The start of the day was a little fraught if I'm completely honest! Firstly, driving towards La Ferté-Alais from our hotel in Evry on Friday morning, a journey of around 30 minutes, we desperately needed some petrol. Secondly, despite a pre-trip investment of Ł40, my TomTom's French navigation had failed to inspire a great deal of confidence in the two days that preceded this one. Motorways and cities were generally within its capability, but the important details, such as finding hotels and air bases, had not been so good. But anyway, we managed to pick up a sign for La Ferté-Alais and filling the car up, along with breakfast, were the immediate priorities.
Now a word of warning; France has numerous automated petrol stations which, on the face of it, sound like a great idea. Pull up, insert card, fill up, drive off - simple eh? That would be great, if indeed you could guarantee that your UK credit or debit card would work in the machine - as Karl and I discovered while driving around La Ferté-Alais on fumes. Perfectly good cards (honest!) were rejected and by the time we reached a petrol station with a human-being who accepted cash, our tempers, and language, in the car were as warm as the sun which was already blazing down. Disaster averted, and breakfast purchased, we picked up a sign for the airfield and drove up a long, tree lined hill, wondering what would greet us at the top.
The answer was wonderful hospitality - and two other UK journalists! Having pre-arranged media accreditation, confirmed by a phone call from the super efficient organisers in the run up to the show, our passes were waiting for us and Sammy (Karl's son who travelled to France with us) was delighted that he too was issued with a pass - despite not technically needing one! Nothing was too much trouble, with a promise of interviews if we needed them and a full programme of flying for the day ahead. I exchanged numbers with the press officer just in case, and she pointed even further up the hill and said we were free to go on in.
It wasn't immediately obvious where we should park so, having done a lap or two of the area around the entrance, we bumped in to the same UK journos we had met at the gate. They assured us that what looked like a prime parking space was exactly where they had left their car last year - who were we to argue? Having gathered up chairs, cameras and sun cream we made our way in.
Stunning. That's the best way to describe my first impression as we walked out on to what I suppose you would call part of the showground and made our way towards the crowd line. La Ferté-Alais is perched on top of a hill and the views across the French countryside are magnificent, with the grass strip backed by a forest, the terrain dropping away on the other side. Away to our right we could see the aircraft parked up and ready for action - a veritable feast for the eyes, it has to be said - with the resident Amicale Jean-Baptiste Salis Collection CASA 352L (a license built Ju-52/3m) dominating the line nearest to us. Aside from that, it essentially looked like a UK airshow with a commentary booth, traders setting up and catering tents all being prepared for the weekend.
As we could already hear engines running, despite it being only about 10am at this stage, we decided to park ourselves on the near deserted line and see what the day delivered. Sun cream and sun block liberally applied, for it was scorchingly hot, and with cameras at the ready, we sat and waited.
We didn't have to wait for very long either and, to all intents and purposes, we were treated to non stop flying action for the best part of seven hours. Yes there were gaps, and some of them must have extended to, oh, all of 15 or 20 minutes! I've never been one for simply listing every single item parrot fashion from airshows and similar events, hopefully the images you see here paint a far more illustrative picture of what we were treated to, but there were some definite highlights that deserve additional description.
I think we all fell in love with the Polikarpov I-16. She might be ludicrously squat, all-engine and apparently very little else, but, like the Bull Terrier she resembles, she has bags of personality and by golly she can move - an awesome sight and seeing her will stay with me for a long time, a memory that will always induce a big grin. Nearly 9000 I-16s were built in the Soviet Union between 1934 and 1943 and it is thanks to Sir Tim Wallis' Alpine Fighter Collection that we have flying examples today, with six I-16s and three I-153 biplanes restored in the 1990s. She's a superb looking aircraft and watching her display, and photographing her of course, was a real pleasure.
We got Yaks galore - I particularly liked the striking silver and red Yak-3 - more Harvards and T-6s than you could shake a stick at, including two A-6M 'Zeros' which would play the bad guys in the show's Tora Tora Tora set piece, complete with pyrotechnics. Mustang, Skyraider, Mitchell, Fokker Triplanes, Stieglitz - one super aircraft after another appeared from the crowded parking area to rehearse.
