Conditions akin to those usually found in the UK, dark clouds, orange skies and rain full of sahara dust meant a difficult day of photography at the Greek base. In fact the other nations present looked at the Brits and pointed out how “British’ the weather was. Oh well, we couldn’t disagree.
A range of participants came from across varied air forces. The USAFE were represented by F-15E’s from the 48th Fighter Wing – 492d ‘Bolars’ based at RAF Lakenheath (How nice to finally get up close to these guys). Italy’s Aeronautica Militaire sent Tornado’s from 6 Stormo and the French Navy operated Rafale’s and Hawkeye E-2C’s at a distance from the carrier ‘Charles De Gaulle’.
The highlight though, for me, was the participation of the Israeli Air Force F-16I Sufa’s and the Gulfstream G550 Nachshon Eitam. We rarely get to see these in Europe and to get as close as we did was quite remarkable.
Slovenia made their Iniochos debut with a pair of PC-9M’s and Cyprus sent an AW139 from 460 Search and Rescue Squadron.
Naturally, the Hellenic Air Force provided a variety of types including F-16, Rafale, Mirage 2000 and, of course, F-4 Phantoms. Ah those Phantoms!! We missed out on seeing a T-2A Buckeye that had flown through on the Monday.
Sadly the weather affected the sorties on the day we were present (Thursday), however that didn’t dampen spirits as every type managed to fly out, it did make it interesting for photography though!
All in, a good day, in very good company. Hopefully the weather will be better on my next visit to Greece! (UPDATE – it was!)