Jim Leroy and Bulldog coming through for the ribbon cut.
The Venue...
City: Al Ain
Emirate: Abu Dhabi
Country: United Arab Emirates
top left: main gate to the show
bottom left: downtown Al Ain
top right: show ad at the mall
bottom right: roundabout sculpture
The People...
Sponsor and VIP chalets
Grandstand seating on Day one
South African, Bernice, wingwalks on the Littlefield's former plane.
Sheikh Mohammed and his kids.
Dan Buchanan and the US teams got a visit from US
4-star General Buchanan.
Our very hard-working grunts, Bill Hall and Bonnie Bertel, enjoying their break in the UAE winter.
Grabbing lunch in the aircrew tent provided at the flightline.
Dan visiting with some physically challenged kids in the media tent.
Daily 11a.m. pilots' briefing
The Media...
Always working... even from my "perch", I signed autographs and had photos taken by spectators.
...was ever-present, with reps from around the globe.
Live TV interview with "Gear One"
"Gear One" broadcasted one of their pieces from the cockpit of our plane.
And then came Saturday...
While we have "rain days" in North America, over there we experienced a "dust day" - Saturday's show was canceled and the final day of the show was moved to Monday.
The show site was approx. 1 mile from the hangars where we are standing. On normal days, the show site was clearly visible, where on Saturday, you could just barely make out the silhouette of the tents.
Dad and Bonnie with the mascot of the show, the UAE's country bird, the Falcon.
below left: desserts & ice sculptures at the closing banquet
below right: The Chief of the UAE Armed Forces gives a speech at the banquet
Final Days...
Packing up to head home.
Sunset in the desert.
CHEERS!
from Dan and crew at the Skyline Bar overlooking Dubai.
Dubai...
a very rapidly growing city with very interesting high-rise architecture.
Mosque in Sharjah
Construction site of the soon-to-be tallest building in the world.
See just how close the ribbon cuts in Al Ain were staged to the crowd line - the white fence is the crowd line for the sponsor chalets and the grandstands are just a few feet behind our camera...
A sampling of our day and night shows.
Commentary by Brian Emmenis of "Team South Africa".
