Held June 16th and 17th 2006 at Leeuwarden Airforce Base in the Netherlands, the open days are a recurring event, where the Royal Netherlands Airforce wants to show what it does. This event always goes with an airshow and a static display. June 16th was a cloudy day, but fortunately it didn't rain. I first took some pics of the static show, with some nice planes on the static line.

The Saab Gripen that you see to the left was one of the nicer additions to the static show as was the Eurofighter Typhoon, those two planes, were two of the newer fighters on the static show. The best thing on the static show was the Blue Angels, a little hard to photograph, cause they were not as close to the fences as the other static show planes.

Onto the airshow, like I said before it was cloudy most of the Friday, so my best shots were those of the second day, with lots of sun, so plenty of good aviation shots. Not all participants will be discussed here. First of the F-15E Strike Eagle demo, a typical airpower demo American style. Take off was excellent, full burners and high pitch climb. The commentator for the show spoke Dutch which was funny, he was born in Paramaribo, Suriname. The demo team the Midnight Hawks from Finland was a nice addition, though I hope they make their colour scheme a bit different. Flying in four grey-camo colored Bae Hawks the action was sparse, alot of formation flying, but not any real high speed passes.

Then there was the RAF C-130J Tactical demo, excellent demonstration of how to get into and out of a dangerous landing zone, seeing the steep descent and quick full stop landing, keeps amazing me. 2Excel aviation not yet known as the Blades were excellent, with former Red Arrows pilots, they flew a spectacular show and you could really see the Red Arrow style flying back in their demo. Hope to see them again soon. Asas de Portugal is also one of those demo teams that I would like to see back. They fly Alpha Jets with an excellent color scheme, though they just have 2 planes, they put on a decent show, with some good close passes. The F-16 Solo Display team gave a great show, showing of the capabilities of the F-16 and what can be done. The Red Arrows gave a good show, as usual, but it was a shame they couldnt do the high show since the clouds were so low. Still enough to see good high speed passes by the syncro pair.

Last, but not least the demo of the Blue Angels. Before I talk about their show, let me give a special thanks for EJ van Koningsveld for arranging the special 60 year anniversary formation flight. This flight consists of The Blue Angels flying in formation with the Red Arrows a very special occasion which I probably won't ever see again. For me it was a new experience since I never seen them before. I must admit, they know how to give a show, from the pilots running to their Blue Angel jets to landing and shutting down is all about action. Before the F-18's fly there isthe famous JATO(Jet Assisted TakeOff) by Fat Albert. For those who don't know Fat Albert is a modified C-130 Hercules with rockets attached to its side. The rockets give Fat Albert extra thrust for a high performance take-off. Enough close formation flying and high speed passes were seen as was flying the jets over the crowd, something which normally is not allowed during airshows in the Netherlands, but which gave everybody great photo opportunities. All in all it was a great airshow, despite the bad weather on Friday.