EART + Frisian Flag tanker ride - Airheadsfly.com

[AIRheadsFLY]

45 Years of fearsome Flying Tank

The year 2014 is littered with celebrations of first flights of what have become legendary aircraft. Airheadsfly.com started with 40 years of the F-16, moved on to 40 years of the Tornado, reported on 60 years of the C-130 Hercules and now 45 Years of Mi-24 combat helicopter, nicknamed the Flying Tank but most commonly known by its NATO-reporting name: Hind. Our rarities departement dug up a Cuban Hind D for the occasion.

Read our full feature here, or click on the pic below.

[AIRheadsFLY]

Belgium's Best

‘Power is not a problem’. The words, spoken in a briefing room at Beauvechain airbase, are met with a grin by the crew of a Belgian Air Component NH90 Tactical Transport Helicopter (TTH). In an hour or so, they’ll be practicing confined area landings. In a hover between 100ft tall trees, it’s comforting to know that the NH90 is Belgium’s most powerful helo so far. But while the sun shines gloriously on a perfect November day, there’s also some worries.

Read the complete story and watch a bit of video - interviews included - on top? Click here, or on the pic below.

[AIRheadsFLY]

Old aircraft, new museum in Soesterberg

Old aircraft, new museum. That about sums it up for the soon to be opened Nationaal Militair Museum (no, we’re not gonna translate that into English) in the Netherlands – although not quite. This 35,000 square meter museum offers more than aircraft from old to not-so old; it offers a complete retrospective of the Dutch military over the years – but again, not quite.

Read the complete story here, or click on the pic below.



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The End of Tweeting

They are called ‘Tweety’, and they were called upon for search and rescue missions for over twenty years. But Tweeting is now over for the Dutch AB412 SAR helicopters.

Find our story here, or click on the picture below.



Our homepage is at http://www.airheadsfly.com and we also have a twitterfeed. More into Instagram? Find it here.

[AIRheadsFLY]

AirheadsFLY: Inside NATO’s Sentry Nest

It's springtime, and judging by the busy flightline at Geilenkirchen airbase in Germany, the E-3A Sentry aircraft of NATO's E-3A Component, it's nesting time. But looks are deceiving, as these birds leave the nest every day. They keep an eye out over Ukraine, take part in exercises such as the latest Red Flag in the US, or practice air-to-air refuelling in European skies. The multinational crews see their numbers reduced nevertheless. And while the Sentries are modified, their numbers also become smaller. By mid 2015, the first aircraft (tail number LX-N90449) retires into storage. However, the sign of the times is that the Sentry is needed more than ever.

The complete story - video and pics included - is at Airheadsfly.com.

[garyscott]

Loving your reports, keep' em coming!

[AIRheadsFLY]

Thanks, we certainly appreciate it! Stay tuned for a story on our recent KC-135 flight, that will be up around Easter. It even involves the Easter bunny - and it barely survived.

[AIRheadsFLY]

Ridin' the Stratotanker

“First flight Boeing KC-46 delayed until summer,” aviation news headlines read recently. Over Germany, it’s of no concern to the three crew members of a 55 year old Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker, belonging to the 174th Air Refuelling Squadron of the Iowa Air National Guard. Why? Because theirs is such a nice aircraft to fly, thanks especially to the four CFM-56 turbofan engines that sort of define the ‘R’ version of the KC-135. “These engines make it climb like a rocket,” says pilot Major Joe Bousqet. “On the other hand, it’s a stable aircraft, which is perfect for our task: refuelling other aircraft.” We’ll have to wait until Summer to know if the KC-46 is capable of doing the same.

The full story - with pics and vids - is right here. And, since it's almost Easter, spot the hidden Easter bunny in our video below.

[AIRheadsFLY]

Eagles soar over Leeuwarden

Fighting Falcons are a familiar sight in the skies over the Dutch airbase of Leeuwarden. But these days, Eagles join them. They are US Air National Guard F-15 Eagle air superiority aircraft and they deployed from the US to Leeuwarden last week as part of US operation Atlantic Resolve. Soon, they’ll soar over more of Europe. Good news for F-15 Eagle fans. Lt. Col. Paul Reedy, commander of the Florida Air National Guard’s 159th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, is one of them.

The complete interview with Reedy - including a video and lotsa pics - can be read and seen here at Airheadsfly.com.

[TS010]

Interesting to see a few Oregon ANG jets. Is this a mixed unit det?

[AIRheadsFLY]

See our article and interview - it is the Florida Air National Guard’s 159th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, with support from Air National Guard units in California, Massachusetts and Oregon & the latter also providing six aircraft.

[AIRheadsFLY]

Flying the Frisian Flag

Large scale military flying exercise Frisian Flag 2015 is currently in full swing at Leeuwarden airbase in the Netherlands, and Airheadsfly.com went access all areas on Tuesday. Close to 60 fighter aircraft from six different nations take part in Frisian Flag, which coincides with the European Air-to-Air Refuelling Training 2015 (EART 2015) at Eindhoven airbase, also in Netherlands.

Airheadsfly.com paid a visit on Tuesday. Read, watch, see and hear everything right here.

[AIRheadsFLY]

Closing the tanker gap with EART

No air power without air-to-air-refueling. But also, no air-to-air refueling without certifications, clearances, bilateral agreements between countries and heaps of paperwork. The infamous European ‘tanker gap’ perhaps is not a matter of aircraft after all, but a matter of overcoming bureaucracy and inefficiency, it appears during the current European Air-to-Air Refueling Training (EART) at Eindhoven airbase in the Netherlands. If anything, participating tanker crews are determinded to work together as closely as possible, as Airheadsfly.com found out on Monday 20 April.

All is here at Airheadsfly.com, including a vid and loads of pics.

Thanks for visiting!