MAPUTO AIRSHOW

Early on Friday morning 16 June, I travelled with Brian Emmenis and his Capital Sounds team to Mozambique to attend the amazing and most successful Maputo airshow. We flew with LAM Express in an Embraer 145 that seats 50 passengers.

- ATHOL FRANZ

African Pilot was invited by the airshow committee to produce a special report for the magazine as well as a video that will be utilised for promotional purposes for the 2024 edition of the Maputo airshow. On arrival we were shuttled to the Aeroclube de Mocambique east of the main terminal buildings, where the club has its hangars, clubhouse and a delightful restaurant. At the airport over the next few hours several of the South African display teams and individual pilots started arriving to be accommodated within the parking area of the club.

The airshow committee, the Aero Club of Mozambique, Vivo and the Municipality of Maputo which organised and hosted the Maputo airshow. The organising committee of the airshow consisted of Bruno Homem, Joao Paulo Ribeiro and Gavin Neil who had been working on the planning of the show for a year.

The world-class ground production took four days to build and was undertaken by Vivo. My impressions of Mozambique were that the people are incredibly friendly and there is no racism that we so often encounter in South Africa, especially when dealing with officials.

During the afternoon on Friday several of the display teams undertook their validation flights meaning that the area was very busy. At the same time the Mozambique CAA undertook ramp inspections and by all accounts these were conducted in a cordial manner with the inspectors rather curious about the various aircraft and helicopters. Keith Andrew was the ramp controller whilst Keith Fryer acted as the flight director with Gavin Neil as the 'Air Boss'. As sunset approached Menno Parsons arrived in his tiger-striped Huey helicopter and immediately, he made two brief flights with local orphaned children that the club had arranged with All Nations.