Dear friends and followers!
The autumn season is already here and, fortunately, bringing us some really great and warm ´golden autumn´ days. There is no need to say such days offers us the great opportunity to visit the nearby airfield and use this warm light of the season to take some awesome pictures. Our latest ´Photo of the Week´ – featuring the modernized L-159T2 ´ALCA´ – works as the best example, but you may find another one as the cover photo of this editorial.
End of October is also the usual time the open-air aviation museums close their doors for the winter season. Therefore, if you still would like to visit any of such exhibitions this year, the upcoming weekend offers probably the last opportunity to see them.
Fortunately, there are a few aviation museums opened all year round – two examples could be easily found in our ´Aviation History´ section, Luftfahrtmuseum Wernigerode and Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and Military History in Brussels. If you happen to be around, we really recommend visiting both of them, because of their awesome aviation collections. Just be aware, the halls with aircraft exhibition are not heated, so you need to be ´properly´ dressed.
And while talking about the museums, there would be a new addition to this section soon – a short report from the Flugwerft Schleißheim near Munich, we´ve visited in October. Those, who are following our ´Photo of the Week´ on regular basis surely noticed this already, as the first photo taken there was featured three weeks ago. Certainly, this was just a foretaste, and you´d be able to enjoy a full report and more photos soon.
Autumn means not only the golden colours, but also switching from summer to wintertime, which is, probably, one of the most hated events related to the season. On the other side, the long dark evenings allow us to sort through all the materials gathered during the air show season. Now is the right time to check all the photos taken during the year, all those souvenirs brought home from the aviation events and read all those books bought in the summer.
In many countries, November is a month to remember the ones that already passed away, with many traditional customs related to this time of the year. Among them, there is also an old, almost forgotten, tradition to leave the runway lights on, together with the radio being in listening mode, during the night of All Saints´ Eve (31st October) – for those who are not among us anymore and did not come back from their last flight. That´s a beautiful way to show we still remember them…
At the end, we would like to mention that Afterburner – The Aviation Magazine turned six months already and, yes, we´re still a new-born baby, but growing each month. After six months we´re now able to draw some conclusions on our activity and think about making the web page even more attractive. We´re also happy to see you find our photos, articles and news interesting, and we´re glad to see you show us your interest in our work.
´Third time´s a charm´ says the proverb, so, as the conclusion of our editorial for November, please find below another L-159 in the ´autumn mood´, all three photos were taken by Milan Toman, one of our regular contributors.
Jacek Domański, Editor-in-Chief
