For the third year the Czech International Air Fest (CIAF) was held in Brno, September the 9th and 10th.
Nowadays Brno is a civil airport growing up its traffic also because some low-cost carriers (like Ryan-Air) are using it as it is only about 80 km from Vienna. But Brno is also the second city of the Czech Republic and it is a very nice city to visit, with a lot of beautiful places where you can relax after the air show.

Brno airport was used in the past by the Czech Air Force and there are still some old hangars reminding you about the former military activity on the L-29s.

From early on, the announced air show seemed to be very interesting so we left very early on Friday morning and after six hours by car we reached the airport of Brno, ready to catch the first arrivals for the static show at the landing side of the airport and to see the trials; this was a nice idea as the spot is beautiful to take pictures with the old military hangars in the background and the full sunny conditions. You can take pictures of the aircraft touching down and when entering the runway for take off.

On Saturday morning we entered the base to see the static display. The most appreciated visitors were the F-16D Block 52 from the Hellenic Air Force, the new Czech Gripen and the E-3A AWACS of NATO, which could be visited. The Czech special coloured Mi-24 was present as well as a special coloured PC-6 from Austria sporting a blue-white scheme.
Obviously the Czech Air force was present with all the active types in its inventory.

The flying display started at 11:00 AM with some low passes of different three-ship formations of the recently delivered Gripens, the L-159s, the Mi-24s and the Mi-17s. The highlight of the flying display were surely The Strizi from Russia, the only military aerobatic team besides the Asas de Portugal with their two Alpha Jets, performing with their five MiG-29s a beautiful display. Very nice was also the solo display of the Slovak MiG-29UB and the Italian C-27J Spartan.

In the end we can say that the Czech International Air Fest is a keeper for all military enthusiasts and we are looking forward to the 2006 event.