AIRPOWER 11

Sadly there was an accident on the first day. During the paratroopers assault from the a transport aircraft C-130 Hercules, one paratrooper hit the parachute of another and they both uncontrolled hit the ground . Both Austrian soldiers were lucky to get away with “just” broken pelvis and shoulder and were not in critical conditions. The reaction of ambulance was swift, only 2 minutes after accident first aid was given and 23 minutes later they were transported to the regional hospital with Alouette III. Even though the reaction was fast, to me looking thru the lens, those 20 minutes seemed like eternity…Seriously, after I saw the para troopers hit the ground I didn’t think they had a chance in surviving. I hope they fully recovered and I wish them all the best.

It wouldn’t be fair not to mention the great organization of the event. A staff of some 5,000 men and women did their job in a perfect manner. I attended many events in my professional career as photojournalist and I think no one gave so much attention to the press like people from AIRPOWER. The top quality food open buffet, soft drinks, loads of Red Bull, and don’t get me started on kindness of personnel, great WiFi coverage and press cafe (according to the host press and photographers ate 4000 hot dogs, 2000 stakes and 1500 hamburgers and god knows how many cans of Red Bull :) ).

AIRPOWER 11 was visited by around 290000 people

Finally I can only give you advice to get ready in time for AIRPOWER 13, because this is an event you shouldn’t miss!

This work by Dimitrije Ostojic is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at www.dimitrijeostojic.com/blog

Više od 200 aviona iz 20 zemalja, gotovo 300000 posetilaca, dva dana celodnevnog letenja, prelepi pejzaži Štajerske i još puno toga…Da li je austrijsko ratno vazduhoplovstvo moglo na bolji način da proslavi stogodišnjicu? Teško. Moj utisak: AIRPOWER 11 je najbolja vazduhoplovna manifestacija na kojoj sam ikad prisustvovao.
Vazduhoplovna baza Celtveg, gde se aeromiting održao, nalazi se u pokrajni Štajerskoj, u dolini okruženoj alpskim vrhovima visokim i preko 2000 metara. Verovatno su planine i razlog zbog koga je AIRPOWER toliko fotogeničan. Što se samog fotografisanja tiče, organizator se potrudio da fotoreporterima i spoterima obezbedi najbolje moguće uslove. Ako se dobro sećam bilo je 13 lokacija za fotografisanje širom aerodroma, do kojih se stizalo organizovanim prevozom od press centra. Kao i obično uglavnom sam koristio Canon 7D sa objektivom Canon 500/4 LIS, mada zbog relativne blizene piste i publike moguće je napraviti pristojne snimke i sa nekim “kraćim” objektivom. Recimo da bi nešto raspona 100-400 u kombinaciji sa krop telom bilo idealno za ovaj aeromiting.O samom aeromitnigu neću puno pričate, to će verovatno bolje odraditi preko 130 fotografija koje slede…