Sanicole airshow & western Europe spotting
Posted: 07 Oct 2024, 15:11
In late September I was lucky enough to be able to visit the Sanicole airshow in western Belgium & do some spotting in the local area as well in the following week. Given my previous experiences with Belgium the country had some redemption to do in my eyes & whilst it started badly, getting stuck in a huge traffic jam outside of Liege, Belgium soon redeemed herself with the Sanicole show. For those who don't know it's a 2 day event, sort of, with the first day being a sunset show & the next day a full full. We did both & were treated to some outstanding flying & a nice static as well especially given how small the Sanicole area is, highlight being the Swedes in both the flying & static with them sending 2 Hkp.16's (UH-60), 1 for the flying display, & a stunning Hkp.15 (A-109) on static.
Sunset show
1.
B-17 Sally B by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
2.
USAF F-16 Viper demo by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
3.
Swedish Hkp.16 by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
4.
French Rafale by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
5.
Danish F-16 by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
6.
Danish F-16 by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
7.
Patrouille Suisse by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
Full show day
The light was particularly tricky at times as whilst the sun did shine in the morning it's straight onto your face. It did cloud over which is preferable but it did get quite dark at times as you'll see. It was high level cloud mostly so everything did their full show.
8.
Swedish Hkp.15 by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
9.
Lockheed Model 12 Electra by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
10.
HeliDax EC120 by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
11.
Belgian NH90 by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
12.
KluHF Spitfire by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
13.
Belgian F-16 & B-17 Sally B by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
14.
Danish F-16 by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
15.
Belgian A400M by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
16.
Belgian Thunder Tigers by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
17.
German EF-2000 by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
18.
Solo Turk by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
19.
Les Diables Rouges by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
20.
Finnish F/A-18 by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
21.
Fouga Magister by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
22.
USAF F-16 Viper demo by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
23.
Swedish Hkp.16 by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
24.
RAF Typhoon by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
You can't really tell from this but this was a formation of Belgian, Turkish, Danish & 2 Portuguese F-16's.
25.
F-16 tribute by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
26.
Belgian F-16 + Spitfire by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
The day after the Sanicole show we drove up to Kleine-Brogel to catch the morning departures:
27.
USAF F-16 by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
28.
HeliDax EC120 by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
29.
Austrian PC-7 by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
30.
Patrouille Suisse by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
31.
Belgian NH90 by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
32.
French Rafale by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
33.
T-6 Texan by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
34.
Portuguese F-16 by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
We then decided to spend the rest of the day at Beauvechain mainly as it was almost certainly the last time I'd see the SF.260 in it's active role with the Belgian Air Component.
35.
Belgian A109 by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
36.
Belgian A109 by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
37.
Belgian SF.260 by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
38.
Belgian SF.260 by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
39.
Belgian SF.260 by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
The next day we planned to visit the air bases in the Southern part of the Netherlands, however the curse of Belgium struck again when our rental car decided to have a flat tyre. So after that was eventually sorted the only real place we could spend the afternoon was a Brussels Airport. Some interesting weather there for sure & I won't sully this thread with civvies but the Police MD902 is nice enough to warrant a picture of I reckon. If you do want to look at the civvies they're on my Facebook page, link at the bottom:
40.
Belgian Police MD902 by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
We did do the Dutch bases the next day, annoyingly the day before was the penultimate flight of the RNLAF F-16 & the final flights on the Friday after. Typical. We started at Gilze-Rijen:
41.
RNLAF Cougar by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
42.
RNLAF CH47 by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
43.
RNLAF Cougar & Chinook by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
44.
RNLAF AH-64 by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
45.
RNLAF Cougar by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
46.
RNLAF AH-64 by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
We finished the day at Volkel
47.
RNLAF F-35 by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
48.
RNLAF F-35 by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
49.
RNLAF F-35 by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
50.
RNLAF F-35 by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
51.
RNLAF F-35 by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
The next day we went back the Netherlands to Eindhoven to catch the mil action there, it didn't disappoint even if it was very blustery & cold.
52.
RNLAF C-130 by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
53.
RNLAF C-130 by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
54.
RNLAF A330 MRTT by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
55.
RNLAF C-130 by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
56.
RNLAF C-130 by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
57.
RNLAF C-130 by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
58.
RNLAF C-130 by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
59.
RNLAF A330 MRTT by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
60.
RNLAF C-130 by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
61.
RNLAF C-130 by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
62.
RNLAF Gulfstream VI by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
63.
RNLAF Gulfstream VI by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
The plan then was to do Norvenich is Western Germany as they were on nights, however it turned out they didn't fly at all & the only thing we saw was this German BK117 (H145) returning to base.
64.
German BK117 by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
The last day before we flew back was spent at Cologne airport hoping to catch some of the German VIP fleet, again we got lucky with what we saw but high winds curtailed the day up on the terrace sadly.
65.
German A321neo by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
66.
German A350 by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
67.
RNLAF A330 MRTT by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
68.
RNLAF A330 MRTT by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
69.
UPS 747-8 & German Global Express by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
70.
German A319 & A321 by Dan Reeves, on Flickr
Thanks for getting this far, I hope you enjoyed looking at them as much as I enjoyed taking them. If for some reason you want to see more, a lot more as it goes, they're on my Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/DanReevesAviography
Sunset show
1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

Full show day
The light was particularly tricky at times as whilst the sun did shine in the morning it's straight onto your face. It did cloud over which is preferable but it did get quite dark at times as you'll see. It was high level cloud mostly so everything did their full show.
8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

22.

23.

24.

You can't really tell from this but this was a formation of Belgian, Turkish, Danish & 2 Portuguese F-16's.
25.

26.

The day after the Sanicole show we drove up to Kleine-Brogel to catch the morning departures:
27.

28.

29.

30.

31.

32.

33.

34.

We then decided to spend the rest of the day at Beauvechain mainly as it was almost certainly the last time I'd see the SF.260 in it's active role with the Belgian Air Component.
35.

36.

37.

38.

39.

The next day we planned to visit the air bases in the Southern part of the Netherlands, however the curse of Belgium struck again when our rental car decided to have a flat tyre. So after that was eventually sorted the only real place we could spend the afternoon was a Brussels Airport. Some interesting weather there for sure & I won't sully this thread with civvies but the Police MD902 is nice enough to warrant a picture of I reckon. If you do want to look at the civvies they're on my Facebook page, link at the bottom:
40.

We did do the Dutch bases the next day, annoyingly the day before was the penultimate flight of the RNLAF F-16 & the final flights on the Friday after. Typical. We started at Gilze-Rijen:
41.

42.

43.

44.

45.

46.

We finished the day at Volkel
47.

48.

49.

50.

51.

The next day we went back the Netherlands to Eindhoven to catch the mil action there, it didn't disappoint even if it was very blustery & cold.
52.

53.

54.

55.

56.

57.

58.

59.

60.

61.

62.

63.

The plan then was to do Norvenich is Western Germany as they were on nights, however it turned out they didn't fly at all & the only thing we saw was this German BK117 (H145) returning to base.
64.

The last day before we flew back was spent at Cologne airport hoping to catch some of the German VIP fleet, again we got lucky with what we saw but high winds curtailed the day up on the terrace sadly.
65.

66.

67.

68.

69.

70.

Thanks for getting this far, I hope you enjoyed looking at them as much as I enjoyed taking them. If for some reason you want to see more, a lot more as it goes, they're on my Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/DanReevesAviography