Evening All,
Well, I’m finally in the process of catching up on things following my trip to China where I supported the Twister Duo. It already seems like a lifetime ago, and I thought I’d share some of the experiences with you in a series of blog entries.
We (Pete Wells, owner of Twister Aerobatics and team leader; Guy Westgate, wingman; and Kirsty Wells, Pete’s daughter and my fellow ‘crew member’) flew out from Heathrow’s newly refurbished Terminal 2 – The Queen’s Building – on the evening of Friday, 22 August, which got us into Beijing around lunchtime the following day.
We had a couple of hours to kill before our connecting flight to Shenyang, the province in which the first of our airshow appearances would take place.
After arriving in Shenyang, we were met by Bikalpa Basnet, or Bikki, a Nepalese guy who would act as our main interpreter and facilitator for almost all of our stay in China. He informed us that the drive to Faku would take approximately two hours.
What he failed to warn us about was the difference between Chinese driving practices and UK ones! To say our journey – most of it in the dark – was terrifying would be an understatement! It seems that in China, rather than giving way when crossing traffic, if you get there first, it is your right of way, and it then becomes the responsibility of the other driver to avoid you! Overtaking (and undertaking!) was another issue, and, seemingly, so long as you used your horn, pretty much anything was fair game, including driving on the wrong side of the road on blind bends!
Somehow, we arrived intact at the Ibis Shenyang Faku, which would be home for the next 10 or so days.
Each and every evening of our stay in Faku, large groups of people would congregate on the concrete area opposite our hotel to exercise.
We were a little later than anticipated and the restaurant (which would become our second home!) where we were to eat had already closed for the night, but a quick call from our hosts to the owner saw the shutters raised, lights turned on and us welcomed inside. I’ll be honest, it didn’t look like much from the outside, and there was a rather unpleasant smell lingering in the street below, but we found the food to be consistently very good throughout. We’d actually been warned by teams that had visited China before to take snacks and things with us, as that might be all we’d find that was edible, but, in our experience, nothing could have been further from the truth.
Despite our best efforts before we left the UK, none of us had actually been able to locate the airfield where the show would be held on Google Maps, so we weren’t too sure what to expect. It was around a 15-minute drive back in the direction of Shenyang, and the morning of our first visit was extremely grey, overcast and with poor visibility. I think it would be fair to say that at this stage, “this” was what we were now expecting for the rest of the trip.
We got the aircraft reassembled, ground run and even test flown that day, and all seemed well, even if Pete and Guy still felt as if they didn’t really have too much of an idea regarding the lie of the land, despite having flown above it – such was the visibility!
The Twisters were shipped to China aboard a Cargolux Boeing 747 Freighter on this shipping pallet.
Whilst the Twister is an extremely light, carbon composite construction, some parts of the assembly process are easier with a number of bodies!
Pete Wells checks over all of the readings in the cockpit while Bikki (left) and Rocky (right) look on.
The following day began in exactly the same way, possibly slightly worse if anything. Reassurances were forthcoming from our hosts that it would improve the following day, so imagine our surprise when the sun put in appearance around lunchtime! For the first time we were able to see Fortune Lake (well, a tiny sliver of it from our hangar) and even the temples on the bank opposite. It was actually a really beautiful location with green fields and rolling hills all around, and Pete and Guy plus the Red Bull China FireStars all took the opportunity to get in as much flying as they could while the weather remained good.
Once the visibility improved, it became obvious that Caihu Airport is set in a truly beautiful area.
The following day was the official show launch with dignitaries from Faku and the wider Shenyang Province in attendance for the formal opening ceremony. It also included a full dress rehearsal ahead of the public display days.
The weather continued where it had left off the previous evening, and it was roasting with temperatures in the mid-30s centigrade.
With much of the hard work already completed, I was able to revert to my secondary role of photographer and get some pictures of the team in action. Thanks to Sunshine Yang, an aviation journalist and owner of Xinhua News Agency, who was embedded with the team, we were able to get to a few of the more interesting locations around the airfield, such as in the air traffic control tower and on the sunny side of the display line, outside the fence.
Red Bull China FireStars’ Nigel Hopkins performs a trademark knife edge pass down the crowd line. The elevated view afforded by the air traffic control tower helps to make Fortune Lake the backdrop.
The Twister Duo run in with rolling hills in the background.
The airshow at Faku was the Red Bull China FireStars’ first opportunity to display as a four-ship.
Photographically – particularly the afternoon – it was a perfect day, and we even had some interesting military activity in the overhead, albeit at a fair altitude above us.
The showground, as viewed from outside the fence.
Still to be painted, this Shenyang J-11 is a license-built version of the Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker. It is seen here venting fuel over the show site at Faku. It was one of a number of examples, both single-seat and twin, and painted and unpainted, seen in the overhead this day.
A Swan Airlines Beriev Be-103 performed a familiarisation flight at sunset. It was beautiful!
I’m acutely aware that not all of you are here for the aviation, so I won’t go into all of the details of the airshow, but for those of you who are interested, you can find my 3rd Shenyang Faku International Flight Convention and 2014 Shenyang Airshow review over on Global Aviation Resource.
Next time I’ll look at some of the unusual interactions we had during the show (both human and animal!) and take you on a tour around Fortune Lake’s temples.
In the meantime, I should warn you that there’s a chance we might be heading back to China in early November, so if you have any pressing reasons to get some pictures taken, now would be a good idea to get in touch!
Thanks for looking.
Karl
