Aero India 2015

This year I got an opportunity to attend the Aero India Show at the Air Force base near Yelahanka in Bengaluru. This being my first time to the event I had no clue how crazy it was going to be. It was a Saturday so I expected traffic at the Airport Road. What better way to beat the traffic than to go in a two wheeler. And my strategy worked, sort off. It took me 2hrs to cover the distance of 10kms from Nagavara to Yelahanka on my bike. Imagine the condition if I had taken the bus. 

The airshow has 2 schedules - 10am and 2pm, both last for about 3hrs each and have the same aircrafts and stunts. The tickets this year were priced at Rs 600 which was for the Air Show viewing area only and Rs 2500 which included the entry to the exhibition and a chance to look at few aircraft's from a closer proximity. The business entry will have parking at Gate 5 from which there will be a free shuttle to reach the exhibition. Reaching the parking is the worst part as you will be asked to take the service road about 3kms before the gate and on a weekend this stretch will be chocked.

 

So my idea was to reach by 11am and stay until end of the day. What ended up happening was that I watched half of the 10am airshow from the traffic jam outside the air force station. After parking I managed to reach the business exhibition area at around 1pm which was too late to visit all the exhibits there. I did manage to get a glimpse of the recently spoken Rafael booth, the Israeli booth and our very own Make In India booth which had exhibits from HAL. 

Once you step out of these exhibition, you will find the aircraft parking area. A few aircraft's are kept exclusively for display which you can try to trespass without getting shot at by the security. A few others which are parked appear to be on display but will make its way to the run way and you can see them in action.

And then the airshow begins. I do not remember the name of the aircrafts or the formations (effects of blogging about something almost a fortnight after it is witnessed). I did manage to get some pics of the airshow. 

These are the very few stills I managed to get. I have uploaded a few videos which you can watch in this link - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdX4_SqSpi4QhdsjyiQUeAIflkkpC2Jk7

To conclude, you should watch the airshow at least once in a decade. The traffic, heat, dust, sound and crowd will make you feel like you shouldn't watch it for the second time :P 

 Credits: Jami Pavan for getting me the Business Invite to watch the Aero India show.