RNLAF CH-47D Chinook "Grizzly 33" White Out Operations

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In the week of February 08 2021, there were very 'wintery' weather situations in the Netherlands. Temperatures going down to -10 or even -15 Centigrade at night with some 10-20 cm of snow. The last time these kind of winter weather was seen in the Netherlands, was about a decade ago. Due to the Corona/Covid travel-limitations plus the arctic conditions, the Royal Netherlands Air Force Defense Helicopter Command (Koninklijke Luchtmacht Defensie Helikopter Commando) decided to make use of this weather and performed some arctic training in the Netherlands instead of going on an artic deployment to Norway.

During the warm summer months, the helicopter crews train the 'brown-out' landings in the sand; where the blown-up sand will hamper vision of the pilots. Now there was the option to exercise the 'white-out' landing and take-off conditions where the vision was hampered by snow flying around. In the military Low-Flying Area 5 named "GLV5" near Eindhoven Airbase (ICAO: EHEH), there were several AS532 Cougar and CH-47D Chinook helicopters exercising in the snow. This video shows the Chinook in action during these winterly conditions.


Click here to the Chinook landing in the snow