Friday, June 6, 2014

25 years of freedom

June 4th, 1989. First partially free elections in Poland. The transformation begins. From communism to democracy. Solidarność pushed Poland to freedom, later other countries followed, Germany, USSR.
This year we have been celebrating 25 years of freedom. On the 3rd of June delegations from around the world arrived in Warsaw to fest the jubilee. Lithuania, Germany, Hungary, USA and more. Heads of state from around 50 countries from around the world visited Warsaw and attended the ceremony.
That'd be about the things in the city, the official side. Now to the aviation part. What could we, spotters, see? VC-25, C-32s, C-17s, Dassault Falcons, Private Cessnas and Bombardiers, CC-130 Polaris, A310 and a United 764. Most of it arrived on Tuesday and later departed the next day. Some delagations had their planes return home and later fly back for them. Some arrived in the morning some in the afternoon. Fog came in for most of the morning arrivals, the entire day was also accompanied by low visibility. The next day was way better, at times :) half past eleven the first C-32 departed, two hours later traffic has been held up and the VC-25 made its way to Brussels, followed by the second C-32 and 3 C-17 later during the day (photos underneath will be in a chronological order beginning with the first). Between VIP and military departures civilian planes did operate normally.
All that traffic was a great reason to go for a longer spotting at EPWA than usually (as for a long time now I usually made short and rare visits just to see one particular plane, but that's a story for a different post). I wasn't able to go for spotting on Tuesday and I can't say I'm disappointed or sad about it. As the weather got better the next day I arrived around eleven o'clock at the airport and the process begun. Plane by plane departed, time passed by, in a team like the one there time makes no difference :) Unfortunately I had a meeting during the day and thus wasn't able to catch the departure of the 764 and the Slovakian Yak40. Rain thundered down exactly for those departures, me being in a building in the meantime I can't say I'm mad. The rain though was a great thing for later photos. All things ended around 1900 after the departure of Czech Yak40. In the conditions that arised it was hard not to photograph standard Warsaw traffic :)
Photos in chronological order without grouping. 
99-0003 departing WAW
6xF-16 flying over the airport
Air Force One rolling

Air Force One rolling
Air Force One in the Air
Gear goin' up
98-0002 lifting off
98-0002 in the air
C-FYLC with scimitar winglets
A318 bound for CDG
YR-TII
CE-03 for BRU
returning to Greece
Corendon in a special livery
Polaris departing for BRU
Polaris in the Air
A6-EME rotating
promoting Podkarpackie region
"Runway: wet"
first C-17 of the day
Rain has come, the runway is wet
second C-17 of the day
bound for AMS
RC wet departure
Poroszenko in a Cessna, no IŁ unfortunately :(
The president on board this 10+21
for Tegel
10+21 heading TXL
1257 heading PRG
turning around for parking
The last C-17 leaving WAW

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