The 6th edition of this bi-annual airshow. Held in the small town of Oostwold, The Netherlands.

This report will be different than the ones you're used too. From now on airshow reports will be reviews, with a grade at the end.

First a little info on the field where the airshow was held. Oostwold is one of the, if not the oldest airport in the Netherlands. A small grass strip, some hangars and lots of meadows around the field pretty much sums up the entire field. A great field nonetheless. A field where cropdusters take-off to spray the crops of farmers who hired them, but also sight-seeing flights and parachutists jump above this field. The show's organiser is Tom van der Meulen, proud owner of a P-51 Mustang and a Boeing Stearman and ofcourse aviation enthusiast. Ofcourse Tom doesn't organise this show on his own. A big team of volunteers helps him out to make the airshow a success.

On to the review.

Route to the airshow:

The route to the airshow was easy to follow, a few miles before the exit on the motorway, signs would direct you to the parking spots. The only thing that might be nice for the show in 2013 are English signs for visitors coming from abroad.

8 out of 10

Parking Spots (Cars/Bicycles):

There were plenty of parking spots, about 7000, which cost you 2 euros to park. The parking area itself was a short walk from the display area. Guidance on the parking spot was excellent, a group of volunteers went and showed you exactly where to park your car. A shame, when leaving the area was that those volunteers and the police only guided you from the exits at the parking area. The problem was that when everybody left, about 6 rows formed close to one exit and everyone had to slowly funnel down to one row. Most of the drivers were patient and it went rather smoothly. Some however thought they had to be the first one to get out and in driving bumper to bumper actually delayed the flow of cars leaving the area. For anyone coming with a bike there was plenty of space and the advantage of coming with a bike is that you were even closer to the display area.

8 out of 10

Facilities and stands:

Facilities at the show were excellent, plenty of toilets, trash bins. Plenty of food and drinks, mostly fast-food. One stand was an excellent idea. A fish booth, something I've never seen before at an airshow. Excellent choice. Besides the normal facilities there were also stands, varying from everything aviation related to candy vendors. So everything a person could need. Thanks to the relatively small display area everything was easy to find and getting lost was hard to do.The only thing that I thought was lacking were facilities for handicapped people.

9 out of 10

Static Display:

The static display was big as the planes that were to participate in the airshow were very close to the fences that were put up. A great line up it was. Let me stick to the planes that didn't participate in the flying display. A lot of Stearmans, now who doesn't love a Boeing Stearman, those nice vintage bi-planes. Special mention has to go to Hans Nordsiek, he has a great Stearman called "The Old Crow", Hans does something that is best described as aviation theatre. It is just great for kids, he takes the kids to the plane and let's them feel by telling exciting stories, what it's like to be an aviator. A great addition to something you won't always see at an airshow.

9 out of 10

Commentators:

There were 2 commentators at this airshow, Jan Cocheret en Leo van der Goot, 2 familiar names in the Netherlands. The 2 did a great job of giving the visitors good info and stories on the different participants in the flying display. It wasn't kept to facts alone, they added alot of comedy in there, which got the crowd laughing from time to time. All in all they kept the crowd pleased and did a good job. The only downside for the small amount of foreign visitors was that there wasn't English commentary, which, in my opinion, is not that strange, due to that small number.

8 out of 10

Flying Display:

Let me jump right of the bat, what a fenomenal display, IF you're into warbirds. No jets on this show this year, just everything with one or more props. To name a few, THREE P-51's, a Spitfire, a Seafury, a Bearcat and the Stearman. The Fokker Four opened the show, a familiar sight at Dutch airshows, flying an aerobatic display with 4 Fokker S-11's. With only the Sukhoi, Extra-300, Yak-52,  FWP-149D, Saab Safir and the Antonov AN-2 not being warbirds, the rest was just pure warbird bliss. The Sukhoi-26 flown by Daniel Ryfa, the Pitts Sampson II flown by Uwe Schlattker and the Extra-300 flown by Frank Versteegh gave a great aerobatic demo, with plenty of stomach turning maneuvers. The take-off done by Daniel Ryfa was a short-field take-off, nothing short (no pun intended) of spectacular. Seeing the Pitts Samson II was special too, since it's the only flying one in the world today.

The warbird display was grand, the Tiger Moth formation was very nice to see, the Piper Cub accompanied the 2 Tiger Moth's. Nothing spectacular, but a nice sight to see. The warbirds, being the Yak-3U, P-51 Mustang (times 3), Hawker Seafury, Grumman Bearcat, Supermarine Spitfire. They all gave their own special display. You might think that 3 P-51 display's would be boring, each one gave it's own very unique display, despite being the same type of planes. One of the P-51 drivers was the organiser Tom van der Meulen and he too flew a splendid display in his "Damn Yankee" The Bearcat and Seafury were my personal favourites, especially the Seafury, the latter gave a great display the way I like it, fast and low, which made great photo opportunity passes. The Spitfire must certainly not be forgotten, what a great sound that plane has and I loved those WW2 markings on it. The DC-2 "Uiver" is one of those planes that has a special place in Dutch aviation history, much like the Fokker S-11. The plane is a big bird, but it went low and showed almost 90 degree angle banks.

A nice combo of the old vintage feel and great aerobatics came from the Aerosuperbatics Breitling Wingwalking team. This year the team consists of 4 Stearmans being flown by David Barrel, Steve Hicks, Al Hoy, Vic Norman and Martyn Carrington, the wingwalking girls being Danielle Hughes, Stella Guilding, Sarah Tanner and Lorraine Saddler. For Oostwold David, Steve, Stella and Lorraine gave their presence. Somehow you just can't seem to get bored by their flying display with the wingwalkers on top. With loops rolls and opposite passes and ofcourse thick smoke the Breitling Wingwalkers gave a great display. Still amazed at the strength by the girls who perform dance-like routines on top of the wing with G-forces in excess of 4G. You can imagine that you have to be very strong to perform these feats.

To close the show the Dutch Thunder Yaks gave a great demonstration of flying with 4 Yak-52's in tight formation. Formations like Line Astern, the Box and the Swan were performed with relative ease as could be seen from the ground. Let me tell you that formation flying is hard work. It might look easy from the ground, but is very hard as you are constantly correcting your position. I must say that the display of the Dutch Thunder Yaks was accompanied by impressive Russian music.

The Oostwold airshow organisers put up a great show, with a great line-up of planes.

9 out of 10

Overall: