Meeting de l'air at Cambrai

On 2nd July 2006, BA 103 Cambrai-Epinoy opened its doors to the public. Open days are organized pretty often in France: on average an airbase hosts an airshow every five years. With dozens of airbases, this means there are a lot to be seen each year. For the readers who have never attended a French open day, here are some of the characteristics:

• almost every aircraft type in French service can be seen;
• a regular part of the show is a mass formation of based aircraft;
• the crowd is usually pretty close to the flightlines (use ear protection);
• admission is free or very cheap;
• don't expect hamburgers, but french bread and fries instead;
• Patrouille de France is usually the closing act.

Cambrai-Epinoy is situated in the northern part of France and home to two squadrons of Dassault Mirage 2000's: Escadrons de Chasse 1/12 Cambrésis and 2/12 Picardie. Both are equipped with the RDI-model which is used for the intercepter role.

Lots of Mirages could be seen during this open day. All subtypes were present in the static park along with their successors: the fifth generation Dassault Rafales. Besides the French stuff, other European air forces participated as well: both the Belgian and Dutch F-16 demo's were present and the Swiss PC-7 Team gave a demonstration with its nine (!) aircraft.

Fortunately, the weather was excellent, so all together the crowd had great value for only little money.