Central South Africa in the town of Bethlehem took to the Dihlabeng skies on August 25th,with their annual airshow.This show is always known as one of the colder airshows on the airshow circuit,but the crowds still flocked to the Airshow to see some of the top aerobatic and airshow display performers on the South African Airshow scene. With the low cloud conditions in the morning of the show,some participants manged to get through the weather and made sure they wouldn’t miss the show.

Half scale Tucano

Friday the day before the show some of the pilots arrived as they made a full weekend of the show. Little Annie provided short flips for the youth who have never tasted the thrill of flight. Little Annie is definitely flown a lot of the youth at small town Airshows. These guys are truly making an impact of the youth and are sure creating future pilots for South Africa.

Young Aviator

The Capital Sounds team provided the sound and information on each aircraft on the day,thanks to Leon Du Plessis, Col Keith Fryer, Elvis Manene, Ricky Fouche,’Lappies’ Labuschangne and Francios Schutte. Safety Directors were none other then col Francios ‘Hosepipe’ Hanekom and Pete Graham. Ramp Boss kept the aircraft safe out of the ramp in charge was Col Keith Andrews and Nigel Musgrave.

Capital Sounds Team

The show started off with a gyrocopter display flown by Matt Zalewski,the AN2 ‘Little Annie’ was tasked at taking the eleven Skydivers though the thick clouds,their canopy appeared through them as they were opened. The Brakpan based Randolph sponsored Boeing Stearman was up next flown by Boeing Captain Ivan Van Der Schaar. The sleek line on the canvas made great photo oppurtnities. Team Extreme were up next with their always high impact show. The two Pitts Teams the Cows and Goodyear Eagles put on their high energy aerobatic sequence. Little Annie the AN2 completed a polished display and then decided to race a tractor, something new to the airshow scene. The Puma Flying Lions flew a three-ship display.

Gyrocopter

Paradrop from ‘Little Annie’

Boeing Stearman

Team Extreme

Jason Beamish

The Cows Taillifts Team

Goodyear Eagles Pitts S2B

‘Little Annie’ AN2 ZU-JLM

Little Annie racing a tractor

A Trubo Thrush did a water bombing demo and Bell 222 from Henely Air, provided a near ‘Airwolf’ movie scene with the roar of the blade3s beating through the skies. Conrad Botha and Andrew Blackwood Murray provided solo aerobatic sequences.

Turbo Thrush

Bell 222

Slick 360

Nashua Extra 300

Thanks to Stephan Fourie and Khotso on another Bethlehem Airshow. See you next year!