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DUBAI AIR SHOW  The end of an era?                 Kevin Perry/Ian Ellington

Well the time was here again for another blast to the Middle East!! 

I went to Dubai for the first time last year and had a couple of stop over’s while on my way to South Africa to co inside with the Dubai Air show!    You get real close to the runway, so with line up/landing shots of the airliners etc being real tasty it definitely had to be revisited this year for the MEBA! “Middle East Business Aviation”. Taking shots of aircraft is a big problem in the Middle East so this really is the only chance of shooting some tasty movements  “With HOPEFULLY no one threatening to lock you up!!!!!” As would be the case if visiting at any other time than the Air show!!! 

As I had mentioned last year I went via Dubai so went with emirates, but after checking prices! KLM seemed to be the better option as I’d have a full day at Amsterdam on the way out and return!  Anyway so on the morning of Fri 14^th November it was up very early to catch the first KLM Fk100 out of DTV!  PH-OFG was the aircraft that night stopped along with the usual Eastern Jetstream and bmi-regional RJ145!  Nothing else of note at DTV

 Amsterdam Fri 14/11/08

The weather was terrible on touching down at Amsterdam!!!!   I had planned on walking round to 24/06 runway where there’s an excellent viewing area!! “But to be honest” didn’t fancy it with the weather being so bad, so just stopped up on the roof terrace all day to keep out of the rain!!

As I’ve mentioned before in reports! This is just a log of the shots that I took as I'm not a spotter so their was plenty that didn’t get identified!!!! Especially in Dubai!!!

My flight to Dubai wasn’t until 20.50pm so once the spectators gallery closed at 17.00pm it was down to the easy chairs in the terminal for a bit of a chill before boarding the flight!!  Anyway the time soon passed as did the flight onboard PH-BQB Boeing 777-200 which took 5 hrs 50mins!!

Dubai Sat 15/11/2008

Kev wasn’t arriving until 6pm so I headed straight to the Sheraton.  For a small fee you can use the Sheraton’s roof even if you’re not staying there!! “Which was the case for us” as we were booked into the Eureka just round the corner! Anyway the Sheraton is not to bad for shots but ideal for the spotter!!! The only problem at Dubai is they seem to change runways about 12pm every day!! Once they do then its time to put the camera away!! “Like I say” still good for the spotter though as you can still read everything off as they climb away over the roof or land!!

Of interest

Dubai Sun 16/11/2008 

After a real tasty breakfast it was into the taxi for the first day at the show!!!! We had managed to arrange some press passes through a colleague so once we got them it was straight to the front of the queue each morning!! Not that it was that busy!!!!!!

MEBA Show Aircraft

Others of interest

Dubai Mon 17/11/2008

We left the show early today “5pm” as we had planned on doing a bit of sight seeing down Jeremiah beech area!! What a tasty place it is!!!!  We had a few beers in the 360 bar which is on a man made island that overlooked the berj hotel!!!!!  You have to get an electric Buggy to get to the bar as it’s out in the ocean!! But well worth the visit!!! The views are real tasty and what a way to chill after a hard day working the camera!!!

Dubai Tue 18/11/2008

Well it had to happen as you always get one jobs worth!!!!  We had no problems at all at the show and even the police were waving and stopping the jeeps so we could take shots until this one character stopped and told us to only take shots of the show aircraft!!!  To be honest he only told us and no one else,  other people were still using their cameras so we continued to take shots then a Sadam Hussein look a like turned up!!!!!! The big chief!!!!!!!  What an arrogant Bas……..!!!!!  He basically said he would take our cameras off us if we continued and wouldn’t even listen to what we had say!!!!!  So with that in mind we went up some stairs that were on a BBJ and took shots from there! discreetly!!!!!! No more problems with Sadam until he tried to catch us out when he sneaked round inside the fence “this time” in his electric buggy but we seen him and hid the cameras!!!!! Close one!!!!!!! There were 5 of us at this point so we just kept a look out!!!

Dubai 19/11/2008

Today we had arranged a visit to Ras al Khaimah Airport, but it fell trough as the the girl I was mailing had an emergency leave and one of her colleagues didn’t follow up the leads/ramp passes/ Security clearance etc that we needed!!  we were told by the Aeroprints group who were there on the Mon that there were 2 IL18s, “2 B707s and 16 IL76s and 2 Tristars!!!!!  HEAVEN!!!!!!!!  You can’t beat the old Smokey ones!!!!!!!   Anyway with that in mind I got the handkerchiefs out!!!!!!!! Gutted!!!!! So after I’d had a talk to myself we headed up to the Sheraton’s roof and stayed there until they switched then just chilled on the roof of our hotel!

Of interest

Kev was leaving on a Gulf Air flight back to Bahrain at 10pm and my flight wasn’t until 2am Thursday so I just sat and chilled and waited for my flight back to Amsterdam which was on board PH-BQB B777-200 “again”. 

Amsterdam Thur 20/11/2008

On landing at Amsterdam the weather “again” was awful so just decided to stay up the Spectators Gallery all day!!

Once the gallery had closed it was again down to the easy chairs in the terminal for some zzzzzzss and wait for my flight to DTV which was PH-OFN Fk100!! As expected nothing of note in a cold and windy DTV on arrival!!!!

In a nut shell! It’s going to be interesting to see the reports for next years Dubai Air show as its being held at the new Airport “which opens shortly!!”  I'm sure it won’t be as good as previous years for the chance to shoot some tasty movements!!! “So for me” it really is the end of an era!!!!  Hope I'm wrong?????

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Regards

Ian Ellington & Kevin Perry