WORDS: ADAM LANDAU | PHOTOS: ALEX PRINS & JAMES CONNOLLY
“If you’ve been to airshows before and you think you’ve seen it all, well… let’s speak again in about seven hours’ time.” That’s how I opened the commentary for the Antidotum Airshow 2024 live broadcast. But the truth is that our live broadcast only showcased Leszno on a fairly objective level. To really experience the magic of the place, you simply had to be there.
Antidotum Airshow Leszno is not just an airshow: it’s an emotion, a state of mind. It truly is, as the name implies, an antidote to all the ills of normal life. To visit Leszno is to leave the real world and enter a carefully-curated dreamscape where everything is wholesome and wonderful, and mostly revolves around aeroplanes. I never feel as relaxed at any other airshow. At no other event do I spend so much time smiling. For the brief period of its existence, Antidotum Airshow Leszno is pure, unadulterated happiness in airshow form.
Over the years, I’ve seen many people experience Leszno for the first time – from airshow veterans with hundreds of shows under their belts to complete flying display first-timers. Unfailingly, they become converts. They leave shaking their heads in wonder and disbelief, vowing to return every year. The antidote is addictive in a way that nobody seems to believe until they try it for themselves.
On a more objective level, there are two things that stand out about the Antidotum Airshow compared to any other flying event I’ve ever been to. The first is the sheer variety, with almost every type of flying machine represented (as well as some that aren’t really “machines” at all). Remarkably, all of them perform full displays – you won’t find any straight-and-level flypasts here.
Unfortunately, weather prevented the lighter-than-air participants from joining in the fun this year, but the spectrum of modes of aviation on show was still unmatched. The selection of formation teams alone is remarkable: jets, turboprops, unlimited-category aerobatic mounts, gliders, motorgliders, paragliders, paramotors and flexwing microlights all executed complex formation routines over the course of the weekend. And that’s just the formation teams. Add in the solo displays by single- and multi-engine warbirds, large transport aircraft, helicopters of all shapes and sizes, plus one-off set piece displays combining disimilar assets into single displays, and the unsurpassed variety on show here becomes even more impressive.
The second thing that sets Antidotum apart is the level of effort and imagination that goes into every facet of the event. Yes, that includes the flying displays – the show’s undying commitment to curating one-off spectacles is already famous – but it extends to the ground portion of the event as well. Take the speaker coverage, for example: a typical show here in the UK would lay out a single row of ‘music horn’ loudhailers along the crowdline, with cables running messily over the grass. That’s not so at Leszno. Instead, concert-standard directional speakers were set up in multiple rows, with carefully-calibrated time delays to ensure that there’s no echo where coverage from two speakers overlap. Cables, meanwhile, were buried underground in hundreds of metres of tunnels that criss-crossed the entire showground. Much of the music being played through those speakers was being performed by a live orchestra, under the guidance of Lukasz Firs, the show’s creative director, who made sure that the music precisely matched the flying displays happening in the air. Big flare dump coming up? You can bet that the release of the flares will be matched – to within a second – by a creschendo from the orchestra. This airshow takes the aural experience seriously, and executes it properly.
The same commitment to doing things properly continued to apply when things went awry – as they sadly did in 2024. About half way through the Friday airshow, a huge storm cell swept over the airfield, dousing the crowd, flooding the car parks and quickly bringing about the cancellation of the rest of the day’s flying. It soon became clear that the torrential rain would not abate until the following morning. One feels that most event organisers, presented with such a situation, would retreat to their office to manage the response online and by phone, leaving the marshallers and volunteers to contend with the weather and the fallout. But in Leszno, the deputy event organiser was knee-deep in mud, rescuing cars from the worst-affected of the car parks until 01:15 the following morning, and personally pulled 30 vehicles from the quagmire.
At many other venues, rain of the biblical nature experienced on Friday night would have extinguished any hope of proceeding with any kind of public event on Saturday. When we awoke on Saturday morning, it was to an airfield that was waterlogged, windswept, scarred by deep-rutted tyre tracks and strewn with rubbish left behind during the hasty evacuation of Friday’s crowd. Fortunately, Leszno’s sandy soil drained quickly (one of the many happy accidents that make this venue such a brilliant airshow venue), an army of volunteers quickly returned the showground to its usual pristine state, and a hastily re-organised flying programme began with four back-to-back helicopter displays, giving the runway a crucial extra hour to dry out. The parking plan was hastily reorganised, diverting cars away from the ruined southerly car parks, and incredibly, the show went on to host a full flying display, with only two items – the parachutists and hot air balloons – having to drop off the running order, due to high winds.
On the subject of commendable organiser involvement, this year’s show included a now-traditional interruption by Leszno’s comedy character, “Janusz”, who this year drove onto the airfield in a vintage tractor and cultivator, only to be shooed away by a pair of M18 Dromaders dumping an inordinate amount of water right on top of him. Janusz gamely deployed a small umbrella and tried to soldier on, but a second pass by the water bombers eventually sent him on his way. Janusz is, in fact, another key member of the Antidotum organising team; airshow organisers willing to get water-bombed solely for the entertainment of their crowd must surely be few and far between! This display was a Friday only affair, and it clearly engaged the crowd tremendously, as Leszno’s comedy acts always do.
Opening the roughly seven hour flying display on sunny Saturday were the Red Bull rotary assets: an entertaining routine by their AH-1F Cobra, followed by the company’s fully-aerobatic Bo105C solo. After this, a second example of the same type; Red Bull’s Bo105, flown by Felix Baumgartner, was followed by Maciej Dominiak’s, which took up position at the end of the runway alongside Guy Westgate in an SZD-59 Acro glider. This would be the first of Leszno’s big set piece displays of the afternoon: the helitow.
While not quite a world first (it was inspired by performances at Polish glider meets in the 1960s, and has since been repeated in New Zealand in 1994), the spectacle of seeing a glider towed by a helicopter – and later hanging beneath it in the hover – is certainly not a common one, and thus the entire performance was treated as being unproven and untested by the Polish authorities. A rigorous four-year period of scientific studies and training ensued, involving two training camps and one glider procured specifically for the mission.
The display began with a take-off and an immensely tricky low level roll-on-tow behind the helicopter (believed to be a world first, at least in public), before the two aircraft climbed away from the crowd and transitioned into the hover. After a spellbinding pause, the glider was then dropped straight into a tailslide for a brief low level aerobatic display. It is tough to imagine any other airshow organiser investing a fraction of that time and effort into a single, approximately four-minute, performance, but this is the Leszno way.
Rotary action then continued with the Czech Air Force’s W-3A Sokół display, which effortlessly combines some very intimate, borderline-aerobatic flying with a multifaceted search and rescue demonstration. The highlight was a manoeuvre called the Yo-Yo, in which rescue workers, suspended aloft on the W-3’s winch, were held at a constant altitude while the helicopter itself rose up and down.
Next came Aarron Deliu from Australia, a relatively new airshow performer but a highly accomplished one, who has already ranked as high as 7th in the World Aerobatic Championships during his brief aerobatic career. With one of his two Extra 330SCs currently being based in Europe, he is performing at several shows over here, and his performance in Leszno included not only some complex solo aerobatics, but also an inverted ribbon cut – quite a rare sight at airshows in Europe.
Further solo aerobatics would be provided later in the day by Luke Czepiela in his new single-seat Edge 540 and by the Equipe de Voltige (EVAA) of the French Air & Space Force. The EVAA presented two displays at Leszno, with reigning World Aerobatic Champion Florent Oddon flying on the Friday – a performance defined by its breathtaking gyroscopic tumbles where Florent would enter the hover, only to seemingly fly out of the tumble in level flight – and his colleague Victor Lalloue flying on Saturday with a routine that specialised in constant aileron rolls, including a vertical rolling circle as Victor rolled the Extra continuously during a full loop. Perhaps the Leszno crowd have been spoiled when it comes to high-quality solo aerobatics in recent years, because the EVAA’s sequences probably deserved more attention than they got: they really are a cut above the rest.
Solo aerobatics of a different kind were provided by Luke Czepiela in his STOL-capable Carbon Cub (at one point, Luke hopped along the runway, bringing his aircraft to a full stop and then taking off again no fewer than three times on a single pass) and by Jacob Hollander in Scandinavian Airshows’ Grumman Ag Cat, loaded with two Wingwalkers, as it looped and rolled its way around the sky with ethereal trails of coloured smoke pouring off the wingtips. But perhaps the highlight of the solo aerobatic displays was Rich Goodwin in his one-of-a-kind jet-powered Pitts S2SE, performing at a mainland European airshow for the very first time, and leaving spectators awestruck by its fast climbs and hovering manoeuvres.
Also flying relatively early during the day show, two displays by military turbotrainers, providing a real contrast with each other. The Slovenian PC-9M Hudournik solo by Captain Andrej Fiorelli is fast, low, aggressive and impeccably precise. It also includes a few very hefty doses of negative G. When displaying at such close quarters as it does at Leszno, this little turboprop offers the same impression of speed as an afterburning fast jet, except it generally flies much lower – including an incredibly accurate slow aileron roll in precisely level flight, down at just 100ft. A change of pace was then provided by Aerobatic Team Orlik with their PZL-130-TCIIs, flying at a more sedate pace, but with commendable grace. Sadly, we bore witness only to a four-ship rather than the five-ship routine they have prepared for this season, with one of the solo pilots being temporarily unavailable.
Aerobatic Team Orlik was joined by a second Polish Air Force contribution during the daytime portion of the show: the M346 Bielik Demonstration Team, formed less than a year ago. This was, therefore, the team’s Leszno debut, with local pilot Major Adrian Chudziński at the controls for a thrilling, surprisingly noisy and enjoyably compact performance that packed more punch than you’d probably expect from a small, non-afterburning jet. Particularly eye-catching were the topside passes that both opened and closed the demonstration, performed just barely above the treeline. While Maj. Chudziński flew the display at Leszno, he was aided by his safety pilot, Major Robert Jeł, who tragically passed away a few weeks later in Gdynia during a display practice.
At last year’s Antidotum Airshow, Poland’s famous Grupa Akrobacyjna Żelazny debuted their all new night show, flying a trio of Zlin 50s. The unfortunate reality was that the night show, at least in its initial form, was not as dynamic as the team’s daytime routine, nor as spectacular as Leszno’s other pyro performers, so this year the team was moved back to their traditional daytime slot, now flying two Zlin 50s and two Extra 330s. Their daytime routine was as varied and unpredictable as ever, commencing with a three vs one opposition take-off and being followed by a mix of graceful formation aerobatics, tailchases and other unusual figures, some of them combining tumbles and spins by the Extras while the Zlins drew smoke rings around them.
When the dates for the Antidotum Airshow were announced, some assumed that this year’s show would be lighter on the warbird content given that it clashed with the inaugural Sywell Airshow, which looked set to be one of the biggest warbird airshows in the world this year. In fact, Leszno dealt with the situation with ease, managing to acquire one fixed-wing warbird from the Flying Bulls fleet (their new T-28B Trojan, complete with its surreal smoke system) and two real rarities from German-based operator Flying Legends.
Both the Flying Legends warbirds were flown by Georg Raab, with his newly-acquired F4U Corsair being the first to perform. Leszno was the flying display debut of this particular Corsair in Flying Legends ownership, and one of its only public appearances of the last few years. Later in the day, Georg flew in P-51D Mustang “Frances Dell”, a Mustang that seems particularly inclined to produce some unusually majestic whistles. The flying itself, meanwhile, seemed a little toned down compared to some of Georg’s Mustang displays last year – a little higher, perhaps, and not quite as close to the crowd.
But the crowning glory of the warbird line up was A-26 Invader “Million Airess”, based in Texas. The aircraft was visiting Europe as part of the D-Day 80th anniversary events, but the crew were persuaded to stay on to participate in at least one airshow. Here followed some confusion, with two events being told they had secured the aircraft on the same dates (Sywell for static display, and Leszno for a flying display). Despite the operator’s repeated private affirmations that Leszno was the real intended destination, Sywell continued to promote the aircraft for their show, causing enough uncertainty that Leszno decided to hold fire with their own public reveal.
After much nail-biting, Million Airess duly touched down in Leszno as promised on the Friday morning; Sywell, it seemed, had been operating on information that was several weeks out of date. Piloted by Million Air CEO Roger Woolsey, the A-26 then partook in two glorious performances which included a sweeping topside pass, slow dirty pass and several low, flat, fast passes, with one of those two displays unfolding in glorious sunset conditions, underscoring just what a missed opportunity it would have been for the aircraft to sit on static display for the weekend instead.
