By Garth Calitz
The Botswana International Airshow has become one of the “must attend” events on the airshow calendar, nowhere else can one get so close to the action. 2017 marked the 8th Airshow held at Matsieng the first had no more than five displays and was considered more a fly-in than an airshow, the show may have grown exponentially but the fly-in feel is still as it was all those years ago.
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| Capital Sounds and Safety Tower |
Pilots from all over Southern Africa make the pilgrimage from early on
Friday morning checking in at the temporary customs and immigration set up on
the field and manned by officers from Gaborone’s Sir Seretse Kama international Airport.
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| Campsite |
The tented
camp at the at Matsieng Airfield is a hive of activity on the night before the
show, with old friends reuniting and new aviation friends being made. Absolute
Aviation sponsored live music, on a makeshift low bed trailer converted to a
stage for the weekend, accompanied by a hot air balloon doing a night glow
display.
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| Live Band |
Saturday
show day was kicked off by a brilliant disply of precision aerobatics by the
“wonderkid” of South African aerobatics, Jason Beamish in his Absolute Aviation
sponsored Extra 300.
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| Jason Beamish |
Jason had barely landed and the when local skydivers filled
the sky they had been dropped by “Little Annie” the Atanov AN2 flown by father
and son team Mark and Jon-Marc Hill.
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| Little Annie |
The air
traffic control team at Matsieng asked the pilot of a passing Hawker Beechcraft
800XP if he would please do a flyby at
the show to which he responded immediately treating all present to a wonderful
low pass showing off this beautiful aircraft.
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| Hawker Beechcraft 800XP |
Juba Joubert an ex SAAF
helicopter pilot showed why the SAAF chopper boys are held in such high esteem
around the world, he extracted “Mal Jan” the Jacaranda 94.2 crazy man from the
back of a moving vehicle with a Alouette II, he certainly lived up to his name
with this stunt.
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| Juba Joubert and Mal Jan |
Conrad
Botha in his nippy little Salley’s Yamaha sponsored Slick 360 took to the sky
he displayed the manoeuvrability of this proudly South African aerobatic
aircraft.
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| Conrad Botha |
Team Extreme consisting of Nigel Hopkins (Extra 330 SC), Mark Hensman
(MX2) and Jason Beamish (Extra 300 L) completely blew the crowd away with their
brand of hi-impact formation aerobatics, The team recently took part in the
World Formation Aerobatics competition held in China.
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| Team Extreme |
As soon as
the smoke cleared it was time for the most graceful of all airshow displays,
Gary Whitecross in his Mutual Safes Pilatus B4 Glider, Gary skill is emphasised
by the smoke trails of each wingtip the local crowed were mesmerised by his
silent display.
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| Gary Whitecross |
The Goodyear Eagles Pitts Special team of Denis Spence, Johan van
Solms and Paul Coetzer were next up followed closely by a death defying display
by Neville Ferreira in his CAV2.com Slick 540, Neville upper air Tumbling and
Spinning had the crowd holding their breath.
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| Goodyear Eagles |
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| Neville Ferreira |
Nigel
Hopkins in his Beautiful Porsche and Cirrus sponsored Extra 330 SC has become a
firm favourite at the Botswana Airshow over the last few years, the Botswana locals
sigh and cheer in virtual disbelief as he put his machine through its paces.
Nigel will be taking part in the World Unlimited Aerobatics Championships later
this year in Mpumalanga.
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| Nigel Hopkins |
Ivan van
der Schaar displayed his restored Randolph Boeing Stearman, Ivan and his wife
Sonica painstakingly rebuilt the Stearman over 5 years in their hangar at Petit
Airfield, their hard work and dedication has definitely paid off.
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| Ivan van der Schaar |
Altech
Netstar Botswana Gave a demonstration of their ability to track and recover
stolen vehicles using a Bell 407 followed by the noisy yet graceful Just Love
Mission AN2.
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| Altech Netstar |
The Raptors Led by Pierre Gouws joined forces with Team extreme
and treated all to wonderful six ship formation before breaking off for their
very tight formation display, the Raptors were flying in borrowed RV’s as their
machines were still making their way back from China where they took part in
the World Formation Championships.
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| The Raptors |
The fast
paced show continued and was stepped up a notch with the arrival of the Aero L-29 Delfin expertly flown by Glen
Warden, the jet still sporting the colours of the Nato Tigers formation team.
Glen and Denis recently restored this remarkable East block jet.
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| Glen Warden |
The show
was held up due to a vehicle that was parked in the wrong area after many attempts
to contact the owner Alistair Brown from working on fire in Nelspruit, lifted
the offending vehicle with a Bell Huey and unceremoniously dumped it in the
veld in full view of the large crowed, no other vehicles were in parked
illegally for the rest of the day.
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| Bell Huey |
Dannie
Terblanche displayed why the Robinson R44 Raven is the leading game capture
aircraft in Africa, this particular helicopter is opprated by I-Cat
environmental solutions.
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| Dannie Terblanche |
Yet another Extra 300 took to the Botswana skies this
time it was Andrew Blackwood Murry in his newly acquired Nashua Extra.
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| Andrew Blackwood Murry |
Matthew
Zalewski flew a brilliant display in the Magni Gyro, many a fixed wing pilot
found a new respect for these little machines as Matthew threw it around the
sky.
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| Matthew Zalewski |
Pierre Gouws Woke up anyone that was getting tired from the hot Botswana
sun with the sound of a Pratt and Whitney radial this time on a Harvard.
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| Pierre Gouws |
The fast
pace of the show continued throughout the day with repeats of displays from the
morning except for a few surprises, one of these surprises was a Bi-Plane
formation consisting of The Antanov AN2, The Boeing Stearman and two Pitts Specials. The An2 is the
largest Bi-Plane ever built and the Pitts one of the smallest if not the
smallest.
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| Bi-Plane formation |
The father and son team of Larry and Jason Beamish also made an
appearance Larry in his RV7 and Jason in the Extra 300.
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| Larry and Jason Beamish |
As the show
grew to a close Brian Emmenis, the voice of airshows in Southern Africa, built
the anticipation for what was about to happen. Glen Warden over flew the
display line, in the L29 just as the largest wall of fire ever seen at an
airshow in Africa was detonated , what an amazing spectacle.
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| Glen Warden Wall of fire |
The show
was closed by a beautiful twilight display by the Puma Energy Flying Lions and display
by Dannie Terblanche in a LED loaded R22.
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| Puma Energy Flying Lions |
The
Organisers of this amazing event as always donated all the proceedings to
various charities , a total of 160 000 Pula was given to the chosen
causes. The De Wet family and all the people that assist them should be
commended for the hours of selfless work they put in to making this the safe
and successful show it always is.
Please browse through our gallery of this event
