In March a went on a trip to Chile, a trip organized by 4Aviation, where the main focus was on the FIDAE. Besides the FIDAE we also visited a couple the Air Bases of the Chilean Air Force.

A total of 3 bases where visited. In addition, a number of museums and preserved airplanes where visited. The report of these museums and preserved airplanes can be found with this link

After a flight of more than 14 hours from Charles de Gaule to Santiago International, we went to Base Aérea Pudahuel, which is also a part of Santiago International.

On this Air Bases there are the following units;

The next day we had a visit at Base Aérea El Bosque. Each year on this day, there is a fly-pass over Base Aérea El Bosque, to celebrate the birthday of the Fuerza Aérea de Chile.

In the beginning it was not allowed to go to the flight-line and take pictures of the T-35 Pillans, but after some insistence we got the premission.

On this Air Bases there are the following units;

This is a small airport right beside a highway. Here Escuela de Aviación operates military gliders and Bird Dogs to tow them in the air. Unfortunately there was no flying that day.

ENAER is a aircraft manufacturer and developer of the T-35 Pillan. In Addition, they also do maintain on various aircraft, both military and civilian.
We had a pleasant and interesting tour by Rafael Veas, from ENAER. During the tour we saw many T-35 that where being build or being mainteined. There where also two Hercules from Argentinian and Uruguayan, The most interesting aircraft was the B707 Condor. Unfortunately we where not allowed to photograph the two Hercules and the Condor.

After the visited at ENAER we went to Rancagua, witch is a large Army base. We had not received permission for a visit, but it was allowed to take photos of the gate-guards.
There is also a small civiele part on the base and we where allowed to take pictures form this place of the choppers that where flying. The italian company AleniaAermacchie was demonstrating there C-27J Spartan.

On this Air Bases there are the following units;

No visited was granted, but we where allowed to photograph the gate-guards. On the other side of the runway was the flying club of the Navy. From here it was allowed to take pictures, unfortunately with the sun in wrong place. At flying club was a O-2A for maintenance.

On this Air Bases there are the following units;

On this Saturday we went first to Pudahuel. This time not on the base but outside. In the couple hours that we where there, some practice flights were made by the participants of the FIDAE. Later the day we visted the museum at Los Cerillos.
The F-16's and the C-27J made really good demo flights.

In the morning we went wrecks hunting, but in de afternoon we went back to Pudahuel, to catch some of possible arrivals for the FIDAE.

A nice surprise was the stunt team of the Brazilian Air Force, that made a practice demo on arrival. The end of the day had a nice bonus, with the arrival of two F-16 from Texas.

These 3 days we where at the FIDAE. The Monday was a day before the official opening, so the opportunities were in our favor.

This FIDAE brough a large number of Brazilian military aircraft. The best visitor of the first day was a EMB-120 of Uruguayan Air Force