The final display of the daytime portion of Antidotum Airshow came from the Swiss Air Force’s PC-7 Team, returning to Leszno for the second consecutive year. The team opened their show with a one-off formation pass with the Super Puma: the combined ten-ship formation flew towards the crowd at low level before the Super Puma pulled up to release a cavalcade of flares, during which PC-7s continued over the top of the spectators. The PC-7s then launched into their balletic airshow routine, which rarely looks as good anywhere else as it does in Leszno’s glorious sunset.
At this point, following a short pause, we moved from the day show to the night show – and what had already been a very enjoyable airshow transcended several more levels and became a truly world-beating one. Leszno was privileged to host the last ever Swedish Air Force SK 60 display – in fact, the aircraft would leave service only three days later – and for this very special occasion, the jet also performed a formation sequence with the two Alpha Jets of the Flying Bulls, both of which were themselves piloted by ex-Austrian Air Force SK 60 (well, technically, Saab 105) pilots. At most shows, such a flypast may perhaps have consisted of a straight and level pass down the runway, but at Leszno the three jets tangoed around the sky in a series of turns and wingovers, culminating in a vertical bomb burst.
Following straight on from the three-ship bomb burst, the SK 60 pulled over the top and launched straight into its stunning solo display – arguably one of the finest fast jet solos on the circuit, and one which blurs the line between display flying and art. Captain Nils Schylström piloted the diminutive little trainer through a spellbinding routine that included the slowest slow roll I have ever seen from a jet, a gutsy negative-G turn, graceful dirty rolls and a jaw-dropping partial rolling circle.
Then came the turn of the two Alpha Jets themselves, which performed an equally enjoyable routine of tall loops and rolls, set against an increasingly memorable sky, their twin smoke trails being illuminated in stunning fashion by the low sun. Following the conclusion of their display, they joined up with Luke Czepiela in his Edge 540 for a further mixed-type formation sequence.
Two Polish Air Force teams participated in the night show, with the first being their C-130E Hercules solo display. While perhaps not quite as close to the crowd as last year, the Polish C-130 display remains one of the most dynamic large transport aircraft displays on the circuit globally, with some rakish bank angles and tight turns. New for this year, the team has incorporated numerous small flare dumps throughout the performance for extra visual interest (albeit these are nothing compared to what comes after dark).
Also causing a stir with its flare-filled performance was the Tiger Demonstration Team, flying an F-16C Jastrząb. Previously flown in a similar style to the US Air Force’s F-16 solo displays, Major Maciej Krakowian has completely redesigned the team’s routine for 2024, and it now considerably more fluid, includes some much more dynamic manoeuvres and makes far better use of the intermediate display lines. New additions to the show included a brilliant loaded roll, releasing a spiral of flares, while pointing straight at the spectators, and a very low pass at circa 100ft, directly over the spectators on full afterburner – close enough that I couldn’t help but duck in my position on the commentary tower.
The final military participant in the night show was a Swiss Air Force TH.06 Super Puma – a display that was returning to Leszno for the fourth consecutive year, such is the level of affection that its crew have for this often-underestimated airshow. The performance was typically entertaining, with its reversing 360-degree turn, several near-vertical downward screwdrivers, and – of course – its signature flare dump.
These military displays were interspersed with the first civilian pyro performers of the evening, offering a complete change of pace (and noise level) every few minutes. The utterly magical Team Blanix, flying two L-13 Blanik gliders, may not make any noise or travel very fast, but in this context, they gripped the crowd every bit as much as the military jets. Equipped with coloured smoke and pyrotechnics, the pair aerobated their way down from 4000ft to around 500ft – a sequence that included several remarkable unpowered splits and rejoins – before closing their show with some colourful close formation orbits and a magical formation landing.
The second pyro act was Bob Grimstead in his Fournier RF-4D. Bob had perhaps the longest journey to the show of any of the performers, with nine hours of flying over five legs and two days (much of it below 1000ft) to get to Leszno in his 39 horsepower motorglider. His display proved an easy favourite, commencing with graceful energy-management aerobatics and concluding with firework-filled loops and avalanches. During this phase, Bob trailed pyrotechnics from no fewer than five positions: two on the wingtips, two mid-span under the wings, and one on the tip of the tail. This was the public debut of Bob’s new pyrotechnic display – a performance which deserves to be seen broadly in the next few years.
