Hahnweide airfield is a grass strip that nessles beside a range of hills and the town of Kirchhem unter Teck and only 13 km from Stuttgart airport.
The activity there is mostly gliding but once every two years they have a fly in and air show which takes place from Friday through to Sunday. Over 300 aircraft, mainly older types were due to land though a few for the display act aircraft had to use Stuttgart airport.
Not all the aircraft turned up but it was very busy. Most of the arrivals were on a hot Friday and almost continuous from late morning. Saturday and Sunday were the air show days.With the day visitors on Saturday and the almost wave after wave of pleasure flights in Doves, Rapids, Antonov 2s , Ju52s and others, the actual flying displays was spread over the whole day from about 10am through to approx 7.30pm to end another hot day.
Sunday, the weather forecast was not so good. Cloud built up during the day but fortunately the rain held at bay. With a much smaller crowd, less pleasure flying and only a few day visitors, the display ended at about 5pm. Nevertheless the significant drop in temperature came as a great relief.
he area is quite picturesque particularly at the preferred landing end where a hill rises right opposite the threshold inside the airfield. You can look down on the aircraft. Not only that, but the area on approach to land slopes away before the threshold in to a valley then rises again in to high hills. There is a naughty field but it is a long way from the airfield. There is even a naughty mountain or two but how close you would be for aircraft turning in is very difficult to judge but from what I could see mostly miss rather than hit. The mountain is a few miles away!
However for 30 Euros over 3 days, would you really want to go outside?
Going to the opposite side of the airfield is no good as it is bounded by a forested area. Most of the airfield is quite narrow and all the aircraft will be displaying behind you so you will see nothing.
The only downside is that the sun is in front of you almost the whole day. However, this is more than offset by the landing shots you can get but even then, photography of some aircraft n front of the shadows of the trees can still be awkward. You can go out of the airfield to the bottom of the valley and take sunny side pictures of the landings but the aircraft are quite high.
There is nothing wrong shooting against the light so long as you come out with something decent or you after a particular type of shot or there is little alternative .
Activity usually starts quite early but if your aim is to ‘get to the front’ do not bother as you will soon see your view blocked by a densely packed three deep row of aircraft almost end to end of the crowd line. The high ground is the best option.
Most people will be familiar with some of the warbirds that flew at Duxford Flying Legends and will also be familiar with the aircraft types except there were many more of them from different owners. Also a few types that are seldom seen in the UK.
The last time I saw a Noratlas in the UK was at Middle Wallop well over 20 years ago.
One aircraft attending was very familiar, a certain Hurribomber from the UK. Thank you very much for the only curved short finals landing and very much the nicest landing over the three days.
Quite a lot of pictures
Thanks
Martin
Last edited by
SEMAE on Thu 03 Oct 2013, 8:47 pm, edited 4 times in total.
