Texel Airshow 2012

Report and images by Remco Donselaar, video Jan Loedeman.

In 1937, Texel International Airport was founded in cooperation with KLM at the Island of Texel, the Netherlands, as an alternative for the ferry from Den Helder. Nowadays the airport has one the largest grass (paved) runways in Europe and is a popular destination for tourists to fly into the Island. Most flight activity however is related to the paracentre and the airport is also a regular for tank stops by helicopters from the Dutch Police (KLPD) and Royal Netherlands Air Force.

The Leaseweb Texel Airshow 2012 was the tenth airshow organised at Texel since 1980. The first ideas of organising an airshow at the airport raised in the 70's and resulted in the first show at August 9, 1980 with the RNLAF Grasshopper display team as one of the highlights that year. Throughout the years the airshow always had some special visitors like RAF Harriers, RAF Canberra, a Russian Su-27 and Spanish F/A-18. Driving force behind the show is airport manager Ed de Bruijn, a well known person in the airshow scene, being head of RNLAF Air Display Office since 2001 and board member of the European Airshow Council member group.

This years edition was no exception to previous years when it comes to highlights with a full (afternoon) flying program presented including some flypasts by rare military participants. The USAF Europe participated with a KC-135 operating out of RAF Mildenhall and a C-130J Hercules from Ramstein while the older version of the Hercules was show by the Belgian Air Component. Very special to see was the Norwegian Falcon 20ECM, too bad its flare show probably only was seen by the crew of the ferry at Den Helder... Unlike 3 weeks earlier, when the use of flares was prohibited at RIAT12, the Belgian Air Component A-109 and the RNLAF F-16 used them in their show. For the latter it was one of the few shows in NL this year.

Historical aviation was well represented by the Royal Netherlands Historical Flight, privately operated TF-51D Mustang and Hawker Fury, the Fouga Magister and Dutch Thunder Yaks. Operating from De Kooy was Europe's best civil display team the Breitling Jet Team. They closed the show after another Breitling sponsored team had shown a fine piece of wing walking. With 2 of their Boeing Stearman pilots Martyn Carrington and David Barrel and Wingwalkers Danielle Hughes and Freya Paterson showed a very dynamic show. Airshow sponsor Leaseweb had their own aircraft, an Extra 330LT to open the show.

With no RNLAF Open Days (Luchtmachtdagen) this year it was very welcome to see the Texel Airshow being organised. Off course it's not fair to compare both of them as they have very different interests but with Ed de Bruijn being part of both organisation teams its more related to each other than one might think. The Texel Airshow attracted a record breaking 22.000 visitors and they were presented a very balanced show with a good mix of military, civil and historical aviation. Some last minute cancellations even made the programme better with the Czech Mil Mi-35 demo filling one of he gaps. The static show saw some rare participants like the AerLingus DH.84 Dragon 'Iolar' from Ireland and the Sikorsky S-38 “Osa’s Ark”. For the lovers of General Aviation Texel was the place to be with more than 250 aircraft flying into the airshow.

We had two splendid days at Texel International Airport and rate the show a well deserved 5 stars! Hopefully it won't take another five years for the next show, but that most likely will depend all on sponsorship.

We would like to thank Niels Broekhof for the cooperation during the two days and all the people who made this show possible! Hereby we also congratulate Sir Ed de Bruijn for being knighted in the Order of Oranje-Nassau after the airshow as a well deserved honor for his work in the RNLAF and aviation in general.