Another unique pyrotechnic act at this year’s Antidotum was Fundacja Biało-Czerwone Skrzydła, selecting one jet from their ever-growing fleet of TS-11 Iskras for a solo performance. This is probably the only fast jet performing a twilight pyrotechnic display on the airshow circuit globally at the moment, yet, surprisingly, it is an act that hadn’t yet made it to the Antidotum Airshow. The performance went down well with the crowd, and for added enthusiast interest, the team used their newest restoration: a TS-11 in a brand new, very attractive red and white paint scheme which had only flown for the first time a few weeks prior.
There was quite a large Scandinavian contribution to this year’s Antidotum Airshow, with Team Thunder flying a Thorp T-18 and Laser 230 in the night segment, and Scandinavian Airshows providing no fewer than two pyro displays and three separate aircraft: first up, their two Pitts Model 12s performing formation aerobatics, and secondly, one of the Pitts flying with the Grumman Ag Cat for the team’s famous Laser, Lights and Pyro display.
These Leszno debutants were intermixed with several Leszno regulars, including the C-130’s enormous flare dump, the Bushcat Demo Team, Maciej Dominiak’s Bo105 pyro show and the Flying Dragons team of paramotors. Sadly, the latter two were afflicted by technical failures; the Bo105 had been supposed to end its show by parading up and down the show line, carrying an underslung firework-launching device, but this did not appear to work (fortunately, its main demonstration was quite impressive enough), and the Flying Dragons also suffered a major setback when their new pyro firing system broke altogether. They gamely pressed ahead with their usual nine minute performance, accompanied only by lights and ground-launched pyro, but the show felt like it dragged on for rather too long without its signature fireworks.
Some of the airshow’s innovations were rather more successful, however. The Fire Moths, a team of four flexwing microlights, gained my admiration with their opening manoeuvre. For a moment, it looked like something had gone wrong; an asymmetrical mess of fireworks being deployed in all kinds of odd directions as the four microlights flew towards the spectators. But no! This was a very accurate aerial recreation of the airshow’s logo, made from fireworks, launched in midair. I was temporarily dumbstruck. Again, this is Leszno’s magic touch: the innovative nature of the show sees both organisers and pilots alike choosing this event above all others as the place to push the boundaries, apply extra effort, and try something new. Only here can flexwing microlights prove as memorable as the fast jets and warbirds.
A similarly impressive piece of innovation came from the Aerosparx Display Team, Arka Pyroshow and the orchestra of the Polish Air Force, who combined forces for an aerial, pyrotechnic and musical spectacular to close the show in a phenomenal fashion. Aerosparx’s two Grob 109bs entered a spiral descent, performing tight orbits around Arka’s ground-launched firework display, getting steadily lower until the final shots of fireworks were being fired through the middle of the spiral and exploding just above it.
Evidently, the crowd was as impressed as me. It was gone 11pm and the showground was still rammed – I’d wager 90 per cent had stayed until the bitter end, the sort of pulling power normally reserved for big jet teams like the Red Arrows or the Thunderbirds. I caught a glimmer of light in the corner of my eye, and turned around to see tens of thousands of twinkling lights as a vast sea of spectators lifted their phone torches aloft to show their appreciation to the pilots, who were breaking away into the landing pattern; it was an extraordinary sight. I tried to reference it in commentary, and was surprised to find that I was a bit choked up.
Now, don’t get me wrong: I love the RIATs, LIMAs, Air Legends and Shuttleworths of this world – and, indeed, many of the other shows that I frequent. But none of them have ever brought a tear to my eye or a lump to my throat, and nor are they ever likely to. That power belongs to Leszno alone.
Was it a faultness show? Absolutely not. Friday’s spectators will have gone home jarred by their rude early awakening from the Leszno dream world, courtesy of some truly dreadful weather, thrusting them back into reality before the Antidote has truly taken effect. Saturday’s two very obvious evening pyro failures will have grated with the organising team and confused the crowd. And there are still several other off-the-wall ideas that didn’t quite come together for this year’s show; the team will try again in 2025.
It is, however, these minor shortcomings that will energise the Antidotum team ahead of next year’s spectacle. The quest to stage the perfect airshow goes on; it is their guiding motivation. There is still work to do, but the Leszno team have already got closer than anyone else to achieving that.
I don’t know what the Leszno team will attempt in 2025, nor what other airshows I will go to. But I do know three things: the Antidotum will return, I will be there, and it will very likely prove the highlight of my year once again.
Join me. You won’t regret it.