A big thank you from Turkey to all spotters!

[Aviation PhotoCrew]

hello to all spotters,

On behalf of the Centennial Team once more a very big thank you to everyone who attended the two spotterdays and airshow; it was a memorable event with some unforgetable highlights!

We had set our initial number on 200, we would have considered that a succes as most of you had to fly to Izmir...with 1000 more from 27 countries it's just been magic. Thank you all as well for so many superb photos on the forums across the world, all great and warm memories.

I'd like to share one of my photos with all of you, this was my personal highlight. The 'Airshow Formation' was a photomission for the Aviation PhotoCrew new book "Aviation Photography!" ; one of the special moments in my life, and the light was how I dreamed it for 1,5 years : teamwork at its very best.




greetz, Eric - Aviation PhotoCrew

[CBR]

It was a very nice event Eric but I wonder how much of it was your work. At the beginning a suggestion was made about the possibility to photograph operational T-37 and T-38 during arrival day. Unfortunately there was a lot of speculation on this board but it was funny to see the absence of a response from your side during the last weeks prior to the event. If you were closely involved you could have informed us this was not going to happen as we found out ourselves later. And now you thanks us on behalf of the TuAF? I do not understand your position. Please clearify.

[r.e.hendriks]

It was a very nice event Eric but I wonder how much of it was your work. At the beginning a suggestion was made about the possibility to photograph operational T-37 and T-38 during arrival day. Unfortunately there was a lot of speculation on this board but it was funny to see the absence of a response from your side during the last weeks previous to the event. If you were closely involved you could have informed us this was not going to happen as we found out ourselves later. And now you thanks us on behalf of the TuAF? I do not understand your position. Please clearify.

[Malcolm Bezzina]

I am happy to have a spotters day dedicated to all of us!!1 point I wish to make and what surprised most was of not letting us(Spotters) to go at least near the foreign participation area during the departures.But on the whole I have nothing to complain!!
Thks alot

[R. Stalenhoef]

I agree and felt like this the whole time, although some people keep warshipping (ophemelen) him and some even believing other information from first hand not any more.....

Personally I don't believe they put such a formation in the air just for a single photo of a (personal) book...

[Stratofreighter]

A very interesting photo!

[r.e.hendriks]

I agree and felt like this the whole time, although some people keep warshipping (ophemelen) him and some even believing information from first hand not any more.....

Personally I don't believe they put such a formation in the air just for a single photo of a (personal) book...

I fully agree!

It was very annoying, people just walked away with the guy. In the beginning he put some info online, which was in the end partly correct. But all the time people kept on waiting/wishing for a reply. "Let's just wait what Eric will say" and so on..... Very annoying! He isn't holy guys!

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I really enjoyed my stay in Turkey, and had really a great time! So a big thanks goes out to the Turkish Air Force and the organizers of this event.

Regards Rob.

[Brian]

I personally personally this was a very well organised spottersday. Let us not forget that it was the very first spottersday in Turkey! offcourse not everything went like everyone wanted to see it, but hey, we did get the chance to take some good pictures on base, and they did the best they could.

Hopefully spotting will be made easier in the near future in Turkey, because personally i believe it's one of the most versatile air forces in the world

So a BIG thanks to all the people who organised this for US and made this happen!!!!!

Greets Brian

[Key]

Topic moved because the (beautiful) photo is an illustration to a story of its own. Discussion should be possible, but I suggest we stick to questions for Eric if applicable, and avoid opinions about him. Above all, mutual respect is absolutely necessary for this topic to stay open.

thx,
Erik

[Flyboy]

IMHO the spotters days were very well organized and the Turkish organization has a very steep learning curve. I personally also hoped for a lot of T37 & T38’s, however: Get real!!

If you are celebrating a 100th anniversary of the Turkish Air force, you would expect a lot of demo teams, and demo teams need practice. Practice takes time (the last day for the air show mostly) and their planes need a lot of parking space. Therefore it is logical that the T’s had to make space before the spotters days. Also Eric could have known that, but giving the dynamics during the organization of such an event things change over time.

In our Dutch blunt way of talking (remember I’m Dutch myself) we expect people to speak out, but in other cultures this may be perceived as rude. Especially if you want to stay in contact with the powers that be you would execute silent diplomacy; this is what I think Eric did.

I personally would never have dreamed about taking pictures of an operational F-4 on the roller track, with the shelter park as background, but look it just happened.
Thank you Eric for your involvement, thanks to the organization who made this possible and thanks to the fellow spotters of my and the other 26 countries for their excellent behavior. Let’s hope that the Turkish government and the Air force staff now have seen what goodwill can be achieved on both sides, and maybe, just maybe in the near future we could see base visits to those beautiful F-4’s, UH-1’s, F-5’s F-16’s, and all that other stuff. They can call me anytime.

[Hans Rolink]

Maybe, just maybe in the near future we could see base visits to those beautiful F-4’s, UH-1’s, F-5’s F-16’s, and all that other stuff. They can call me anytime.

These base visits you mentioned is exactly something I did back in 1999 with George Pick, but anyway, back to this well organised air show. Whoever was responsible, they did a very good job, IMO. A big thank you to them.
Like you mentioned, parking space for participants meant moving T-37's etc to Kaglic, so no surprises here for me. Anyone can check Google Earth.
And why do we apparantly have to hate Eric so much.....

Hans.

[CBR]

I agree with the moderator. Lets not make it personal but it would be nice to have an answer of the person addressed instead of thoughts from others on his believes.

[evhest]

Anyone expecting to see loads of operational flying a day before a major airshow, should get a reality check. Really.

[canberra]

Awesome shot of a unique formation

And why do we apparantly have to hate Eric so much.....

Jealousy, happened before will happen again when people manage to achieve something through hard work and dedication and others don't

Anyone expecting to see loads of operational flying a day before a major airshow, should get a reality check.

Even though I couldn't be there I am happy someone took the initiative to help the Turks make this event spotter friendly so I can enjoy all the lovely photos and the various forums, and probably magazines the next months

[Malcolm Bezzina]

Eric you did a great job for this spotters day and thks also for the info you gave us here.Obviously info is subject to change anytime beyond yr control.
Now its time to start working for the next one!!!!!:-)
malc