World Thru My Eyes: AeroIndia 2011, Bangalore

Surya Kiran Air-crafts showing acrobatic show

After many go's and no-go's, I could visit the AeroIndia show in Bangalore last week. It was a great experience to shoot (with camera) the amazing birds on display and their acrobatics. It was the last day of the show past Sunday and we decided on Saturday night that we will indeed visit the show. That was me and couple of my colleagues from Cisco.

We started early morning at 6:45 and I had my 550D camera and the Sigma 500mm lens. This is the first time I am taking this lens for some serious photo opportunity. We reached the parking lot at 8am. There was no clear information about the arrangements and we got different inputs from different people. But at the end it turned out to be not a bad experience. BMTC had arranged shuttle service from the parking lot to the Yelanhanka air-force gate where the show was being held. It was around 1.5km away. Since we went early there was not much crowd and we could get the tickets within few minutes. I heard the people who booked tickets online had a bad time getting their passes.

We found a place towards the left where the air-crafts were taking off. There were lots of obstructions in front of us mainly due to the planes on display blocking the view considerably. But it was not a hindrance to viewing the flights, but did limit the ability to take some shots. The show started at 9:30 am with some display of military helicopters showing the rescue operation. I couldn't take the pictures of this well due to the obstruction in front of us. Other than this, the pictures have come out exceedingly well much beyond my expectations.

Then there was a flight display of trainer aircraft followed by the main spectacle of the show. That was the amazing acrobatic display of Surya Kiran aircraft team which is a highlight of the airshow. There were 9 of them in red and white color having their engine fumes colored with Indian tricolor. They showed breathtaking display of acrobatics on the sky which left the viewers spell bound. It also provided many opportunities to take some excellent pictures below.

F18 Super Hornet from Boeing

Followed by this amazing display of avionics and artistic excellence, there were display of new generation fighter air-crafts starting with magnificent F-18 Super Hornet from Boeing. It had a elegant and smooth flight compared to the other ones which followed later.

Eurofighter Typhoon

Followed by F18 it was the turn of F16 Fighting Falcon from Lockheed Martin another one from US Air force.

Sukhoi Su-30MKI - Indo-Russian Collaboration

The Indo-Russian production of Sukhoi Su-30MKI was the next to come. It pulled out a good show especially when the pilot went on a reverse gear to slide the air-craft backwards. The Redbull team lead by 62 year old lady pilot was the next to come with amazing synchronized flying display followed by acrobatic display from Sarang Helicopter team.