de l'Amicale Jean-Baptiste Salis Air Meeting
Cerny airfield - La Ferté-Alais
May 26-27, 2007

The Association Jean-Baptiste Salis (AJBS) held its 35^th air meeting at the tree lined Cerny airfield at La Ferté-Alais. The disappointing weather on both days did noting to dampen the enthusiasm of the thousands spectators that lined the full length of the grass landing strip.

For the start of the event, the weather was not best suited for flying for such old and delicate aircraft, as the elevated airfield on its plateau was shrouded in swirling cloud. A number of aircraft were unable to display, but did the next best thing and taxied up and down the length of the airfield. The grey lifeless skies did not offer much to the numerous photographers along the length of the crowd-line.

Situated 30 miles (50Km) south of Paris, the airfield of La Ferté-Alais was built upon a plateau by one of France's most famous aviators, Jean-Baptiste Salis. Each year the show consists of a few solo displays combined with a number of multiple aircraft demonstrations in aviation themes. 

For a more complete history of Jean-Baptiste Salis his son Jean and their aircraft please visit their excellent website Click.

La Ferté-Alais based Boeing PT-13 Cadet (PT-17 Stearman) F-AZMZ

The First World War

Between the Wars

The Second World War and the Battle of Britain

Left to right: Messerschmitt Bf-109 (D-FMBB 'FM+BB')
Spitfire Mk.5 (EP120 'AE-A' also G-LFVB) from the Fighter Collection at Duxford.
Hurricane XIIB (BD707 'AE-C' also G-HURR formally RCAF 5589) from the Real Aircraft Company. Sadly G-HURR crashed killing the pilot, Brian Brown on September 15, 2007 during a Battle of Britain display at Shoreham.
North American P-51D Mustang (F-AZSB / 411622 'G4-C') 'Nooky Booky IV' which is based at La Ferté-Alais after arriving in France in 1998. 

In the mid-1970's La Ferté-Alais was responsible for recovering and restoring a number of AT-6 Texans, 
many of then return each year for the show

Left to right: North American AT-6 Texans (F-AZRD/51-14906 'RD', F-AZBQ/51-15237 'OH' and F-AZBE/43-12127 'TA-127').

Left to right: North American T-28 Fennec/Trojans (T-28S F-AZKG No.82 with AJBS, T-28C F-AZHN/140547 'IF-28' and T-28 F-AZHR/517749).

The Photography
La Ferté-Alais welcomes visitors all year round; the Pentecost show is the main activity of the year when most of the extensive collection is flown. Accessed by a now widened winding road to the top of the L'Ardenet plateau, the airfield is a place of beauty. It is still surrounded by vast wooded areas, and it's wide grass runway is roughly east to west. The runway long crowd line is positioned close to the action on the south side. With the sun behind you and the close proximity of the aircraft, photography is very good. The display aircraft are mostly positioned south side at the eastern end by the hangars and museum in a series of well-spaced rows. The clever bit here is that spectators are free to roam up avenues in between the aircraft rows to get those close in shots. Even the aircraft parked across the other side of the access way to the runway are within easy reach of small telephoto lenses.

The flying is close but can appear a little tame at times, as many of the classic aircraft are not all high performance warbirds. This is what I like however, being able to photograph mostly French civilian and ex military aircraft in their element, flying from one of the most attractive grass airfields there is.

I found that a 100-400mm zoom lens more than adequate for the flying shots. As 99% of the action involves propellers it is important to keep the shutter speeds low 1/60th to 1/125th is what I used for this show. I have added my settings to some of the image captions for guidance. You must be prepared to bin quite a few shots using these slow shutter speeds as it is difficult to pan perfectly (well for me it is!) each time. The resulting blurred background emphasizes speed very nicely.

Last year I noted that running down the length of the crowd line there was a red and white tape a meter high which obstructed shots of the aircraft. I am pleased to report that for this year it had been reduced to just a few inches high, well done to the orgainsers.

Bernard Chabbert (left); The very eloquent french commentator who speaks in a flying poetry.

For most of the show I was using my Canon EOS 20D and EF 100-400mm f4/5.6 L IS lens.