hechtel-sanicole (Belgium)

42nd International Sanicole Air Show

10 - 12 September 2021

Helicopters marked with an * were also flying display participants and all the military helos were noted on the ground at Kleine Brogel as well, at various times. As can be seen on the front cover of Scramble 509, the Czech Mi-35 has been given an extravagant ‘80 years 311th Czechoslovak Bomber Sqn’ livery. The Belgian Stampe was inside the VIP tent/restaurant and, unfortunately but understandably, carries large ‘Safety Jogger Shoes’ titles over its attractive colour scheme (as does the T-6 of the flying display).

The nine jets marked with # performed the Tiger Tails flyby on Sunday, although just five of them actually had some form of tiger markings. For the Rafale M and both dual F-16s this was their only part in the flying display. The other two Rafales were used by Vautour Bravo. The Danish T-17s are flown by the Baby Blue team, six aircraft nowadays, but without their usual leader in Belgium. T-415 has a gorgeous silver and dayglo coat to honour 75 years of Chipmunks. The full tekst on the SF260 tails reads ‘50 Years SF-260 Serving Belgian Air Force 1969 - 2019’ and they wear additional Red Devils and ‘75 Years of Freedom - Belgian Air Force’ stickers.

Rafale 132 was showing its stunning overall scheme commemorating 80 years of EC3/30 Lorraine. The other Armée de l’Air Rafales had all been given a tiger finband, applied right over the serials. Both Aéronavale Rafales displayed their special tail painting on the occasion of 10 years of the type’s operations with 11F, and a tiger fintip above that. See under Kleine Brogel for the ones not listed above, please. The tiger colours of F-16 029 were on its conformal and underwing tanks, so actually detachable.

All of the flying display participants operated out of Kleine Brogel, apart from a handful of exceptions. Both heavy Airbuses only appeared during the Sunset Show on Friday, at the end of an over-four-hour training flight to Zaragoza and back. The Canso was the other machine flying only during the Sunset Show on Friday. She arrived at Kleine Brogel from Duxford several hours before her display, and left for Air Legend 2021 at Melun in France afterwards, not being on the ground during one of the Spottersdays.

The A340, Bo105, B-25 and Spitfire did flypasts at Kleine Brogel on Saturday, when the Airshow and Spottersdays ran simultaneously, but they did not land there. The Wildcat left on Saturday evening and the Hawkeye flew back to France after its display on Sunday. The Red Arrows performed on Friday and departed on Saturday with a flypast at Sanicole.

On Saturday, the four Belgian F-16s with no unit markings flying as the 10 wing Thunder Tigers formation were FA89, 107, 119 and 123. On Sunday, FA107 was eplaced by FA136, which was then leading the quartet. Both the Patrouille Suisse and the Red Devils brought one spare aircraft, that we list under Kleine Brogel. This may not represent the situation on all days they flew though, as we did not log this on every day. The Grobs and the Ag-Cat put on quite spectacular pyrotechnics and light shows, especially at the sunset event of course.

From 10 to 13 September 2021, the intertwined events of the 42nd International Sanicole Airshow and the 2021 Spottersdays at Kleine Brogel air base, dubbed ‘KeeBee’ (a phonetic mix of English and Flemish for K.B.), took place. Because of the connections between the two events, for the public as well as the participants, and to avoid mentioning many aircraft twice in our reports, we compiled a combined report for you.

The Sanicole Airshow consisted of a Sunset Show on Friday evening 10 September and two full show days on the following Saturday and Sunday. The Spotterdays at Kleine Brogel were held on Saturday 11 and Monday 13 September. Once again, the organisation of the Sanicole Air Show succeeded in putting together a show with first class participants that ran like clockwork. Too bad that it is backlit all day long, but luckily we still have the Spottersdays.

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