Hi Fred,Fred wrote:I take offence at the harsh criticism about the spotters' day. We have been pampered at KB by a number of very good spotters' days, which were put up on the occasion of exercises. One should bear in mind that during the day prior to a major airshow the organisers have to take many variables into account. During an exercise it may be possible to have the partcipating fast jets taxi in front of the photographers. Last Friday the organisers had to deal with fast jets, light aircraft, transports and helicopters. But also having to move them in a certain sequence so as to prevent one aircraft blocking another. Also think of all the displays personnel had to prepare. I can very well imagine that the organisers had to compromise, and we, the photographers, had to make do.
The remark that the Belgians will never reach the standards of the Netherlands air force is embarrasing to me as a Dutchman. The commentary during the 10-minute staged combat in front of the VIP-tent made clear what was happening, even though at that time no aircraft were passing by. I liked the power demo, which gave good opportunities to shoot the brandnew NH90.
Even though I can also think of some imrovements, I liked the show.
Yes you are right. Off course there are other priorities than spotters and managing aircraft movements around the base sometimes conflicts with spotters interests. For me personally I was a little bit disappointed that I paid about double the money but see less than the public on saturday.
For me personally I did not care about the money but not being able to return on saturday or sunday to see the aircraft I missed. Among these were my personal highlights Al Fursan and the Czech Mi-171's.
It was a great show though! Compliments to the organisation to gather such a great collection of aircraft. It was also great to see that we were welcome at the base until the very last bit of daylight. Remember Volkel last year where quite a few aircraft came in after the spottersday was finished!
Regards, Paul
. Truth is, a lot of people had such fond memories of prior occasions that they failed to take into account that the world has changed quite a bit -again- after the last editions of KB, and not for the better. Further however, Freds' statement about the Joint Power Demo being clarified by the commentary does not hold up for everyone. A lot of people were near the treshold of runway 05. There was no audio or video feed there (all day), so most of the time when nothing was flying we had no clue as to what was going on over "on the far side" near the VIP-tent, except that we could hear shots and explosions in the background so we guessed our way around. The BAF did a decent job (thanks!) but could have done more to better manage expectations beforehand. Still, looking back, I had a good time among friends and planes, got most of the shots I wanted, but not as much as might have been... Oh well, that's life. 
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