English translation

The Air Day 2013 will certainly be remembered by everybody as the hottest edition of these last years, not only because of the considerable attendance of people and airplanes, but above all because of the almost 30° temperature. Fortunately the organisers of the event, bearing in mind the previous days’ unusual hot weather, organised a widespread water distribution, in order to give some refreshments to the 35.000 people at Yeovilton: so many were the spectators inside the RNAS who attended a unique and amazing event.
Apart from exhibiting the best vehicles the British armed forces have nowadays at their disposal, these events aim at entertaining families too, therefore inside the military airport there were the usual rest stops, an amusement park with lots of carousels, some air beds for the smaller children and stands selling several items related and not related to the flight world. Without taking notice of the Photo Day, which took place on Friday and was dedicated only to photographers, the Air Day on Saturday offered a good statics, though a little worse than in the past years, and the crush barriers were sometimes too close to the airplanes; nevertheless the statics was absolutely remarkable. There were the huge C 130H airplanes of the Belgian air force, the C295M supporting the Czech attendance at the event and a VC 10-K3 flying from Brize Norton in order to exhibit one of the last times before its forthcoming removal.
During our visit we found a magnificent Lynx MK88 belonging to the German navy and a rare M28 Bryza of the Polish navy; furthermore, there were a Sea Fury, a Hunter, a splendid Phantom and a pair of Sea Harrier, both single-seater and two-seater, which all reminded of Royal Navy’s wide utilisation of the fixed wing; and of course helicopters, diamond point of the current British navy, were also present. The flight programme was opened by the Red Arrows representing the Royal Air Force that presented, among the others, the Typhoon, piloted by the lieutenant Jamie Norris, the Tucano T1 in a very coloured desert cover and the Chinook HC2 which executed highly spectacular manoeuvres.
The historical part of the event was devolved upon the powerful Skyraider led by Dave Mackay, upon the P 51 Mustang piloted by Peter Teichman and, inevitably, upon the dogfight between the Spitfire MKXVI and the ME109 (Hispano HA112-M14 Buschon) of the pair of pilots Cliff Spink and Dave Ratcliffe. In the middle of the day the 35.000 people’s attention was captured by the take-off of the well-known Avro Vulcan, which left for an exhibition in Goowood and flied back two hours later in order to carry out its flight programme in Yeovilton sky. Another “special guest” of this year’s edition was Sea Vixen, which unfortunately couldn’t exhibit due to previously existing problems, but nevertheless it delighted the spectators by flying on them and then landing to be displayed in the static exhibition. The organisers profited from this event to present the new AW 159 Wildcats, on which the Lynx fleet is going to transit, being an extremely copious fleet in this military basis: a new machine with high potentialities which will become, together with the new Merlin HM1, the undisputed key player of the Royal Navy.
The Gripen belonging to Czech Republic, the Belgian F 16 and A 109 gave their contribution to the show both with their flight programmes and at the static exhibition. As usual, the conclusion of the event was devolved upon the majestic war simulation carried out by all British armed forces: in fact seven Sea King HC4 were displayed, transporting the Royal Marines, two Wildcats, an AH 64D Longbow of the Royal Army and two Hawks of the Royal Air Force, which simulated a field attack without sparing explosions, flares launches, machine-gun fires which simply enraptured the spectators.
The event was definitely perfect according to all points of view and it has to be attended again next year, hopefully with a milder weather and an increasing aeronautical participation.