Airshow

The show was divided in two parts; morning and afternoon. The morning demo's were flown by a Saab 17B and a Su-26. Also two JAS-39A Gripens and a TP-100C (100009) arrived.

The main programme started in the afternoon around one o'clock with a fly by of JAS-39 Gripens. The rest of the programme was mainly Swedish. Some European countries participated; the Swiss with the F/A-18C, French with the Mirage 2000C and the Dutch with the F-16AM demo. Besides new aircraft like the Gripen, also history was shown; J-32 Lansen, J-35 Draken and the JA-37 Viggen. Also the helicopters flew some demo's. The Bo-105 (Hkp.9) demo was very impressive. A large formation was flown with most of the Swedish AF types present, like Gripens, Hkp 9, 10, 11, Hercules, Saab 100B and Saab 102B.

Team 60 was present with their Saab 105's (Sk.60A's). They still wear markings from their former unit; F 10. One of the present Sk.60A was painted in a grey colour scheme. On the static two former F17 Sk.60´s were seen.

One Gripen flew with special markings; 39132 with a black tail an F 17 60 1944-2004 markings in it. Very nice to see, because Swedish special markings are very rare. These markings were not allowed by the HQ of the Swedish Air Force so the aircraft was temporary grounded to remove these markings. Normally the Gripens have no markings so the unit they belong to is difficult to identify.

I like to thank F 17 for a wonderful day and the opportunities they gave us to take some nice pictures and also HAT-reizen for organising this trip. They also provided us with good information about the unit and the based aircraft. This information can be seen in part two of the report. I hope to come back in the very near future.

As a background story we also looked into the history of the 17 wing, operation from Ronneby.