The Race is on...and the SAAF Museum comes alive

 

The Race is on…. and the SAAF Museum comes alive.

 

By Loftus Viljoen

 

This year marks the 41^st annual SAAF Museum Air Show at Zwartkops Air Force Base in Pretoria which will be held on the 10^th May 2014. It is rated one of the best air shows in South Africa and with more than 30,000 people expected to attend the show to watch and experience more than 100 different types of historic aircrafts. One can easily see why it has become popular amongst families and friends.

With an air show the SAAF Museum becomes “alive” with any of the old aircraft flying again “ – up in the sky where they belong”. Actors dressed in various historic uniforms will walk amongst the crowds and will pose for a photo, if you ask them nicely. Some of these actors will try to portrait the era which their uniforms has relevance to. Some of them may even look scary. A uniform or other memorabilia in a glass case looks “dead” and old, but when someone wears them and re-enact a certain time of incident in the past it grabs attention. All these moments in time becomes alive and interactive. Yes, the SAAF Museum strives to become more interactive and to give the visitor the real “feeling” of those moments in time or incidents of the past what is popularly known as “history” – the Air Boss for this event, Lt Col Keith Fryer told me at the Media briefing on 30^th April 2014.

The awe and excitement is written on everyone, young and old, faces when 20 Harvards fires up their engines right in front of you or when a jet starts up. The peculiar sound of the P51 [one of my favourite planes called “Mustang Sally”] as it sweeps through the skies is a “must hear and must see” experience. And then there is those “magnificent men and their flying machines” with the old bi-planes gracing the skies. It is all like a real live movie playing, but the difference is that you are part of that movie – no TV and no movie theatre can give you this real life experience.

The Race is on… last year Gautrain joined forces with the SAAF Museum to assist with commuting visitors to the event, as the Centurion Station is not far away. They had buses to transport from and to the show as well. Last year the media were bundled into one of the Gautrain buses and we were taken to Centurion station as the race between an Alouette 3 helicopter and the Gautrain was on and we had to scramble to get our positions or vantage points to photograph this event. We were scattered all around the station and no-one of the media got a decent shot [except the guy in the helicopter].  The Alouette 3 won the race by a large margin but it was not positioned over the train for a proper shot.

One of the attractions of this year’s air Show comes from the Cold War era of the 50’s and 60’s when a Russian Antonov AN-2 will be introduced to the South African public. The Russians called her “Annuschka” which means “Annie” in English. This plane is known as “Little Annie”, was flown all the way from Siberia in Russia last year to Cape Town in South Africa - an epic journey of more than 19,500 kilometres.

The Race is on… to setup an Air Show like this takes a lot of time, dedication and money and this mean that planning must be done at least 6 months in advance and then it becomes a race to find sponsors, resources, finances, exhibitors and the like. This Air Show is not funded by the Government and as many of the planes flying that day are privately owned, one of the huge expenses is the fuel bill and other support services. The SAAF Museum teamed up with the Paramount Group, Africa’s largest privately-owned defence and aerospace business for sponsorship and support to enable the SAAF Museum to provide the visitors a bigger and better range of activities and entertainment.

The 20 Harvards symbolizes also our 20 years of democracy and there will be a spectacular show with these old fly-birds –something like the “Torra…torra…torra”  of WW2 with huge explosions which promises to be one of the highlights of the Air Show. Just imagine the sight and sounds of 20 Harvards  in the skies above Zwartkops “up in the skies where they belong” [this is also the theme slogan for this year’s Air Show.]

The Race is on… the media gathered at Hanger 5 on the 30^th April 2014 to be briefed about the 41^st Air Show. Nobody tells you what their ideas are, here and there you pick up noises whether the air shows in South Africa has become “just another Air Show” and what it costs them to attend Air Shows on the yearly circuit and whether they shouldn’t save their money to visit Air Shows abroad. So everyone has their own view and on what aspects they are going to concentrate on. We were given our Press Releases and listened to a couple of speakers representing the main sponsors of the day.

