Ørland (Norway)

Tiger Meet Spotters day and Air Show

1-2 June 2012

The air show at Ørland hovedflystasjon was open for the general public Saturday 2 June, the spotter’s day before was accessible if you had registered in time online and paid a fee of 200 NOK on the day itself.

The spotters day and air show was organized during the NATO Tiger Meet 2012 that took place at Orland form 29 May till 8 June 2012. Nearly 500 spotters from all over the globe assembled near the main gate before 08:00 on Friday morning, with weather consisting of large rain showers, below ten degrees celsius temperature and no real good forecast to temper the dull mood somewhat.

The nearly ten busloads of enthusiasts were processed smoothly and dropped off at the fire station for a short walk to a location parallel and pretty close to the runway, in time for the morning wave. The laid back attitude of the Norwegian Air Force was emphasised by the fact there was no formal briefing (just a leaflet), no fences and less than a handful of military persons providing some guidance to the whole group.

After the last aircraft departed we headed back to the busses and shuttled back to the tent near the gate for some coffee. Off again with the busses to the far end of the runway in time to be in place for the arrival of the aircraft after the morning mission. The last busses arrived a bit late and, because they used the taxiway as road to get to the designated drop off point near the runway, had to give way to the first fighters taxiing back to their dispersals. The busses subsequently ejected their loads of spotters all over the place and in the melee that followed many photographers got what they bargained for. The few guides of the Norwegian Air Force played cool and let pretty much everybody do their thing. Even if that meant ducking for wing tips of the fighters that rolled past.

In the afternoon the whole group of spotters made the trip back and forward to the runway and taxi track once more for the afternoon wave. Overall the rain showers missed the air base although a big one hit Ørland around noon. The north-south oriented runway caused challenging light conditions during the departure of the afternoon wave. During the days before the spotters day and air show the Militærpoliti patrolling outside the air base generally let photographers do their thing and just occasionally checked and asked if we could try not to photograph infrastructure!

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