June 14, 2009 - When Cazaux meant a blazing start of the show season, Tours was a nice add-on on French soil. A one day event which could have had a dramatic turnout with a crash during the airshow, but the pilot was able to save himself. Mitch performed as expected, again.......

After the first meeting in Cazaux, we went back to France. The team members Ronald, Frank, Pipo and Andy started their 640 km trip over the road to arrive at Tours (BA 705) on Thursday evening 18:00 local. At the gate we where welcomed by "Al" (Belgian pilot on A-jet) who guided us to the ops room and have all the arrangements. Thanks for supporting us!!!

On Friday morning the day started early again, briefings-arrangements with x-servicing and making everything ready to welcome our two F-16s. Mitch and Drieske landed at 14:00 local and we started the inspection while Mitch went to the ops room for his briefings. The French where able to give Mitch a training slot in their already busy schedule.

In the mean time, we welcomed our other teams from Belgium (Agusta and Hard ship red). In the evening Mitch did his rehearsal, we serviced all again to be ready for Saturday and then we went to the welcome reception where we met other teams. Saturday was a very nice day with temps till 30° C and a cloudless blue sky. Well, cloudless till Mitch had to start his training ;-). But anyway it went ok.

At 20:00 local we went to "japs" his place for a nice barbecue with all other Belgians. Very nice evening so thanks again.

On Sunday the day started early again for the airshow, so checking planes, building our pr-stand, people coming in. Unfortunately the weather wasn't that good.

Very cloudy and raindrops from time-to-time, but the weather improved in the afternoon.
The airshow started with a Boeing Stearman, but something went wrong and the plane crashed in the field.

The pilot survived and we all hope he will recover soon. There where some cancellations due to the incident - like hard ship red - but 2 hours later the meeting started again. We had some nice display teams like patrouille Suisse, cartouche doré, patrouille the France, Breitling team and many others. The Show ended with the Gripen, F-16 and the Rafale.

After the show people went back home stopping by to buy some t-shirts and badges and congrats us for the nice demo. They said the F-16 and the Rafale were the highlights at this meeting. So congrats Mitch for the nice demo.

On Monday the pilots flew back to Kleine Brogel and we started our road trip back to home. Hoping the pilot of the Stearman will be back home soon and recover well.

We would also like to thank the French airforce for their support and warm welcome.