Wonsan (North Korea) Air Festival

[Dr Doofenshmirtz]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtK_OsSXaPE

It's like a classic car show, with planes!
I'd love to be there though - amazing.

[baldy1926]

I bet most of them dont normally fly.
I presume the cheering local crowd were the families of the pilots kept there to make certain no one tried to escape.

[Eric Mc]

Would have been a great experience - although I reckon they would frown anybody noting down regsitrations or taking photos.

The runway looked awfully dusty.

[bob1179]

That is awesome. The TU-134 still looks like a really mean aircraft!

I loved the Il-18 at the beginning too, I flew on one of those to Warsaw in 1988!

[Eric Mc]

One of these no doubt -

[paul_y3k]

Friend of mine is just on his way back form the show ... I'm sure He'll have lots of pictures and I'll ask him If I can repost them ...

[ukaskew]

Flying Air Koryo would be quite an experience!

It might be alone in this but I would love to see more big commercial stuff at airshows in the UK.

[Dr Doofenshmirtz]

paul_y3k said:

Friend of mine is just on his way back form the show ... I'm sure He'll have lots of pictures and I'll ask him If I can repost them ...

That's pretty cool - how did he go about getting there?

[Eric Mc]

ukaskew said:

Flying Air Koryo would be quite an experience!

It might be alone in this but I would love to see more big commercial stuff at airshows in the UK.

I presume you mean like this -

[schmunk]

That Mig-21 landing at 09:39 was a bit, er, energetic...

[nigelpugh7]

Eric Mc said:

Would have been a great experience - although I reckon they would frown anybody noting down regsitrations or taking photos.

The runway looked awfully dusty.

Agreed it would have been fantastic to go to that show!!

And on the subject of dust, hadn't they just finished a new runway/taxiway and terminal recently?

Im sure this was all about good PR for the nee building etc.

Also is it just me, but there seems to be lots of happy and casually dressed koreans there? I thought that was frowned upon by the DPRK?

And I also noticed a lot of western people in the audience, are we seeing some relaxation of the non nationals not being welcome?

[ukaskew]

nigelpugh7 said:

And I also noticed a lot of western people in the audience, are we seeing some relaxation of the non nationals not being welcome?

Visiting isn't difficult, several hundred thousand do it every year, you just have to remain part of an official tour. I would imagine they would be more than happy to incorporate an airshow into an official itinerary.

[Eric Mc]

I am sure there were aviation enthusiast tours organised for this event.

There you go -

http://www.ianallantravel.com/aviationtours/our-to...

North Korea: Wonsan Air Festival 2016 - Revised Itinerary (227634)

[eharding]

Eric Mc said:

ukaskew said:

Flying Air Koryo would be quite an experience!

It might be alone in this but I would love to see more big commercial stuff at airshows in the UK.

I presume you mean like this -

I'll be walking past that very spot in an hour or so.

Shame the Norks didn't bring the Nanchangs they have out to play for the airshow - I was out in one yesterday, off to collect the Yak from the engine fettlers who have fixed our slow start problem meaning I was actually able to get the bloody thing started for the first time in months (yay!)

The Chinese have started getting awkward about approving CAA reg-exempt paint schemes for the 'Changs, so one option might be seeing if the North Koreans would play ball....although they'd probably insist on the comedy flag being flown at all times...



...so sticking with the current choice of Sri Lanka seems a better bet.

[Eric Mc]

I can see the CAA agreeing that particular modification.

[zsdom]

Keep an eye on UK airshow review, one of our staff members was there & will be writing a full report soon

http://www.airshows.co.uk/

[Gandahar]

Nice video by Sam, The il 76 is such a beast.

I once flew in a Tu 154 to Bulgaria on a skiing holiday back in the 90s. Landed on a runway full of snow. No drama, better than nowadays, pilots had to fly it ...

PS My holiday spending money was £30 for the entire 7 days.....

[bob1179]

Eric Mc said:

One of these no doubt -

I have some photo's of it somewhere, it may have been that very aircraft! Largest flight deck of any airliner I've been on. I remember there being the usual pilot, co-pilot and flight engineer, but there was also a small desk on the left hand side and a big map of Western and Central Europe on it and a Navigator plotting the course we were taking.

I flew on one of their TU-154's in 1991. I love the Soviet stuff, they just seem a bit special.

Edited by bob1179 on Thursday 6th October 10:40