Three international pilots left the crowds at Mafikeng, speechless.

Top photos: C. Hugo, F. Hugo. Photo manipulation: A. Dyason.

The Mafikeng 2005 airshow suffered in the publicity stakes as a result of unfortunate incidents. Not to be deterred the Provincial Government of the North West remained dedicated in their vision to “…bring aviation to the people.” A promise of a better show with full SAAF participation and international participation saw the Provincial Government stepping forward as the main sponsor of the event with an amount in excess of four million Rand.

Airport main building	Arriving at the airport, the changes introduced were immediately evident with barricaded areas, tight security with a large visual police presence and effective access control. Specially demarcated areas for static aircraft, a movement area, VIP tent area, crowd area and a media area were all well policed and access only granted if in possession of the correct ID badge. Only aspect no one has control over is the weather and despite a howling wind the previous day, Saturday saw an overcast grey sky which would remain throughout the day. Still this did not deter the local community from attending – most had to walk the distance, but determined to attend was at the order of the day. A passion for aviation does exist in all corners of Southern Africa.
The pilot briefing was presented by Brian Zeederberg in the VIP lounge of the Mafikeng airport. Prior to the proceedings Brian Zeederberg asked for a minute silence in honour of Martin van Straaten, a member of the SASOL Tiger team who lost his life in an incident at AAD2006 a few weeks prior, in Cape Town. Martin enjoyed huge popularity and was much respected amongst fellow pilots on the SA airshow circuit. The SASOL Tigers were destined to perform at Mafikeng. Also present were three international pilots who and as it turned out would be the stars of the show. Two of the pilots (Jurgis Kairys from Lithuania and Zoltan Veres from Hungary) are rated as two of the top 12 aerobatics pilots in the world.	Jurgis Kairys, Rickie Rennie, Zoltan Veres
Don Dormehl - supersonic run	2 Sqdn attended in full force with 5 Cheetahs from Makhado AFB as a semi away deployment with a full ground crew and ground equipment compliment. The hangar used for the previous Bophuthatswana Air Wing was used to host the aircraft of the SAAF. Subsequently the airshow was opened by Don Dormehl who took Cheetah C no 354 to altitude for the sonic boom run. Despite fears of the low cloud base would dampen the sonic boom, it was actually very audible to which the crowd enthusiastically applaud. As fast as the Cheetah climbed to height, just as fast it appeared seemingly out of nowhere due to the grey overcast skies to position for the landing.