Berlin-Schönefeld, Germany - 30/05/2008

When my good friend Marcus Jellyman pointed out that Ryanair flew from Stansted to Berlin-Schönefeld, the airport that hosts ILA every other year, it rapidly became a must do day-trip!

An 0315 start was required and we arrived in Berlin shortly after 0900. After clearing immigration we went outside to where the complimentary airshow shuttle buses were operating from.

The Schönefeld site is something of a building site at present, and after wending our way to the show entrance we arrived to find quite a queue as the gates didn't open till 1000. We spoke to a representative who explained that if we had tickets we could bypass the queue for those booths, so we did.

We cleared security (a standard bag search and metal detector test) and were on our way. Unfortunately by this stage the flying display had already commenced - very few people could have seen the early items as entry was far from fast!

Having negotiated the static maze we headed left towards the tower. The crowds were much thinner there and we seemed to be roughly crowd centre so far as the displays were concerned.

The first full display we were in position to photograph was the spritely Heersflieger Bolkow Bo105, the first of many rotory participants during the day.

Some of the bigger draws for many of the people present were the Luftwaffe and Heersflieger domonstrations, and it fell to the former to perform theirs' first.

This particular spectacle comprised four EF2000s (two each from JG-73 and JG-74), a single F-4F Phantom from JG-71, four JbG-33 Tornado IDS, including a pair performing a buddy-buddy refuelling demo, a further four from JbG-31, in addition to a pair from AG-51, a pair of JbG-32 Tornado ECRs, two C160D Transalls, as well as a pair of UH-1Ds providing cover.

After intercepting and escorting the 'aggressor' Phantom, one of the EF2000s shadowed it in for an approach.

With air superiority secured, the Tornado ECRs could come through to take out the ground stations and radar threats...

...whilst the EF2000s kept a watch on proceedings.

With hostile threats all removed, the ground attack phase could then be completed.

And with the impending arrival of the Transalls, the UH-1Ds moved in to provide top cover to the troops who would soon be on the ground.

Terrorists captured. Good job!

The demo could've really benefited from the explosions we see in the RAF Role Demo, however, that could benefit from having access to the number of assets that the Luftwaffe one has!

An arrival next which took us all slightly by surprise; a Polish AF MiG-29A Fulcrum. There had been one on the list for the flying, but alas this was its arrival in Germany and it would need to authenticate before it would be allowed to display. Sadly this happened when we were firmly ensconced back in the terminal building at the end of the day.

Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) were one of ILA's partner companies and were present with no less than eight of their own Dhruv helicopters; five belonging to the display team, The Sarangs, and three in standard Indian Army colours. Examples of both performed during the show.

Next up was the featured event that I had most been looking forward to; the Heersflieger demonstration.

It was a real shame that the air wasn't clearer because the sight of all of those helicopters was something to behold. In total there were ten CH-53s, a Bo105, three Tigers and a NH-90 - the first time I'd shot either of those last two named types.

The demo featured underslung loads and showed off the Army's ability to fast rope from its helicopters.

The final pass comprised the whole of the package and was rather special.

It was around this point that things started to get slightly more frustrating. Evidently in previous years, Schönefeld has had two runways to utilise, so commercial traffic has used one, leaving display items free to use the other. This was not the case this year because of the aforementioned building work. As a result all operations were being conducted from the sole runway, and this meant that anytime an aircraft was scheduled to display and a commercial movement was expected, said display item was pushed several hundred metres further back, making it impossible to photograph and in many cases almost impossible to see!

Real sufferers were the OV-10 Bronco, the Hungarian AF Mi-24 Hind, the RAF Chinook and the RNLAF F-16, to name but a few.

The BBMF sent along a Spitfire and the Dakota and paid tribute to both the German and the allied losses during the WW2 campaign.

In a bid to be different the Airbus A380 elected to take off in the opposite direction to the rest of the display items. It didn't seem to be flown with the same vigour as at Farnborough 2006, and the aircraft in question was a bit of a mess.

A rather lovely looking Polish AF AN-26, support for the MiG-29 arrived next.

Due to display restrictions in Germany, the Patrouille Suisse put on a special display for ILA. The instantly recognisable shape of Roger Federer's tennis racquet can be seen on the right.

The Junkers Ju-52 operated flights throughout the day. It would've been nice to have seen a display from it, but the programme was already so crowded that a number of items were restricted to just a couple of passes as it was.

More rotory action next with the RAF Chinook (who was forced to display somewhere close to the Danish border), followed by the NH90 and Tiger demonstrations by crews from WTD-61 at Manching - the German Test and Evaluation unit.

Unfortunately by this time the light was beginning to get quite awkward, and the JG-73 EF2000 demo was difficult to photograph as a consequence.

Red Bull displayed their B-25 Mitchell, DC-6B and their Bo105.

The Rockwell B-1B from the 7th BW, Dyess TX, put on a nice routine and would've looked superb had it displayed a few hours earlier.

Flying shots by now seemed pointless, so the Croatian Wings Of Storm and their PC-9s were just shot taxying in.

Unfortunately the anticipated Messerschmitt particpation by way of the EADS Me-109 and Me-262s didn't happen. The 109 had ground looped earlier in the week, while the 262 had a brake issue which prompted the need for some taxying runs, but fortunately this came at the end of the day, so we did at least get to shoot it 'engines running', so to speak.

Such a good looking aircraft and one I hope to photograph in the skies before too long.

With that the show came to a close and we were asked to vacate the airfield.

For a grand total of about £55 for flights and entry, I think it has to go down as money well spent. There were a few frustrations, but it'll be interesting to see what the implications are when the new second runway (to the south) opens. I'd certainly be keen to go back so long as we're not going to be forced to shoot into the sun...