2024 was my first visit to Zeltweg, and after looking back at what had been in previous years like Croatian MiG-21s, Chinese Y-20 and many others, i was excited to see what random aircraft may appear. as the show crept closer i started to worry that there was going to be no specific "star item" and began to wonder if i had made the right choice?...
the trip started with a flight to Milan to meet up with my friend who was also making the trip across. huge bonuses of travelling with a smoker is we stop many times for espresso and pastry on the way!! one thing we didn't expect to see on our journey across was a pair of CL415s circuit bashing a lake we were passing on the motorway, a quick re route and we found several good spots to watch them from! all of a sudden i realised this was gonna be an epic trip!! due to our stop off we ended up missing any arrivals on Tuesday but i think what we came away with on the lake more than made up for that.
Wednesday and Thursday arrivals and rehearsal days were very busy and we had the opportunity to shoot almost the entire display from the public side before the show days in some lovely weather! this meant the Friday and Saturday display days could be shot from the more challenging but much quieter spotters locations away from the massive crowds!
despite what i said about the lack of star items, what was there made for a decent line up, and apart from the friday morning we were blessed with some great weather.
the spotters package was a master class of how to look after spotters who part with large sums of money to stare into the sky for a week. an hours early entry on show days, transport between the 14 different spotter only locations and a spotters tent where you were served as much food, drinks, coffee and Red bull as you could manage! it was nice to not feel like an inconvenience unlike a certain local airshow to me!
CL415s....
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Jonathan Warner, on Flickr
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Jonathan Warner, on Flickr
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Jonathan Warner, on Flickr
Wednesday & Thursday arrivals and rehearsals...
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Jonathan Warner, on Flickr
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Jonathan Warner, on Flickr
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Jonathan Warner, on Flickr
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Jonathan Warner, on Flickr
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Jonathan Warner, on Flickr
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Jonathan Warner, on Flickr
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Jonathan Warner, on Flickr
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Jonathan Warner, on Flickr
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Jonathan Warner, on Flickr
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Jonathan Warner, on Flickr
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Jonathan Warner, on Flickr
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Jonathan Warner, on Flickr
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Jonathan Warner, on Flickr
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Jonathan Warner, on Flickr
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Jonathan Warner, on Flickr
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Jonathan Warner, on Flickr
Friday show day...
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Jonathan Warner, on Flickr
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Jonathan Warner, on Flickr
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Jonathan Warner, on Flickr
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Jonathan Warner, on Flickr
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Jonathan Warner, on Flickr
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Jonathan Warner, on Flickr
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Jonathan Warner, on Flickr
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Jonathan Warner, on Flickr
Saturday show day...
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Jonathan Warner, on Flickr
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Shockwaves!!!
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Jonathan Warner, on Flickr
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Jonathan Warner, on Flickr
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Jonathan Warner, on Flickr
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Jonathan Warner, on Flickr
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Jonathan Warner, on Flickr
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Jonathan Warner, on Flickr
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Jonathan Warner, on Flickr
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Jonathan Warner, on Flickr
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Jonathan Warner, on Flickr
if you made it this far, thanks for looking!