Held June 20 and 21 2008, the airshow at Leeuwarden AFB is the biggest airshow in the Netherlands and most aviation lovers are looking forward to it. This year it was a mixed bag of participants, the last couple of years the RNLAF, who organises the airshow, tries to get quite alot of aerobatic teams to the airshow. Not this year though.

Not that this was a bad thing, cause there was more time available to see some aircraft that haven't been flying alot or at all at Dutch airshow.

The weather was pretty good, despite having some overcast from time to time, but overall it was good enough for video and photo opportunities.

Let me try to give a chronological order of all the participants, though I won't mention every participant.

First there was the Saab Safir, which opened the show on both days, showing some simple aerobatic maneuvers. Then it's on to Red Sensation and the Fokker Four, both are aerobatic display teams based in the Netherlands. The Red Sensation team showed a very tight formation, with aerobatics in formation, nice to see that even the landing was done in formation, something not alot of aerobatic teams do. Fokker Four, gave a nice show, with their nice break at the end of the show. Then the Pitts Special flown by "Woody", as some might know the Pitts Special is capable of excellent aerobatics and especially the second day it was shown by "Woody", with barrel rolls, immelmans and other aerobatic maneuvers

One of the helicopters that gave a good show was the Sea King from the Belgian Airforce. The Search and Rescue team showed what the helicopter is capable of doing and how someone is rescued. One of the other helicoptes was the EH-101 Merlin, a magnificent helicopter that looks good too. The EH-101, despite being quite a big helicopter, is fast and agile as was shown in the demo.The Bell UH-1 Huey gave a great demo, bringing to mind the TV-series Tour of Duty.

Another plane I have never seen before was the P-140 Aurora, a plane that is used for submarine searching. It can track and destroy submarines if necesarry. After that it was on to aerobatics again with Ali Ozturk and his Pitts Special. Lots of smoke, power and action is what sums up the display of Ali. Airpower is what came next, the RNLAF showed what it does in operational areas. A massive take-off by lots of F-16s, simulating an air to ground attack on the airfield, involving AH-64 Apaches, Cougars and Chinooks. The RNLAF air-to-air tanker KDC-10 gave a great, low pass flyby with gear down, what a sight to see. The Hawker Hunter gave a good display, but on the second day was hit by a bird and the underside of the airintake was damaged, which is a shame for such a great plane from the old days.

Team Iskra is an aerobatics team from Poland, nothing fancy though, some nice formation flying. The NH-90 was on of the participants I was hoping for. Great to see this new helicopter together with the Merlin. This helicopter is capable of quite some moves and is equipped with the latest high tech avionics. The EF-18M from the Spanish airforce gave a great demo. On the second day there was a mishap on take-off, one of the gears would not go up. It made a low-pass and after the gear was checked made a soft landing. Cause? The gear pin was not removed by the crew chief. Mistakes happen.

The Bronco is one of those planes that is not really categorised easily. Made for quick take-offs, landings and attack capabilities. Its quite maneuvrable and the whole design is quite weird but nice to look at. Frecce Tricolore, one of the big aerobatic teams in the world gave a great show both days. From tight formation flying to high speed passes and a nice solo display by Frecce nr. 10. Only thing that was a bit annoying was the smoke or too much of it actually. It kept hanging quite low during the display probably due to atmospheric pressure.

The Royal Jordanian Falcons were one of the last teams to give a good aerobatic demo. With plenty of passes and tight formation flying. I had the opportunity to interview the director of the Royal Jordanian Falcons, Col. Al-Momani Mohammed, a very friendly and nice guy, which talked with enthusiasm about his team.