For me it was the first time I went to the Volkel in de Wolken airshow, held in Volkel city. The weatherforecast  was very very bad and expected the worst, so hoped there would still be a decent airshow to watch. The first thing I noticed upon entering the viewers area, where the very annoying high gates.

Thankfully they didn't bother me in taking photos.

Till about 12:00 pm nothing really happened, the participants arrived and para's dropped out of an airplane. If I knew I would have gone later. The weather wasn't getting any better either. Dark clouds and an occasional drop of rain, which made making nice photos under these circumstances difficult.

Then finally the airshow started. First the Robin 2160 flown by a pilot of the Rotterdam Flightclub with some simple aerobatics, loops and barrel rolls. After that the Seagul formation, who had a little more action in there show. The formation was supposed to consist of 5 planes, but 2 were grounded due to technical difficulties. With 3 planes left, there were some close passes and a simple break. Funny thing with the Seagull formation is that the planes have a German registration number, but are flown by Dutch pilots and are based in the Netherlands. Now onto the more spectacular parts of the airshow, like the Yak-52, a great aerobatic trainer flown by Robert de Vries, great to see a Russian trainer do some nice aerobatics. You might think it's a plane from the WW2 era. This plane was actually built in 1986.

Just as it started to rain, Mark Jefferies started his aerobatics demo, but the rain didn't stop him and he showed some nice moves even at fairly low altitude, first time I saw him, but looking forward to seeing more of him with clearer skies. My favourite WW2 plane was the next participant, the famous P-51D Mustang, he showed some nice stuff, nothing spectacular though, but just hearing that engine roar is music in my ears.

The next aerobatics display was done by Split Image, the display was pretty tame, which was weird, since at that time, the skies were clearing up. Still good to see 2 Pitts do some formation flying. I do hope, since I never seen them before, that the action is pumped up with good weather. The music that was played fit the show though.

Then there was action, in the form of RNLAF's F-16's, which made a screaming pass right over your heads with some tight turns. The element of surprise came from an F-16 that came from the other side and most of us didn't expect.

Then what was supposed to be one of the highlights of the show, Frank Versteegh. The show was very tame, I have seen him before in similar conditions, but it was like he was showing all aerobatics moves used in the Red Bull Air Race. Nothing super wild to the eye, unfortunately.

All in all, it was an airshow with little action. The bad weather might have caused the flight director to lay on some restrictions for safety issues, which is understandable, but I have seen more daring flights in weather that was worse. This airshow will be repeated in almost the same form in Buurse, the Netherlands in August. So maybe we'll see loads of action there.

I haven't mentioned all participants in this report, but if any of the participants have a link it's listed on my link page.