With the turn to a biennial event it was this time once again the turn to visit the famous 'Spotters Day' at Lagerlechfeld Airbase as well as to hunt some low flying aircraft at the Heuberg training area.
Where? Southern Germany
When? 06-07/2010
In contrast to previous year's the Luftwaffe did organize a Spotter's Day also at the Heuberg range. To respect the security rules at the site unfortunately only a very limited area has been accessible, but that is no wonder with flares falling down in certain places and electromagnetic radion in other areas. This goes in hand with a lot of luck and the kind of missions that are flown this day if the jets and helicopters come in low and do some actions that will also please the photographer. Sometimes you thus can lucky, and on other days you might just hang around with nothing really going on...
During my visit I had the chance to see some CH-53G(S) getting in low and releasing a lot of flares, and did get furthermore to see a nice show of two Swiss Cougar helicopters.
The jets were most of the time quite high, though a Turkish F-4E "Terminator 2020" did some nice flying above our heads. Germany ECR Tornados were once again the stars of the day, though they only did release some chaff and did not show any flares, which was also the case for the German C-160s. From time to time a Polish CASA295 did pop out some countermeasures, but usually far in the distance.
The event at Lechfeld attracted around 500 enthusiasts, who were rewarded by respecting the early appointment at 0700am with georgeous weather conditions during nearly the whole day.
With many participating nations (e.g. Norway, Poland, Spain, Great Britain, just to name a few) and numerous aircraft around it was nearly a constant taking off and landing of different jets. Furthermore the choice of three different spots kept the photographers likewise busy and happy :)
A "Thank you" has to go out of course to Luftwaffe personnel for the organization and granting the not self-evident access to all these places!
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- Category: Air Forces
- Published: 07 July 2010
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