We also got, only on the Friday as it turned out, the stunning CASA 352. This was another first for me and I was impressed at the way this lumbering three-engined piece of extraordinary German design was thrown around - although Karl reliably informs me that he's seen it doing far more. A bona-fide Ju-52 arrived later in the day and, along with an An-2, would perform pleasure flights before both show days, as well as taking their place in the display programme proper.
One brief lull a little later in the morning was broken in spectacular fashion by the very sudden appearance of two Dassault Rafales courtesy of the Armee de l'Air. What I guess was in essence a site recce ahead of a later practice by solo display pilot Cpt Cedric "Rut" Ruet, and probably for the benefit of the French TV cameras that were filming the build up to the show, made for five minutes of sheer heaven for everyone else. The two aircraft essentially flew a tailchase over the airfield, afterburners blazing, at one point heading in from crowd front for what we expected to be a split - except they both flew straight over our heads! If that wasn't exhilarating enough, they then turned tightly behind us and came straight back again before lining up to our left and departing, very low and very fast, with one aircraft flying almost on the fence line - superb!
Needless to say I didn't really manage to catch any of this on camera, not in any satisfactory fashion anyway, it was all too quick for me and the pure adrenalin rush of seeing this impressive aircraft 'displayed' in such a fashion overtook me. Great stuff.
That wasn't the only modern military appearance of the day either, and later in the afternoon we were delighted to see the Grumman Avenger depart and loiter out to the south - a departure which signalled the arrival of the Aeronavale aircraft to rehearse their set-piece marking the 100th anniversary of naval aviation in France. Two Rafales and two Super Etendards were joined for the practice by a Falcon 10, replacing the E-2C Hawkeye which was unavailable for this slot and would actually practice its own sprightly solo routine later in the day. Flying through in formation the group split and we were treated to a pairs routine from the venerable and very lovely Super Etendards, which included topside passes, a flypast in approach configuration and a buddy-buddy refuelling demo which actually saw the trailing jet plugged in to the drogue. The two Rafales returned in formation with the Avenger, which made for a stirring sight, before noisily breaking off and returning for their own series of passes.
The rest of the day passed in a bit of a blur with so many aircraft, many of which I was ticking off for the first time, and a number of arrivals, notably the British contingent including Peter Vacher's Mk.1 Hurricane and four aircraft from various Duxford-based operators, more of which in the show report itself.
After a most enjoyable day, albeit a long one frazzling in the unbroken sunshine, we finally decided to up-sticks and, having deposited unnecessary belongings back in the car, we headed off to our right to explore the aircraft parked on the ground. It was quite busy with press, engineers, pilots and event staff doing their thing but great to see the machines we had seen in the air so close up, frequently with just a simple rope or plastic tape marking where we could and couldn't go.
We photographed everything on show and were fortunate enough to see Christophe Jaquard's amazing FW-190 replica start, taxi and display, later interviewing the man himself for PlanesTV as we had spotted Adrian Campbell filming in the same area. It was lovely to meet Peter Vacher once more, as well as his wife Polly, who had just arrived after a tortuous eight hour drive from Calais, and that was also another filmed interview in the bag. Eventually, after getting on for nine hours action, we tramped back to the car and wearily dumped our gear and headed back to Evry for food and sleep ahead of the following morning's early start and show day itself.
Our introduction to La Ferté-Alais had been memorable and one which will linger long in the memory banks. The press day alone made the whole trip worthwhile in my mind and yet we still had the airshow itself to look forward to - we couldn't wait and you can read all about it in the accompanying feature.
GAR wants to interact with its readers so if you have a question for the author or a comment to make on this feature, please click on the button below. The best comments will appear right here on GAR.2010-06-01 - Mike Kruiper
Excellent article and great airshow weather. Enjoyable read!!
If you would like to discuss using any of our imagery or feature content please contact us.