Frisian Flag 2012

@ april the 19th I had the opportunity, to visit the Frisian Flag exercise held on Leeuwarden Airbase
in the norhern part of the Netherlands.

(text Dutch MOD)
A fleet of international fighter jets is currently filling the skies over parts of the northern Netherlands and the North Sea. Around 65 fighter aircraft, from F-16 Falcons to F-18 Hornets and Eurofighter Typhoons, have descended on Leeuwarden Air Base to participate in the international exercise “Frisian Flag”, which will last until 27 April.
The aim of the exercise is to train for realistic combat situations in broad international contexts, with an emphasis on cooperation and communication. Experience in Afghanistan and Libya has shown the importance of working together internationally.

Hornets and Falcons

The air base accommodates approximately 65 aircraft, about 50 of which are conducting two sorties per day. In addition to 12 Dutch F-16s, the Polish, Norwegian and Belgian air forces have also sent contingents of F-16s. Other types of fighters represented include Finnish F-18 Hornets, Swedish JAS-39 Gripens and British and German Eurofighter Typhoons. The Dutch KDC-10 is serving as a tanker aircraft during the exercise, while NATO and the UK have deployed AWACS airborne radar stations. Air combat and traffic control is provided by the Air Operations Control Station at Nieuw-Milligen, Netherlands, in collaboration with the German and Danish air combat and traffic control units.

here are some patches. I could buy for my patch collection from the FF exersice, nice ones!

the morning before the base visit, I took some landing pic's of the FF participating aircraft,

for outside the base,

                                                            church tower of the village Jelsum,

I wasn´t the only one...

some 'on base' pic's.

The weather was not as good as we wanted to during take-off.

but later on during the return of the aircraft it improved a lot!

                                                          

                                                 sometimes during the day we had nearly perfect light!

Thanks to the Leeuwarden spotting group AGL Full-stop and the Dutch airforce,

without them it was not possible to made such nice pic's !

Tigermeet 2010

At 7 october i was at the tigermeet 2010 spottersday on Volkel airbase.
Met some old friends, from my soesterberg spotting day's, and had a good time,
with lots of laughing and good old stories, those were the glory day's!

The spottersday was very well organized, exept for the weather...
In the morning it was foggy, but in the afternoonn is was a little bit better!

anyway some pic's.

Roel.

Base visit Mountain-Home AFB

For years, I wanted to have a base visit at Mountain-Home AFB,
But had never the opportunity, and never was in the neighbourhood of that base.

This year I was only 30 miles from the base because of the Hawgsmoke 2010 exercise,at Boise
Idaho.
so I try'd to get a base visit.
And it worked out!, never expected it, but I was welcome on thuesday morning october the 12th,
and was on the base about 3 hours.

Was on the 389th FS platform, but unfortunately they did not fly during my base visit,
but 6 of the singapore F-15SG's taxied by only 30 yeards from me!
That was a spectacular sight!
some pic's below....

Roel.

                                        

                                                                 That's me!

    

Hawgsmoke 2010

Every two years, the A-10 Thunderbolt II community gathers for a bombing, missile, and tactical gunnery competition. Known as Hawgsmoke, the competition tests the skills that A-10 pilots employ in the aircraft’s primary role of close air support.

What is Hawgsmoke?
Hawgsmoke is a biennial worldwide A-10 bombing, missile, and tactical gunnery competition. Hosted by the winners of the previous competition, Hawgsmoke is an intense competition and an opportunity to share in the camaraderie and fellowship of the world’s premier Close Air Support fighter, as well as legacy of its pilots and support crews.

Hawgsmoke traces its heritage of the now discontinued "Gunsmoke" event. Gunsmoke was the USAF's air-to-ground gunnery and bombing competition with multiple airframes held at Nellis AFB. The last Gunsmoke event was held in 1995.

Since I am a big fan of the A-10 "warthog", it was a 'must' for me to go to one of the hawgsmoke competitions.

The last time Hawgsmoke was held was in Kansas,

and the 190th FS won, the squadon is based at Gowen-Field in Boise Idaho.

And january 2010, I decided, to go,
booked my ticket in june, and waited for 4 long months, before finally, the month october came in sight!

I know a A-10 pilot, I met @ spangdahlem airbase, who is based at the 190th Fighter Squadron,
who was planning to get me on base, but an two star army general, had plans to ban all the foregn,
media and civilians from base during the exercise.....

The A-10 pilot, arranged me to get to the sailor-creek live firing range,(few miles southeast from Mountain-Home AFB) were all the action was!

Took a lot of pic's there, was really a great experience, to see and  (HEAR!) the GAU-8/AVENGER hydraulically-driven seven-barrel  shoot!, what a noise!.

We were about 150 yards from the line shooting- target, so pretty close.....
and the weather during my stay at Boise was really great! mostly clear skies,
and temperature about23C / 73 F.

Also managed to get some pic's were you can see some bullit's coming from the GAU-8 barrel!
http://www.airplane-pictures.net/image106906.html

some links were I posted some hawgsmoke pics,

http://forum.scramble.nl/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=67664

http://www.milspotters.nl/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=4610

http://fightercontrol.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=21455

some arrival pic's, not shown on the link above...click on the pic's for higher resolution!

please come back later, will put some pic's (live shooting and departure) on my blog later!

Nice video i'd made of the hawgsmoke exercise...

                                                        
                                     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqgAgP4o4O0    

day at the fence Wittmund, Germany 25/05/2010

This day I went with my buddy H de R., to the F-4 'phantom' base in germany.

There were rumours that the base should close down, next september.
But we spoke to a German spotter, and he tolt us, that there was only a building construction stop.

The authorities are planning to make the base Eurofighter ready.

Anyway on with the show!

nice splitterplate art,

lots of noise during take-off

last of the smokers

burning rubber

Target-tow A-4 Scooter

we saw 3 'scrambles' that day

nice visitor from 'flight test'

still is one of the best looking planes around.

this one is located near wittmund town,

oh and that's me....sorry for that!

photo by H. de R.