Latest reports in 2015

Axalp Fliegerschiessen 2015

Axalp Fliegerschiessen 2015

Seven years after Touchdown Aviation's first visit to Axalp Fliegerschiessen, it was time to go back to the annual live fire demonstration of the Swiss Air Force. The event heavily depends on weather circumstances; two years ago the author had climbed to the top only to hear the event was cancelled…
Flying with the 100th ARW Refueling Aviano F-16s

Flying with the 100th ARW Refueling Aviano F-16s

It's 5am on a dreary Monday morning more likening to a day in November rather than early July. I was asked to meet at the main gate at RAF Mildenhall home of the 100th Air Refuelling Wing which fly the Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker, on arriving at to the operations building of the 100th ARW, 351st ARS…
EART 2015

EART 2015

The 2015 edition of the European Air-to-Air Refuelling Training took place at Eindhoven Airbase for two weeks in April and supported Frisian Flag. The emphasis was again to work from a DOB in a multinational environment. It even was more prominent in this year’s training since additionally to last…
Air National Guard at Geilenkirchen

Air National Guard at Geilenkirchen

In order to add some inflight footage to our E-3A AWACS Operations article, we joined a flight on board Iowa Air National Guard (ANG) KC-135 Stratotanker, out of Geilenkirchen Air Base in the end of March this year. This was possible as the ANG units provide air refueling assets to the NATO E-3A…
NATO E-3A AWACS Operations

NATO E-3A AWACS Operations

Over 3 years of NATO E-3A operations in Afghanistan, in light of ISAF, came to an end when the last E-3A AWACS landed at NATO Air Base Geilenkirchen, Germany on September 25, 2014. It was one of many events for the E-3A Component last year. We visited Geilenkirchen to review 2014 and to look forward…