7th-9th August 2009 – The idea to display at Dala Jarna came from our Scandinavian Airshow friends in January. Regrettably their monster wingwalk Agcat biplane had a broken engine and could not tow us, but the Västerdalarnas Flygklubb at Dala Järna loaned us both a 235HP Pawnee and tow pilot Jonas Larsson. The Journey to Sweden was a gruelling 25.5 hour, 1285 mile drive for Paul Johnson and Guy Westgate, and a 10 hour flight for Peter Wells in G-RIOT, who stopped off to meet the Strieker brothers at Paderborn-Haxterberg at the Twister factory in Germany.

The central lake-land area of Sweden is a prime gliding area, and with the almost continuous lakes and forests, every outdoor pursuit is catered for. The ‘Air Festival’ was started in the 1946, and resurrected in more recent times in 1986, with a show held once every thee to four years since. It has become as famous for its live band and party atmosphere as for the flying, and has hosted both the Red Arrows and Harrier in the past.

We were surprised by the number of UK acts this year, including the PBY5A Catalina, RF4 and fabulous Aerostars. There was local talent too, most spectacular being Mikael Carlson who displayed his recently restored Fokker DR1 Triplane and Piper L4 Cub, that was looped off the deck and pushed through low level cuban eights and barrel rolls. Saab’s unique vintage war machines were at the show including B17 dive bomber, J32B Lansen and J29 Flying Barrel together with the latest JAS 39 Gripen.

The highlights of the show however were Ralf Aarts in his third year flying the Dutch F16 and aerobatic legend Jurgis Kairys in his Su26, who pulled off a 22 turn spin in the middle of his display.

The ‘after show’ organisation was no less impressive with entertainment was ‘P-Floyd’, a tribute band to 80’s sensation Pink Floyd and we all fell in love with the blonde backing singers.

30,000 Spectators enjoyed sunshine over the weekend, but big clouds built up on Sunday and gave Pete a good soaking on his fight back.

Thanks must go to Airshow manager Kjell Dalsheim for the invitation to the perfect airshow.