Valence (France)

Aérotorshow 2024

30 June 2024

Credits: Internet

The last Sunday of June brought the bi-annual ALAT open house of GAM/STAT, the ALAT technical and tactical evaluation unit based at Valence-Chabeuil. This is a small one-day show which included a tactical demonstration including a CSAR / Medevac simulation. Although only five helicopters were used for this display, the closeness to the operations area enables good pictures. There are three flying blocks during the day, while the base itself remains open for public until 8PM. The 2nd and 3rd block provide best opportunities for photographers, with the Vercors mountain ridges as a nice backdrop. The unit borrows helicopters from different ALAT units and none of the airframes listed below carried GAM/STAT markings, although a Tigre and an NH90 on the static line were ‘claimed’ to fly for GAM/STAT by ground crew. An NH90 and a Tigre have a special tail in blue and gold, marking 70 years of ALAT. Some of the aircraft were pulled from the static during the day to perform their display and were put back after flying. These included the painted up 'almost to be retired' German Sea King, the Slovenian PC-9 and the CL-13 Sabre.A Gendarmerie EC135 left early and departed straight from the static, with the aircrew just waving spectators to a safe distance without the hassle of a ground crew, safety lines, nervous whistles and frantic waving. Relax, you're in France, we do this all the time...

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