The Piaggio P-166 Albatross was flown by Charles Urban and Annie Boone.  The aircraft is in an immaculate condition and is still painted in the basic colours of the maritime paint scheme it carried while in SAAF service.  The following flying display was the formation Aerobatic display by the Good Year Eagles in their specially marked Pitts Specials.  The team on the day consisted of Dennis Spence, Nigel Hopkins and Larry Beamish.  They gave a well coordinated and lively show, with the usual smoothness and polish, that one has come to expect from this team.

The L-39 Albatross, was flown by Ernest da Cruz, with Mike Weingartz as safety pilot.  Ernest is based in Swaziland and the aircraft will often be operated from Matsapha in future, as the quiet airspace lends itself perfectly for the type of training required to partake in such shows.  The L-39 however, will stay based at Rand Airport as a few pilots are again in discussions on operating an L-39 display team of three jet aircraft.  This display was followed by the Inverted Drop display from a Good Year Pitts by Graham Field.  This display, well spiced up by the able commentary from Brian Emmenis, had the crowd on their feet in awe and worry.

Cargo dropping by the Zambian Air Force

 It was then the turn of the visiting Air Forces again and a very good solo aerobatic display was given by Wing Cdr Masakadza in one of the Zimbabwe Air Force K-8’s.  This was followed by a display of cargo dropping by the Harbin Y-12 of the Zambian Air Force.  The crew co-ordination was of exemplary standard and every drop that was carried out was right in the target zone.  This was a good display of the operational type of work that the crew and aircraft is often called upon to undertake in its home country.  With the well known infrastructure problems of roads and railways in Africa, it is of crucial importance for most air arms in the region to have some cargo carrying and dropping capacity as part of their operations.  Unlike a number of aircraft where the load is dropped by parachute, in this case it was demonstrated how the load is dropped by hand by the load masters, with the aircraft flying low and slow over the target area.  The load would typically consist of bags of food or water containers, and the individual packets are protected by folding them in thick synthetic leather sheets.