BAF Days 2023

Saturday(09.09.2023), 06.00 a.m.

After a long time, it was finally that time again. 3 of our members found their way to Belgium to attend this year's Belgian Air Force Days.

We started early so that we could be there before the gates opened.

So we arrived around 9:00 a.m. and entered the site smoothly. Security check and ticket control were done and the first Portuguese F16 smiled at us. Since we still had 1 hour until the actual show, we decided to check out all the static aircraft first. Starting with the Dutch F35 over Danish F16 and ending with the Belgian F16 which had its very last flight just the day before.

Even though the number of static aircraft was limited, we were still ready for the start of the show and were able to get to the first spot on time.

It wasn't long before the first jet showed up, a Swedish Saab Draken. This was immediately convincing and so the hype was really real by now at the latest.

Logically, we came mainly just for real jets, but other display teams or solo displays of prop-aircraft were also convincing and put on a nice show.

But in the morning not only one jet was supposed to fly but also several, so in addition to the Saab Viggen display, we were also able to admire the amazing Spanish Eurofighter solo display.

To go into this in a little more detail, we exclusively conducted a short interview with the pilot after the Solo Display, who made it clear to us that this was a first for him, as this was his first show outside of Spain. He also told =us that he maxed out a whopping 9G and strong -3G. He made it clear to us that the minus Gs are much worse for the head and that it is much more strenuous to keep up.

But not only the Spaniard should fly his display during the day. Nationalities such as Greece, America, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Poland, France, Jordan, England and of course the Belgians also made their big appearances.

At lunchtime there was an autograph session with BEO Wolfe, the US Air Force F35 demo pilot, where we finally managed to take a photo with her. And she was supposed to fly an absolutely sick solo display again in the afternoon.

So the afternoon was packed with jet action which was really great fun.

But unfortunately the day was slowly coming to an end and we ended the day with a picture together with the Swiss F18 pilot and the Belgian F16 pilot.

We are now talking about 6.30 p.m. and we were slowly but surely heading back to the parking lot.

All in all, we can praise the very good organization and will be happy to come back in the future.

It was really a great day.

Written by Max (aviation05)