GALLERY: Dreams take flight at ninth annual Airshow

Aspirations soared at the Air Total Newcastle Airshow last Saturday.

Co-organiser, Johan Pieters said official attendance figures showed about 5 000 people through the gates, representing towns, cities and provinces countrywide.

“It went very well; it was a safe event and that means it was a great success.”

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Acknowledging the vast amount of effort required to pull off an air show, Pieters said the success of the event was due to the benefits of teamwork.

He also extended appreciation to pilots and teams for their displays.

“Our theme this year was ‘give dreams some wings’.”

Building on the theme of ‘I can dream’ in its first year, Pieters said the air show’s goal of exposing the community to aerobatics had awakened local interest in aviation.

He saw this reflected in the youth of Newcastle across the board.

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“We have guys like Bongani Hadebe, who was inspired to become an SAA pilot, and Musa who now flies for the Silver Falcons. They are both from Newcastle.”

Pieters added a special part of the air show programme involved giving free entrance to 1 000 local learners, who were also invited to a mini expo by the South African Air Force.

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This inspirational expo covered aspects of aviation.

Another exciting aspect of the weekend for Pieters, was having 100 learners in total and the children of Morester Children’s Home take flight in an Atlas Oryx helicopter.

“It really was a special show,” he concluded.

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