Poor weather

SAAF & BDF CASA aircraft

Arriving on the Friday afternoon to catch the validations we ran into a heavy downpour. The rain was so heavy that from the hangars, where the finishing touches were being applied to Jurgis Kayris’ aircraft it was impossible to see the runway. Some very dramatic lightning ground strikes occurred which caused the pre laid detonators for the Saturday’s “Wall of Fire” to be detonated. 

This poor weather carried over to the Saturday where we were treated to 4 seasons in one day. But more about this later. The light rain in the morning put a slight dampener on events but this did not stop the 60 plus parachutists embarking on the SAAF Hercules in preparation for the show opening parachute jump.This is one of the largest mass parachute jumps at any recent airshow in South Africa and consisted of civilian parachutists as well as SANDF and BDF members. The enthusiastic crowd applauded and cheered as these highly skilled jumpers came down to earth with some very dramatic manoeuvres. Included in the jump was the largest South African flag flown by parachutists.

Nikons against the weather

Boarding for the mass parachute jump