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Dave Eade samples the end-of-season sun in the Med. Pictures by the author and Roger Cook/Pynelea Photo Bureau where credited. The weekend of 27/28 September 2003 saw the staging of the 11th Maltese International Airshow. Organised by the Maltese Aviation Society, the event is held at Luqa Airport, Malta's only surviving airfield. The flying therefore has to be threaded in with the never-ending stream of airliners whose job it is to ensure that Malta's tourist trade is well fed. Luqa has two runways, set at right-angles so it becomes possible to segregate one demand for airspace from the other. The non-commercial
area has a pan large enough to hold a reasonable static display and it
was for these arrivals that your scribe found himself outside, on the
fence on Friday morning with, it must be said, the great company of a
surprisingly large number of aircraft enthusiasts. It is difficult to
accept that the sight of the inbound KC-135R from Mildenhall should send
these spotters into raptures when it is such a common sight to those of
us from East Anglia.
By 16:00
the pan was full and available to photographers. To those, like me, whose
Italian list is quite short, this was Utopia. There are very strong links
between Italy and Malta, which some might find surprising, the memories
of the Second World War being long cast aside. So it was that the pan
contained a list of Italian military airframes to die for - pride of place
goes to the rotary section and I have no shame in admitting that I waxed
lyrical over four SF260s from 70 Stormo - my first from the AMI. On the
'hard' side were a Tornado from 156 Gruppo, MB-339A and Italy today maintains a presence on Malta with Air Force AB-212 helicopters that are responsible for SAR on and around the island. Featured on the ground and in the air, these are the sharp-end of a large Maltese Lire (surely Euro? - Ed) investment in the country. The USAF
got everyone's attention by sending the Nos II(AC) and 31 Squadron Tornados were the only UK static and bringing up the rear for the big boys was the Belgian ERJ-135 and NATO E-3C.
Opening the flying both days was the Canadair CL-415 fire-bomber. The existence of a large replenishment lake in the locale enabled several runs to be made, all of which were kept safely away from the crowd (which has not always been the case in the past, apparently). A showstopper certainly, the pilot seemed almost reluctant to stop once the exercise had started. A SAR demo by the AB212 was placed nicely in front of the crowd and the fact that most of the fliers chose to taxi past the spectators on take-off or landing gave identity to the guy-in-the-seat for once. Of the fast-jets, the display of the day would be hard to award. The Belgian F-16AM and French Mirage 2000C are hard to separate. Although somewhat subdued to his Yeovilton efforts the week before, the brilliantly coloured Tornado from MFG-2 was stunning in all ways. Best colour-scheme flying award would certainly go to Jaguar E37 from EC01-007, being lead ship of the 'Raffin Mike' Jaguar Duo. Easily dismissed, this typically French display wins prizes for difficulty (to say nothing of close flying). RAF Jaguar, Hawk and Tucano displayed with their usual aplomb but the lack of a display team was beginning to become noticeable. The feeling of "if only" extended to the Minot-based B-52H 61-0040 which, as a flying finale, could have stolen this show. It was parked at runway threshold and would have been so 'easy' to include.
Air-Scene UK would like to extend its thanks to Richard Caruana, the gang from Squadron Prints (Hi, Moggy!) and the aviation buffs from Malta who all made this trip so worthwhile and kept our minds off the Maltese roads and drivers (but not the women)...
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