2024 Sanicole Airshow

The themes for the 2024 Sanicole Airshow were 50 years of F-16 and War Birds. And we got a lot of Viper action. The Danish, Turkish and US Air Force sent their demo teams to great us. They were met by Vipers of 31SQN and 349SQN of Kleine Brogel Air Base.

And when those Vipers meet the War Birds, you’re in for a treat. We were treated to a BAF heritage flight where an F-16 met up with a Belgian owned Spitfire MkXVI in original 349SQN livery.

This heritage flight was even more special: the Danish Air Force F-16 demo escorted Sally B in the skies over Sanicole. Sally B is the only airworthy Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress in Europe. She is based the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, UK but she is actually Danish owned. It was the express wish of Captain Troels “TEO” Vang, the 2024 Danish F-16 demo pilot, to fly this formation.

The Avro Lancaster and the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress “Sally B” from the Imperial War Museum in Duxford are always a beautiful sight for sore eyes. And they fit the War Bird theme just perfectly.

The highlight of the show for me would be the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk of the Swedish Air Force though. So, on Saturday, I parked myself in front of that beautiful Swedish bird on the flight line. It gave me a good look at them taking off before their display. And I had lots of opportunities to shoot pics.

On Sunday, I set up camp right in front of another of my favorites. It was my 1st encounter with the new AH-64E Apache Guardian of the Royal Dutch Air Force. It was too cloudy and grey to my liking for photos on Sunday though. But all and all, it felt good to be back at an airshow after last year’s premature end to the fun due to a twisted ankle at the 2023 Belgian Air Force Days. That ankle still hurts from time to time btw.

Let’s finish up this blog post with some random pics from the weekend.