Spottersday 20 May 2015 exercise THPU - Beauvechain

[geert]

According to a picture one Eurodemobed the dumped A109 should be the H06.

Geert.

[frank kramer]

Geert, this turns out to be an annoying airframe...

I've seen the picture on Eurodemobbed, and I do not doubt Phil that H06 is at Beauvechain. However, I cannot say for sure that this picture was taken in the same position as the one we saw wednesday. On the northeast side of the base, (on the opposite side of the runways), the accident investigation branch of the airforce has a fenced-off compound (EDIT: at 50.753573, 4.777921 on google maps) where they keep all sorts of stuff from past accidents. In Phils picture, you can see the fence (there was no fence around the compound that we were looking at all afternoon). That compound is near a container storage area (which can also be seen in the background). The containers on "our" side were orange, these are in desert c/s. Also, the airframe on "our" side appeared tho have its tail still attached, this one doesn't. Therefore, I am not sure if this is the same location and thus the same airframe. I have already asked Phil and BAF historian Daniel Brackx about it.

The other thing is, when we were near the runway one intrepid German spotter went over to the compound accompanied by a member of the staff, and took pictures of the wrecks there. He showed them to Patrick Dirksen, Frank Mink and Michiel van Herten. They could deny/confirm if this was actually H03, but that's what the German guy told me (after initially giving me the runaround with a fake serial).

[frank kramer]

The F-16 fuselage MIGHT be FA08, which is in use for rescue exercises within Belgium. According to pics on internet, it was used as such in 2011 at Koksijde, for instance, and it looks quite like the one we saw at EBBE. Still, that's no proof... yet!

EDIT: (FA08) was indeed seen in that place during a base visit in March, as can be seen in the 'regular' topic on Beauvechain.

[patrick dirksen]

Indeed the A.109 on the fire dump is H03.

Inside the hangar next to the Sea King were indeed H26 and H41 in the left part, and H30, H25, h46 and H31 in the right one.

All in all not a bad day, but although I really do appreciate all the efforts by the Belgian AF it definately could have been better. But the fact that they do organise a spotters day during such an exercise at all: thanks very much!!

[geert]

Where was the burned F-16? Was it in between the Metro and A109?

[57HEAVY]

All in all not a bad day, but although I really do appreciate all the efforts by the Belgian AF it definately could have been better. But the fact that they do organise a spotters day during such an exercise at all: thanks very much!!

totally agree with that!

[frank kramer]

@ Patrick: I agree! I was impressed by the way we were "let loose" in the static area, even with ops going on. That the static was divided in several parts is not the fault of the organisation, but a matter of the lay-out of the base; that this caused logistical problems was a pity, but nothing more. So, I missed out on the A109 platform; too bad, I got the rest ! And, true, I had hoped for more with the COMAO flying, but this was nicely balanced by the fact that I had not expected much from the NH90 role demo but ended with some VERY nice shots of that Thanks to all at 1Wing for a nice day. They even managed to hold off the bad weather in the afternoon

@ Geert: (FA-08) indeed was in between these 2, but further at the back. I doubt if it could be seen from the location where we stood in the afternoon, but it could be seen clearly from the bus. The fire damage wasn't as bad as "burned" suggests though, just to the back of the frame. Most other "dark" areas were shadows caused by the absence of the upper fuselage skin panels. It still looks exactly like the pictures from Koksijde.

[patrick dirksen]

FA08 was also the aircraft that did spend some time at Helchteren range by the way.

Does somebody know the units of the French choppers? I know at least some of them came from Pau, but never got to asking the crews unfortunately.... And same question for Huey 73+60. The other one, 73+43 had THR 30 markings by the way.

[patrick dirksen]

Hi Frank,

the accident investigation branch of the airforce has a fenced-off compound (EDIT: at 50.755438, 4.774038 on google maps)

Those coördinates put me in a field between the runway and the museum, can you confirm the compound is there nowadays?

[frank kramer]

Hi Patrick, it was still there in january 2015 when Phil Adkin took the picture of H06 there.. I have this thing with coordinates and google maps.. I'll show it to you on any computer next time we meet..!

[Ewald]

Found a piece of a camera in a Shuttlebus.
Picture in the Tattle Lounge:

http://forum.scramble.nl/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=115232

[frank kramer]

Confirmed by the photographer: the other A109 wreck (H06) is indeed located in the compound of the accident investigation bureau at tbe other end of the base.

[IPolson]

Can anyone please tell me which of the SF.260's are in the new grey scheme?

Cheers

[Wim]

ST44 and ST48