Last Saturday of May 2017 was dedicated to aviation – at least in small village of Dubová in Little Carpathians, Western Slovakia. The local grass runway was the starting point of various propeller powered aircrafts and helicopters. The performers included Peter Besenyei, a Red Bull Air Race legend and pioneer, The Flying Bulls Aerobatic Group as well as various pilots from Slovakia and Czech republic.
At the end of August, I visited the 6th annual Slovak International Air Fest (SIAF 2016) in Sliac, Slovakia. The highlights of this year’s edition were Sukhoi Su-27 (Ukraine), Patrulla Aguila (Spain), aerobatic pilot with unlimited “allowance” Jurgis Kairys (Lithuania), Flying Bulls Aerobatic Team (Czech republic) and General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon (Belgium). By far the biggest candy on the ground was Boeing B-52 Stratofortress from Barksdale Airforce Base in Louisiana, United States, which made its return to Slovakia after 4 years. Unfortunately, the overal experience was lacking compared to last year’s edition, which was mostly very good. Even the weather wasn’t very cooperative, with strong sunshine and backlight that affected most of the afternoon performances.
At the end of August, I attended the Slovak International Air Fest 2015 in Sliac. This large airshow is usually plagued by bad weather, but this year it was rather OK. The highlight of this year’s edition were Frecce Tricolori – a demonstration team of Italy’s Aeronautica Militare.
Last summer holiday weekend was dedicated to planes, both old and new. The the two-day Slovak International Air Fest 2013 was held on Sliac Air Force Base in the heart of Slovakia. Over the years, I have attended and photographed several air shows. I was looking forward to this one, because there were some planes I haven’t seen since I was a little kid (most notably the Su-27 Flanker).
The weather on sunday was far from perfect. There were clouds and rain till the mid-day and partly sunny on the afternoon. Photographying planes agains the sky full of heavy clouds is extremely challenging. The most important thing is to use positive exposure compensation, otherwise the planes would end up completely dark. I used anything from +2/3 to +1 2/3 exposure compensation. Despite the challenging condition, the most of the photos ended up looking good after the shadows/highlights adjustment in Lightroom.
I posted quite a lot photos on my slovak blog: http://hutera.blog.sme.sk/c/336553/Medzinarodne-letecke-dni-SIAF-2013.html and some of my favorite photos are posted below:
MiG-29 Fulcrum – Slovak Air Force
F4D Corsair – Red Bull “Flying Bulls”
P-51 Mustang
World War One Dogfight – Sopwith Strutter and Fokker e.III
Blanik Glider
F-16 Fighting Falcon – Royal Netherlands Air Force
Patrulla Águila – Spanish Air Force
Su-27 Flanker – Ukrainian Air Force
