Exercise Frisian Flag 2018 took place at the Koninklijke Luchtmacht (KLu) – Royal Netherlands Air Force base at Leeuwarden between the 9th and 20th April 2018. Situated in the northern province of Friesland the base provides easy access to the northern ranges at Vliehors as well as the training areas over the North Sea, vital for air combat manoeuvres and in flight refueling.
On the 22nd and 23rd August 2015 Radom Air Base in Poland hosted the biennial air show to showcase the country’s military aviation and aerospace industry.
This article is a personal perspective of time spent working aboard HMS Invincible back in 1999 by Mark Rourke, and thus is quite different from the many other articles on Pixelsnipers.com.
Founded in 1926, the Lufthansa group continues to develop into the last quarter of 2015, with some 540 subsidiaries forming the world’s largest aviation group. The group’s offerings include several airlines, maintenance repairs, , flight training, catering, and many more industry leading services.
Every September at Malta International Airport (Luqa), the International Air Show is held, and Pixelsnipers visited the island in 2015 to see how this show is building a strong reputation as a ‘must go’ for aviation enthusiasts around Europe.
The Malta Aviation Society have been the organisers for the show since it first appeared on the airshow calendar in 1993, when it was originally held over
Marsamxetto Harbour. It now has over 200 volunteers working together to make what is now one of the biggest outdoor events in Malta, as well as its most
photographed.
The Hellenic Air Force (HAF) have a dedicated training wing based at Kalamata Air Base (AB) that was established in 1970 and provides training to pilots undertaking flight and ground training. When the training facility was started in 1970, the aircraft of choice was the Lockheed T-33A, but within a year this was augmented with the T-37C which was used until the introduction of the T-6A Texan II in 2002. The T-33’s were replace by the T-2 Buckeye in 1976, and are still in use today.
The Hellenic Air Force (HAF) Elefsis air base , located 15 kilometres west of Athens, is home to the 112 Ptergia Mahkis (112 Combat Wing) under the Diikissi Aeroporikion Mataforn (Air Transport Command) and is the largest ( by manning levels) and most diverse airfield in the HAF.
Pixelsnipers recently had the opportunity to visit B flight of 22 Squadron SAR (Search & Rescue) at Wattisham Airfield in Suffolk, and spent an afternoon on base to find out more about them, their mission and the venerable Sea King platform they use on a daily basis.
Gando air base on the holiday island of Gran Canaria is the venue for the annual Dissimilar Air Combat Training undertaken by the Spanish Air Force ( Ejercito del Aire). Pixelsnipers travelled to Gando in February to witness the 2015 exercise and report on why the Spanish Air Force puts such importance on DACT and how the goals set out for the participating units are achieved.