Zeltweg AB. Austria - 25th November 2005

When I read that the Austrian Air Force (Österreichische Luftstreitkräfte) were to retire their Saab J-35OE Drakens, them being the last Air Arm to operate the type, and that they'd be holding a flyout ceremony to mark the event, I decided I wanted to be there.

I travelled out with Lee Hellwing and after spending a very snowy day at Graz-Thalerhof, we awoke to find similar conditions at our hotel in Graz the next morning. Fortunately however, things improved drastically as we approached our destination for the day of Zeltweg.

After a quick drive around the perimeter we found the active approach end of the runway and sitting there were approximately five Bell AB212s, half a dozen PC-7s, a pair of S-70s, and a number of Drakens sitting on the ramp. All bar the PC-7s and Drakens were visiting.

Sadly, I lost a folder of images from the morning and have only been able to recover the next four images from uploads made to the online databases before the DVD failed.

In addition to those movements a single Draken was launched during the morning from the "Q-Shed", though it was suggested that this was just a display practice (albeit away from the airfield) for later that afternoon.

For the afternoon we'd been granted access to the base for the ceremony itself. A circle of Drakens had been assembled and the Austrian Minister for Defence was flown in by helicopter.

With the imminent departure of Capt Michael "Kim" Kirchner for the final display of the Draken in Austrian Air Force service, we jumped in to a car with Robert Kysela of Checksix to head back outside.

"Kim's" ride for this display was the newly painted special schemed "Dragon Knights" Draken.

After recovery the aircraft was parked in between two of the other Drakens in the static, and Capt Kirchner was available for interviews.

Capt Kirchner told us how wonderful this old aircraft had been for the Austrian Air Force. After 18 years of service and more than 27000 missions, the air arm ended with the exact same 24 airframes that they'd started out with all those years ago.

I'm really glad I made the effort to head out for the ceremony. While the Drakens still flew until the end of 2005, acting as aggressors for the F-5s that had been leased from the Swiss until their own fifteen new build EF2000s had been delivered, this was a great opportunity to catch the type in service before it was too late.

Sincere thanks go to the Austrian Air Force Public Affairs Department for access.