Toulouse Francazal: the uncertain weather does not threaten the big air meeting this weekend
Postponed two years in a row because of the Covid, the fourth edition of the “stars and wings” air meeting will take place on Saturday September 24 and Sunday September 25 at Toulouse Francazal airport. If the weather promises to be very disturbed, the meeting is not called into question.
Catherine Gay, the tireless president of the “Stars and Wings” association, crosses her fingers. And regularly scans the weather reports. The three previous editions of the famous Toulouse Francazal air meeting took place under a generous sun, in 2014, 2016 and 2018. The meeting is used to being organized every two years, “so as not to tire the public”. After 2020 and 2021, postponed because of the Covid, the 2022 edition, four years after the previous one, risks being disrupted.
The weather for the coming weekend is uncertain and unstable to say the least. According to Météo France, stormy showers are expected on Saturday, by 21°, rare showers would be possible on Sunday. Another site predicts 4 mm of light rain on Saturday, and confirms the improvement on Sunday: the sky should be overcast, cloudy and then crossed by beautiful clearings. Another site is predicting showers on Saturday, but mostly in the morning and into the night, when the meeting is scheduled for 11:15 a.m. to 6 p.m.
On social networks or on the association’s website, potential spectators are worried and wondering. Catherine Gay wants to be reassuring: “There is no question of canceling the meeting for the moment. We would only take a decision at the last moment, on D-Day, if the weather was really very unfavorable and too dangerous. During the recent meeting in Melun, the Patrouille de France waited and performed during a lull after a hailstorm and showers, in front of 23,000 people”.
Interchangeable tickets
For the first time, the meeting is scheduled over two days, with identical programming: Patrouille de France, Green March of Morocco, Rafale, Airbus A 400 M, ATR 72-600, new Airbus A 321 XLR, Bréguet Atlantique 2, Falcon , Bronco, parachutists, helicopters, aerobatic world champions… Enough to limit the risks. “People who have already booked online, or are about to do so, could change their ticket, from Saturday to Sunday, or from Sunday to Saturday, it is quite possible” indicates Catherine Gay.
Most of the planned planes will arrive on Friday. The famous Patrouille de France will arrive in Toulouse on Thursday. At the end of the morning, it will exceptionally fly over the Toulouse Space Center of the CNES (CST), in an emblematic space formation, in honor of the new Space Command, based in Toulouse. She will make a training and reconnaissance flight in the sky of Francazal on Friday afternoon. There is no doubt that onlookers will be at the end of the track, to get a taste of the two days of the meeting.