From April 9th to April 20th Eindhoven Airbase is host to the 5th edition of the European Air-to-Air Refueling Training (EART). The idea to centralize a combined exercise with Frisian Flag was born in 2013 when Air-to-Air refueling assets flew from their home base. In 2015 we visited the second…

RAF Mildenhall is home to the 100th Air Refuelling Wing which fly the the Boeing KC-135R & under the command of the 351st Air Refuelling Squadron. On arrival at the operations building of the wing you are greeted with a large sign displaying the initials NKAWTG which means ‘Nobody Kicks Ass Without…

April 13th gave a rare opportunity to take a ride in the time machine and wander around Volkel airbase, The Netherlands, like it used to be in the '80's and early'90's. At the former 306 Sqn ramp (Safari-park), which has not been used for many years now, 19x F-16 were placed in line for about 200…

The Belgian Air Component (BAC) has a strong history in organising excellent events for aviation photographers. Tuesday April 5th 2016 the BAC combined a recruitment day for the Belgian Forces with a sunset and night photography shoot for a select group of photographers at 1 Wing, Beauvechain…

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…

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…

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…

Frisian Flag 2013 was held from April 15th - 26th at Leeuwarden Air Base and the nearby Dutch, German and Danish airspace over the North Sea. This year’s focus was on international cooperation and integration. Touchdown Aviation got the opportunity to see this multi national cooperation at…

After the successful first exercise last year, RNLAF exercise Dutch Blaze was held again from June 20th – July 1st 2011. Although the name remained the same, the exercise had reduced in size and participants and had a different character than last years exercise. A couple of things remained the same…