RAF Odiham is the homebase of the Chinook Helicopter fleet and every year they organise the Friends and Families day to welcome all the families and relatives of the based personnel. This year the event was organised on Friday June 1st and welcomed again a great variety of aircraft and ground entertainment, of which we were honoured to be invited to take part in this excellent air event with the Bronco Demo Team.

In the early morning the ground crew consisting of Soetkin, Jessie, Wim and Tom made the drive over to Odiham via the ferries. At the same time Edith and Tony flew the Bronco over and we all arrived at the same moment on base, good planning! The aircraft was soon prepared and ready for the public to come and have a look at the Bronco. Visitors and aircrew were welcomed by our Cheerleaders and many Bronco brochures were given away.

In the afternoon the flying display started and the organisation did again a great job to offer the visitors a great variety of aircraft demonstrations, from the WWI triplanes to the modern Eurofighter Typhoon. The hometeam was well presented with a Chinook solo display and a role demo with two Lynxes and four Chinook helicopters. As it was the queens jubilee weekend, the RAF also displayed the Tucano, Hawk, Tutor and Typhoon next to the well known RAF Falcons parachute team.

The Aerostars opened the show with their nicely choreographed 4-ship Yak 50/52 demonstration. The visitors were also treated with a large number of unique historical aircraft like the Harvard, Me 208, P-40 and the impressive B-17 Sally-B. Classic Jets were not forgotten, the Jet Provost was on static display while the Black Hawker Hunter arrived in the afternoon with the recently applied union jack on the tail.