Meeting National at EvreuxEvreux On the western side of Paris lies the ‘Base Aérienne 105 Évreux "Commandant Viot"’ (ICAO code LFOE). This airbase is the home of 2 Transall squadrons and a mixed squadron:Escadron de Transport 01.064 "Béarn" flying the C-160NG Transall Escadron de Transport 02.064 "Anjou" flying the C-160NG Transall Groupe Aérien Mixte 00.056 "Vaucluse" flying the Twin Otter and SuperPuma Meeting NationalIn 2007, Évreux was one of the airbases to organize on July 8th a Meeting National, an Open Day for the (French) public. The Évreux airshow would have become a footnote in the history of French airshows, but the organisers were able to attract the USAF ‘Thunderbirds’ to their field. The USAF demoteam ‘the Thunderbirds’ spent a few weeks in Europe and their presence made the Évreux show one of the highlights of the year 2007.Static showThe static show demonstrated 2 lines with static aircraft, showing fighters like Mirages, F-16s’s A-10’s, Rafales, Typhoon. Several transport aircraft (C-160, C-130 and C-17) were parked on the public part. The large wings and tails of the transport aircraft, supplied an improvised rainshelter to the public without umbrellasFlightlineThe flightline of the show was located on the parallel runway, close to the public. The audience could see the flight preparations from nearby of the stuntteams: the Breitling Jet team, Patrouille de France, Patrulla Aguila, Royal Jordanian Falcons and the Thunderbirds. Also the solo aircraft like F-16, Mirage 2000, Fouga Magister were very close.Old timersFrance has a great tradition for airworthy ‘oldtimers’ and at Evreux a Noratlas and a B-17 were the flying highlights of the ‘oldtimers’.ThunderbirdsIn 2007 the Thunderbirds started their European tour in Ireland, then they went to Poland and Italy before landing at Evreux. After Evreux, the International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford would be the last demo on European soil. The Thunderbirds started in 1953 in the F-84 Thunderjet and nowadays they fly the F-16C. Besides a spectacular show of the aircraft in the sky, there is also an impressive groundshow performed by the crewchiefs before take-off and after landing. In previous years, the Thunderbirds flew the F-100 Super Sabre, the Savigny-les-Beaune Museum in France supplied the Evreux show with one of their F-100 Thunderbird museum pieces.The weatherThe first months of summer of 2007 in Western Europe will be known in history as ‘very wet’. Lots of rainshowers and thunderstorms passed over Europe and the rain didn’t spare Evreux this year. During the rehearsals on Friday and Saturday the weather was fairly well. But on Sunday there was rain between 12:00 and 17:00. This bad weather caused a cancellation of the airshow for a while, skipping the show of the Belgium Fouga Magister and F-16. In the late afternoon, the weather improved during the show of the Thunderbirds. Their show produced high contrast photos of white F-16 flying against dark rainclouds.
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