Cerklje Airshow 2000 was held between 24th and 25th June. The event itself promised
to be one of the biggest airshows in Europe this year, however some things prevented this achievement.
Two out of three aerobatics teams canceled their performance just before the event.
Russian Knights with Su-27 due to political reasons
and
Biele Albatrosy due to the crash some months before.
Only superb AMI Frecce Tricolori remained and they performed only on Saturday.
The biggest disappointment came from the USA.
They only exhibited F-16C from Aviano AFB in static display and a C-130H Hercules.
Spanish demo pilot with EF-18 was also missing.
The another bad factor of the show was weather.
Although it was raining all night from Friday to Saturday, the weather cleared enough to enjoy
even in a fast jet performances, but things got worse on Sunday and it was
raining until 15.00 and after that clouds prevented an excellent performances by the fast jets.
On the other hand, we could enjoy in some breath-taking displays.
Croatian venerable MiG-21, amazing Harrier, performances by Dutch demo pilot with F-16MLU
and French with Mirage 2000, Italian Frecce Tricolori and demo pilot with G.222 transporter,...
All shots were taken on Saturday and were made by author of this page.
Pics from static display will be uploaded soon.



EDA V was a product of Slovenia's first aircraft engineer and pilot Mr. Edvard Rusjan.
He first flew his EDA I plane in 1909 and become one of the first aviators in the World.
EDA V was his best design and was presented to public at Cerklje 2000.


Slovenian police operates Bell 206, B-212 and B-412 helicopters.
At Cerklje 2000, a police Special Forces unit demonstrated attack with
the use of helicopter, including the use of dogs.





PC-6 is an old light transport plane. Old but still very useful. Its operating costs
are much lower than of helicopter and it is STOL aircraft. It can glide with a shut down engine.
It needs a very short strip for take-offs and landings and can land on almost every type of floor.
Slovenia bought two of this planes two years ago.


PC-9 is an advanced light attack/trainer turboprop. It is a development of the PC-7.
Slovenia first bought 3 of this planes and later received 9 more in PC-9M version.
Raytheon bought license rights from Pilatus and has an order for more
than 1000 planes for use in USAF, Navy and Marines.
Slovenia together with Israel recently developed a PC-9 Swift configuration.
It includes HUD, HDD displays, HOTAS and can be armed with various weapons -
such can skip the training on jet trainers (Hawk class).


Zlin 242L is a Checz basic trainer aircraft. Slovenia AF uses 8 of them for basic training and
two 143L variants. The letter L designates that the aircraft is equipped with Lycoming engine.





MiG-21 is a legendary Russian fighter known and feared in Vietnam war.
It is still in use with many countries around the world, India being the biggest user.
Croatia uses MiG-21s since the war, but will most probably transfer to second-hand F-16 fighters.





Draken's first flight was in 1954 and still this aircraft is in use after more than 45 years.
It is currently used by Finnish AF and Austrian AF. FAF will retire the type this year and
the Austrian AF will remain the sole operator of this exotic plane. A truly rare bird.
Drakens on display flew from Graz AB.





Mi-24 is a Russian attack helicopter used by many East block influenced countries. The example at Cerklje 2000
was of Hungarian forces and the pilot gave us impressive performance of its capabilities.





Checz Aero L-159 is totally new plane. It first flew on 16 January 2000.
It is used as a light attack aircraft, armed and equipped by NATO standards.
CzAF ordered more than 70 L-159s.





French Mirage fighters have gained a reputation through the years.
The latest of Mirage family, the 2000, is a very capable fighter
and it had the best performance imho. Lots of high-g turns and afterburner.




AH-64 Apache is known as "the tankist worse nightmare" or "the tank death".
It is a very capable platform for anti-armour attack - it can carry up to 16 Hellfire missiles.
It effectively proved in battle in Gulf War where it was credited for hundreds of tanks.
Netherlands bough this mean machine a few years ago.


F-16 Fighting Falcon as the most popular small fighter of the last decades.
It developed from a small day fighter, to all weather all purpose fighter.
MLU is Mid Life Update program which modernizes the
aircrafts avionics, systems and weapons.
Dutch demo F-16 pilot gave an impressive display.





RAF Harrier was one of the loudest participants of the Cerklje 2000.
This plane is in use for more than 30 years and developed into a very capable platform.
It first prove itself in battle over the Falklands in 1982 with the Royal Navy.
Harriers were in combat lots of times since that, most recently in operation Allied Force over Kosovo.





C-130 Herk is also a veteran plane, but still without any replacement in sight.
The newest version is C-130J Hercules II with glass cockpit, new engines,
prop blades,...
The example on picture is used by Italian Air Force.


G-222 is Italian two engined prop plane. It is used throughout the world.
Their demo pilot gave us an excellent show, performing a maneuvers you can't imagine.
USA currently developed C-27J Spartan version of G.222.



Italian aerobatic team Frecce Tricolori are very welcomed everywhere they appear.
They are a group of 10 planes - 9 in formation flying and one solo pilot.
They were officially established on 1st March 1960 as
313. Gruppo Addestramento Acrobatico "Frecce Tricolori".
They are currently equipped with MB-339A/PAN planes.

Site updated 10th July 2000