It’s taken me ages to get round to publishing these! But I hope the wait was worth it?
For once I managed to book an actual ‘family’ holiday to coincide with a full on exercise on Gran Canaria at Gando AB. Landing on an Easyjet A320 looking out of the starboard window to see a whole host of Lakenheath F-15’s lined up, burners lit and roaring away. The wife wasn’t impressed but what the hell! I was!
I managed to sneak away from our resort for two mornings outside the base, despite looking and searching, it appears the mythical spotters day on base was an ‘in-the-know’ event so there was no chance of getting in to it, such a shame!
Gando is fairly easy to access, though the light at the start of the day is against you if you are looking over the airfield from one of the many vantage points. Google Maps is your friend! Though you do get strange looks from some of the locals when you walk around lugging camera gear!
Luckily the aircraft were landing on 03R which meant that a trek to the far side and the unmade roads (top tip – don’t drive on them, walk as your rental company will be rubbing their hands with glee). You can’t see aircraft touchdown as there’s a large rock in the way but approach shots are easily obtained.
The wind direction stayed the same both days but I managed to scout both ends and the land side of the base, obviously there is no access from the west (ocean) side. As the sun moves there are good opportunities to move around, the BP garage by the side of the motorway/autoroute is high enough to view over the ramp.
It seemed that the majority of Europe’s AVGeek fraternity were there! Of course people had ladders! They weren’t of any use though.
Highlight for me were to see the massive beasts that are the Indian AF’s Su-30’s. The light was patchy on day one but much better on the second, though the heat haze wasn’t great. As exercises go it was probably one of the best I’ve attended. with so much variety. It was also my last chance to see Spain’s legacy F/A-18’s as they are due to retire any time soon. One last chance to catch them in their natural habitat!
We’re back there again later this year but there isn’t an exercise on. Damn!
