Top photo: F. Hugo.

The release of the new South African Air Show calendar for 2005 saw one event caught everyone's immediate attention - "Fighter Meet 2005". Initially rumoured to be an exclusive reunion of fighter pilots, attended by visiting foreign fighter pilots with some high speed flying demonstrations to a lucky few. It was however hoped it would be accessible to the aviation community. Interest were further fuelled with an announcement at the Tzaneen Air Show in June, the Fighter Meet was definitely "on" and would include an air show open to the public. Jet aircraft and in particular fighter aircraft is the big crowd pullers and a firm favourite among the aviation enthusiasts.

The whole idea behind the fighter meet is to further unity and a genuine attempt to foster co-operation between the SADC countries at the Southern tip of Africa. Both fighter and fighter trainer aircraft formed part of the first ever Fighter Meet. Representatives from various SADC Air Forces attended the show with only Zimbabwe attending with fighter aircraft - two K-8s and a CASA as support aircraft. It was the first time a Chinese built fighter or fighter trainer aircraft visited South Africa in official capacity.

 Air Forces of Angola, Mozambique, DRC, Namibia, Zambia, Botswana amongst others - all send high level dignitaries to evaluate the events of the weekend. It is hoped the reports are favourable and all the SADC Air Forces attend future Fighter Meets with at least two aircraft.

AFB Makhado (previously AFB Louis Trichardt) is South Africa's premier SAAF base and also the most modern as it was officially opened on 14 October 1987. The various integration programmes of new aircraft currently underway on the base and as the host to our premier fighter Sqdn, being 2 Sqdn, security is normally very tight. Base entry is near impossible without special clearance arranged after quite a bit of paper work. To host a public air show on the base must have been a daunting task for the organisers due to the tight security of the base. However entry into this very large and complex air base was however very smooth with no entry fee except for a copy of the programme at R10.00 , but a strong contingent of armed guards were always present and the public was restricted to special demarcated areas. All VIPs, Media groups and Foreign Dignitaries were assigned dedicated escorts not only from a security viewpoint but also to attend to the needs of the various groups. Also present were representatives from BAe systems, the Royal Air Force and the Red Arrows display team. BAe also sponsored part of the fuel for the various displays. Remarkably the last air show at Makhado was staged 10 years ago as part of the 75th Anniversary of the SAAF.

After a freezing Friday with heavy overcast weather, the Saturday saw bright sunny weather with very high temperatures which were elevated at times by a light to moderate breeze. This is the semi tropics and very hot during the summer months with intensive sunlight so it is advisable to use sun block. As the official flying program was due to start from around mid-day the crowd were kept occupied by a number of qualification displays for review by the Air Show director. These included the Silver Falcons, SASOL Tigers and Glenn Dell in the Red Bull Extra among others.