this is how I judge the event - although I was satisfied with the two arrival days and did not visit Leeuwarden during the two Show days as I just can not stand presence of so many people arround me
arrival day 1:
(notes: as in all previous years since 1989, the KLu Open Dagen safeguarded their place as one of the most important military aviation events in Western Europe also in 2008. A very bad weather forecast for the second arrival day, not too many confirmed participants and rumours regarding closure of all spotting places at first instance seemed not to indicate a successful event at Leeuwarden this year.
Nevertheless, I tryed my luck and left home very early on Wednesday morning in order to experience the first arrivals for the airshow. Indeed, not only full access was granted to the spotters parking place at the Runway 24 side of the Frisian airfield, but also the sun was shining. And so, after a little bit of patience, flying activity began with the departure of a rare Jordanian C-130. This was followed by a welcome mission of the FWIT involving 12 F-16s of four nations. Nice surpises were arrivals of my first ever pair of Gnats and of a pack of Dutch Cougars and Apaches.
The latter were later involved in the rehearsal for the air power demo in the afternoon, which I had already thought to be cancelled. A mass-launch of 10 based F-16s was followed by a violent, fast and very impressive base-attack under increasingly cloudy skys. Later arrivals featured two French Mirages performing some turning and burning over the airfield before landing and no less than eleven MB.339s of the Italian "Frecce Tricolore". Nice aditions were provided by a Hungarian MiG-29, a third Apache and a rare Skyline L-39.)
arrival day 2:
(notes: the forecasted bad weather really appeared in the course of the main arrival day for the Open Dagen at Leeuwarden. Luckily, in spite of the continuous rain showers and the strong wind, quite a lot of arrivals took place until early afternoon. My personal highlights amongst these of course were the four "new" Polish TS-11s, the two nowadays rare F-15Cs, a pair of Dutch CH-47s and two single Alouette IIIs of the same operator, all arriving during the rare dry moments. Clear air and sunny weather during the afternoon allowed for further arrivals and a full flying display of the "Frecce Tricolore" display team and of the two Gnats. An then three important highlights arrived rather late: two EF-18s, two RF-4Es and two Harriers. A very relaxed car-ride back home and the victory of the German soccer team against Portugal witness on the radio completed this very successful journey!)