Cognac/Chateaubernard Airshow

[Latinbear]

Last weekend I attended the French Air and Space Force show at Cognac/Chateaubernard, home of the PC21s, Grobs and MQ9A Reapers.

 

The show attracted a lot of press attention owing to the mid-air collision of two Rafales from Mont de Marsan during their tactical demonstration. The collision took place to the east of the airfield over a nearby village. Fortunately, both aircraft landed safely although some debris damaged a house in the village. Photos of the Tiger marked aircraft that had flown in from Greece on the Friday evening showed that it had lost the tip of its tail and RWR unit while the other aircraft suffered damage to its fuselage wing and a drop tank. Both aircraft landed after long approaches and were chased down the runway by the fire trucks. They taxied straight into the HAS area from the runway which is surrounded by large grassy berms and hence were out of public view.

 

The weather for arrivals day was mixed with glorious sunny skies and 32C temperatures on the Saturday and Sunday. Unfortunately, the weather was appalling to start with for Monday's departures but as the storm passed through the aircraft began to move.

 

From a photography perspective, Cognac is not great as the runway runs NE/SW and with the crowd line to the north then you are looking into the sun.

 

A big thank you to FOSA for organising the show and Captain Julien and his colleagues for escorting us and making the whole occasion very enjoyable. 

 

1. One of two Belgian F16s attending. 

 

2. The German contribution.

 

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6. This Sabre is Canadair built. 

 

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10. The home team.

 

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15. Caracal. 

 

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23. The Wings of Storm. 

 

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28. Singaporean M346 based at Cazaux. 

 

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That's it, thanks for looking! 

[exdraken]

Great Pics!!

Airshows again thus year!

 

[Alpha Delta 210]

Looks like a great show with some real variety and participants that we don't see on these shores. The Sabre looks great and made me realise how much I miss the F-86A from the UK circuit.

 

Thanks for sharing. 

[junglierating]

Looks good....nuffin from the UK ...which is a shame....used to love doing the odd foreign airshow...remember Sanicole in Belgium somehow I ended up in the wrong country the next day🤯🤔😁

[Latinbear]

3 hours ago, junglierating said:

Looks good....nuffin from the UK ...which is a shame....used to love doing the odd foreign airshow...remember Sanicole in Belgium somehow I ended up in the wrong country the next day🤯🤔😁

 

Au contraire mon brave! Your close friends the Crabs provided the Falcons parachute team; I just didn't post any pictures of them but I'm amenable to special requests 😉.

 

The Falcons' presence proved to be a result because following their jump they packed their 'chutes directly in front of our enclosure. Their escort/liaison officer turned out to be a former Mirage F1 pilot who is now the chief instructor on the PC21 with responsibility for standards evaluation as well. He had volunteered to be their liaison because he thought it would help improve his already excellent English. He stopped by the fence and we ended up talking to him for well over half an hour about the training structure and the advantages/ disadvantages of the PC21 versus the Alpha Jet as well as the issues that ground attack pilots have converting to the multi-role Rafale because of the challenges involved in air combat which is around 70% of the training against 30% for mud moving. It was very good of him to spend so much time talking to us and added to the enjoyment of the show. 

 

 

[junglierating]

Au contraire mon brave! Your close friends the Crabs.....

 

 

I like your humour Latin bear 🐻 😆😆😆