Fun galore at Nairobi air show

A rally car and a helicopter compete at Wilson Airport in Nairobi during the Tusker Air Show Festival on December 21, 2013. Photo/Salaton Njau  Nation Media Group

By Daniel Ondieki
 
Air shows are an integral part of countries with an aviation culture. They serve to engage the public, entertain people with aerobatic displays and show off military capabilities.

In these countries there is even a time of the year where most of the shows take place, followed by an off season to allow for training.

Kenya does not have a culture of holding air shows, which is surprising for we have a reasonably robust aviation industry.

The Aero Club of East Africa in the past used to organise these festivals, but none had been organised for the last 10 years. They sought to change that this year by organising a show to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the birth of the republic. After a week’s delay due to bad weather, the event was held on the December 21-22 last year.

I happened to attend the second day of the event where I managed to watch a few displays.  There was a race between a rally car and a helicopter, which the rally car won.

The Kenya Wildlife Service did a fly-by and a demonstration on how they tackle poachers. A couple of passenger jets also performed some low level fly-pasts.

There can be no doubt, however, that the military displays were the most entertaining. First soldiers rappelled onto the runway from a chopper hovering at 50 feet in a mock air assault. Next were static line parachute drops from a buffalo aircraft overflying the airfield at low altitude.

I’m not sure how non aviators found the show, but I thought that there was too much time between displays and not enough variety. Radio communications were not connected to the public address system thus reducing crowd engagement.

The Sh1,500 entry fee might have been too steep for most Kenyans, although the really determined were able to follow proceedings from outside the fence.

The big jets restricted themselves to simple fly-pasts rather than liven it up with whatever minimal aerobatics that a large plane can do.

The military also could probably have chipped in with more displays. As much as most of their effort was concentrated on Jamhuri Day celebrations, an air show provides a closer view that is more thrilling and entertaining to the public.

At around mid afternoon with interest waning, someone sighted two jets flying in formation to the East of the field in a wide circuit for the Northern runway.

In no time they flew directly overhead the field, in a low level fly-past screeching engines sending the crowds into wild cheers.

A few highly entertaining aerobatic manoeuvres later, both planes did one last extremely low flyby with full afterburner. Flying at close to the speed of sound, the audience could see the planes but not hear them.

They passed overhead with a deafening roar as children and adults alike clapped, turned north and disappeared just as suddenly as they had arrived.