Today should be the big day; a few Austrian F-5 Tigers should be photographed! A bit nervous we drove to the airfield, and when we arrived we saw two Tigers standing outside again, with the canopies open. That looked promising! And since it was not foggy today we could actually read off three others under the QRA sheds as well. So at least now we saw a few new ones, next should be some pictures. We drove around the airfield for a while, looking for the best spot. When we made up our mind we parked the car, got our gear together and walked to the fence. When we put our bags down we looked at eacht other: "do you hear that sound as well?". Two Tigers came taxiing down the runway towards us! So we hurried to make our cameras ready, and when they neared us the sun broke through the clouds. Oh my, how happy were we!
) Mission accomplished.Graz-Thalerhof
F-5E (FlRgt 2, 2 st): J-3004, J-3005, J-3014, J-3030, J-3033, J-3041
S-70A-42 (FlRgt 1, 1 st): 6M-BE +1 (inside F-5 hangar)
We stayed around for some two hours or so, and another four aircraft flew a mission. Only bad thing was that we missed all of them landing. Because the airfield is located at the edge of the city normally most aircraft take off away from the city, and land from the other side towards the city. All because of noise complaints obviously. But when we drove to the other side when the first four were airborne the first couple came back and landed over the city. Damn. So we hesitated, and finally decided to drive back to our first spot, only to see the other two couples come in from the other side.... But we still were very happy, since we had some nice shots of them anyway! Since we succeeded here so quickly we decided to find another, second, goal for this trip: a brand new Typhoon. So off to Zeltweg again.
Zeltweg
PC-7 (FLS): 3H-FC, 3H-FD, 3H-FF, 3H-FI
EF.2000 (FlRgt 2, 1 st): 7L-WA
And again we were lucky! Unfortunately the Typhoon didn't fly, it was displayed on a platform while some people got a presentation about it apparently. And I also made my last two PC-7's today (anf Frank even made three out of the four he still needed) so a great score. Still present obviously were the preserved L-19 (3A-CO) and J.35 ("25"), but the stored Draken without tail had disappeared since Monday.
We decided to drive back, and take a look at Punitz, a small airfield where a chopper should be detached. But since we passed Graz on our way there we stopped for a quick look; you never know. To our surprise the gate at the museum was open, so we drove in to see if we could have a look around. Again we were lucky; three volunteers were present for some maintenance jobs, and we were very welcome.
Oesterreichisches Luftfahrtmuseum, Graz-Thalerhof
outside:
07 J.35Oe pr, 1 staffel badge
5C-YC Vampire T.55 pr, real id 5C-YA
(2919) An-2TP pr, ex Pol AF
1326 Lim-2 pr, ex Pol AF, c/n 1B1326
0221 TS-11-100 pr, ex Pol AF, c/n 1H-0221
inside:
3A-BF L-19E pr
3B-HA OH-13H pr
4C-AH Yak-11 pr, c/n (171)229
4D-BT AB.204B pr
29541/H ye J.29F pr
4406 MiG-21MF pr, ex Hun AF
32510/02 J.32E pr, F16 mks (or is this F16M?)
35804/86 Sk.35C pr, F10 mks
37431/31 JA.37Di pr, F17 mks
J-1733 Venom FB.54 pr
J-2309 Mirage IIIS pr, FlSt 16 mks
J-4094 Hunter F.58 pr
OE-AAB L-4H std, ex 43-30426
PH-KMA AT-16 u. rest, ex KLu B-56/MLD 043
I had emailed the museum before, but since it is closed for the winter I didn't get a reply. So we figured we had top wait til another trip to finally visit this place. How wrong we were
We were so overwhelmed by our luck that I forgot to ask about the second AB.204 they should have (4D-BP). They also have a collection of gliders, but those are currently stored and our guide didn't have the key for those. Too bad, since there should be a few ex mil ones as well. Well, for next time then. Today really was our lucky day; we got what we hoped for plus some more! One question: which unit did the L-19's fly with?On our way to Eisenstadt, where we would start the day tomorrow, we made a stop at the airfield of Furstenfeld. Here again we managed to read off most aircraft with the help of our torch, but no ex mil stuff was seen. So we headed on to Eisenstadt, where we had some troubles finding a place to sleep without paying about a month rent. But finally we succeeded, and got ready for some sweet dreams.
As always any comments, additions and corrections are very welcome.
That's all folks!
Frank Mink & Patrick Dirksen
Tristar Aviation