September 16 and 17 saw the annual NATO Days public show at Ostrava, in the north east of the Czech Republic.
The weather was largely wet and overcast when I attended on the Saturday. As such, the flying displays were affected adversely. This included the scheduled display by the Saudi Hawks team, who ultimately cancelled their saturday performance due to poor visibility and safety concerns.
As has been the practice of NATO Days for the past few years, a special co-host nation was chosen; Slovakia was that nation this year and they brought a good selection of air and land gear with them.
At that, here’s a sampling of what was on hand at this year’s show:
This CF-18 Hornet in the static park marked the first time Canada sent an aircraft to the NATO Days event. This Hornet came from 433 Squadron.The F-16 is a standard NATO Days attendee. These ones were courtesy of the Netherlands.Lithuania brought three aircraft for the statics, including this Eurocopter AS365.Among the equipment Slovakia presented at the event was their newest air asset, the Sikorsky UH-60M Blackhawk.Parked next to the Blackhawk was the stalwart Mil Mi-17; this one in the colours of the Slovak Government Flying Service.Also in the Slovak section of the static park was this Fokker 100.This Dornier Do-228NG, equipped for aerial survey and monitoring work, came courtesy of the German navy.This was as close as anyone came to seeing the Saudi Hawks team on Saturday.An increasingly rare sight in European skies is the Yakovlev Yak-40. The Czech air force has two and they are scheduled to be replaced in the next year or two.A NATO Days standard, which was sadly absent at the 2016 edition, was the Slovak air force MiG-29 display. It was great to see it return this year.One of my very few presentable flying shots from the day was this Slovak A319 Airbus display.Adding a bit of vintage to the show was this restored two seat MiG-15 which flies on the Czech civil register.
Pickled Wings 