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| When you browse the internet for 'Tigermeet 2009' you will find hundreds of reports on this exercise; most of them have very similar photos, taken from the same locations during the wellknown spottersday. As our PhotoCrew enjoyed – once again – a supberb coöperation with Kleine Brogel Airbase, we are happy to present you a different view on Europe's biggest military exercise with many photographs taken from a different angle! | |||
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| KB airbase was the host for this 48th edition, meaning we could expect a perfect organisation. Airforces from 13 different countries attended with a total of 80 aircraft and helicopters. Apart from the wellknown fast jet squadrons, the Tigermeet also brings quite a number of transport airplanes to the airbase. | |||
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| In the first week the weather was unfortunately very crappy, sun, no sun, rain, so you'll see quite some difference in light on the photos. Many of the pictures were taken from the operational side of the airbase, that's across the runway from the spotters places. | |||
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Our first chance to fly for pictures came when the two Czech Mil Mi-24 Hind's made their ferry to Sanicole airfield. Soetkin was onboard the T-6 photoship flown by Hanno Wesdorp and for sure this was an enjoyable ride!! Many thanks to Peter Sliva and his crew, it's a rare chance nowadays to capture two Hinds in the sky.
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| The Tigermeet offers of course a wide variety of photographic opportunities, as there is a lot of flying action; in the morning you have the 'small wave' and in the afternoon almost all aircraft get airborne for the 'big wave'. It means a continious traffic on the taxiways, and the entire armada passes your camera's ;) Fortunately our PhotoCrew is with 5, so we can always spread out to different locations! | |||
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| Thé location where everybody wants to be of course is in our Skyvan photoship! The hostsquadron, the 31st SQ, gave us an exclusive opportunity to capture the Belgian Tiger F-16's in the sky, as they flew several passes with a 4-ship under us. And the big star of the show – and certainly the most beautifull Tiger – nicknamed “Blackbird” came to say hello for a fantastic photoshoot. Many thanks to Cdr. “Vrieske” and his crew for this memorable moments! | |||
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| Nice thrill when you can position yourself very close to the runway ;) unfortunately at that time, during a morning wave, there was still some fog...and the sun didn't play ball either. But we had all reasons to smile, as we knew something else was waiting for us later on!! | |||
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And here comes....”Omelet” slowing down from 400 kts! Oh yes it was a very good day for vortexes and he really lived up to expectations as he promised us a surprise; we knew of course the Dutch F-16 would pose behind the Skyvan for a photoshoot, but we only saw that it was their special decorated tigertail until he was hanging in front of our nose, our very happy nose. Gaaf man!
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More fantastic moments came our way when we had another chance for an airborne photoshoot with our Hungarian friends flying their Gripen for us. You can see more pictures of our photoflights in the Sanicole report, as the airshow was organised this year in a very close coöperation with the Tiger community. The best Tigerscheme on an aircraft was won by the German Tornado, and the French team of Cambrai took the famous Silver Tiger Trophy home. The 2010 Tigermeet edition will be hosted by 313 Sqn of Volkel, it's the first time the Dutch will host the event. Many many thanks goes to all the KB personnell for all their help; special thanks to Cdr. Luc Vanderfeesten and Major Jeroen Poesen for making all these incredible moments, both on the ground and in the air, a reality for our PhotoCrew. More pictures of the NATO Tigermeet can be found in the Sanicole airshow 2009 photobook. |
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