One thing about Air Shows is that it creates photo opportunities and with 30 million photos posted daily on the internet and especially Social Media you will understand everyone with a camera will be taking photos. Both Canon and Nikon will have their service departments there to do sensor cleaning [or whatever] and give their consumers advice. However, here I must put in a word of warning: when you enter the grounds of the Air Show you will smell fumes of aircraft fuel – so if you can smell it think what it will do to your camera sensors if you change lenses. The fume particles are so fine that you can barely see it, but it will attach to your gear/skin/clothes etc. as you move along on the show grounds. So once your camera’s sensor is cleaned put the lens back on immediately. I usually bring along two camera bodies with two different types of lenses and I try not to change it – this practice comes from photographing wildlife in the dusty areas of Botswana.

The Race is on… so as the Media briefing comes to an end we are informed that there will be another Gautrain race with a helicopter. This time it will be an Alouette 2 helicopter. Gautrain will provide commuting services on the day of the Air Show to and from their parking area at the Centurion Station. Outside the hanger we had a Gautrain bus waiting for us, but remembering last year’s faux pas the media corps started to dwindle. The bus was supposed to take the media to Midrand where we would have boarded the Gautrain and be part of the racing experience. This was impractical for photographers, myself included, as it would have been impossible to get proper pictures from inside the Gautrain. I made my intentions clear that I have identified a spot where I would wait for the Gautrain and the helicopter to appear and where I felt I would have had the chance to get the better picture. By this time only a handful of us remained and the next moment Maj. Victor Khumalo turns up and tell us that 6 of us will be picked and have the opportunity to fly with the two chase helicopters and get our shots from air-to-air and that the Gautrain bus will be sent away. And this is how I got my chance to shoot from an open-door helicopter, being at the right time at the right place. In photography it always works out “being at the right time at the right place” to get those spectacular shots.

The SAAF Museum Air Show will precede with an Aviation Career Awareness Day on the 9^th May 2014 sponsored by Mango Airlines where between 5,000-10,000 youths will be bused to the Museum and afforded the opportunity to develop an interest in the aviation industry. There will be Air Show Validation Flights for the purpose of qualifying the aircraft to fly the next day and hopefully this will inspire the youths. The proceedings of the 9^th May 2014 is actually the dress-rehearsal for the next day. The Air Boss, Lt Col Keith Fryer tells me that an “emergency” could be declared at any time to test the emergency services response as the emergency services will have their own ground displays.

The Race is on… the small group of the media gathered at hanger 14 as our departure point. The Alouette 2 helicopter’s pilot was Gnl. Burger  while we were seated in the two Alouette 3 helicopters [being the faster helicopters]. In air-to-air photography the faster aircraft are always used as the “chase aircraft” as the pilots need to maneuver these aircraft for the best photo opportunities. After completing the necessary forms we were ready to board. Lens caps and hoods were removed and anything loose was stashed away and off we went. As we approached Midrand Station the helicopters circled the area [people beneath must have thought there was a crime scene somewhere], but at approximately 15:20 the Gautrain approached Midrand Station and the three helicopters got into position. The dust clouds beneath started to build up as the helicopters hovered on both sides of the track and off we went. The Alo 2 was first out of the blocks and won a couple of hundred metres on the Gautrain, but as the Gautrain got onto speed it started to catch up on the Alo 2. At 15:28 the race was over [yes it took 8 minutes from Midrand Station to Centurion Station] and the Gautrain won the race with the closest of margins. This whole experience lasted only 36 minutes from the time of departure till we returned.

 

What else can the visitor expect on the 10^th May 2014? There will be pyrotechnic displays with huge explosions and ground displays by various groups. The World’s Strongest Man will show his strength and Pratley will show their bulldozer. There will also be static motor vehicle exhibitions and Mango will do their B737-800 and Fortune Air B727 Flypast. Don’t forget there is a full day  Flying Program. Capitol Sound will be providing commentary [tip: Listen carefully to Brian Emmenis’ commentary as he will be telling you exactly what is going on and when to get your cameras ready. Remember the jets are very fast and you could easily lose a photo shot.]

It is going to a long fun filled day, but remember to bring along hats, protective clothing, chairs and sun screen lotion – there will be various stalls and a beer garden where you can buy drinks and food throughout the day. Although the gates will open from 06:00 the Show will start only at 09:30 but until then there are many ground displays to view. It will cost R50,00 per person and children under 12 has free entrance. Enjoy the Show.