is that the airshow participants are also located in the static line and startup can be watch from close by.

“N-321”

One of the most exciting visitors was the Hunter T8C recently purchased by a group of Dutch Hunter fans. The group started in 2005 with the goal to operate a Dutch based Hunter as a flying museum. The RNLAF supported the project and allowed the Hunter to be based at Leeuwarden AB. The pilot Barney Booij is a former base commander of Leeuwarden. The T8C (G-BWGL) was a naval trainer build in 1959 and is similar to the T7 version used by the RNLAF. The aircraft is wearing the original Dutch overall-silver with orange color scheme.

Read on in our next part including the airshow.