Frisian Flag  Leeuwarden AB,  6 October 2005

Yesterday we visited Wittmund AB, so we decided to spent the night at Leeuwarden AB. After a very good night rest we woke up around seven o'clock in the morning. The weather forecast for the day was good so we planned to take pictures from the out taxing aircraft and flightlines in the morning and the take offs and in taxing aircraft in the afternoon. The first look out of our window made us realize we made a big mistake in our planning. We should have visited Wittmund AB on the 6th and Leeuwarden on the 5th, because the weather was very bad. Only 100 meters of visibility and overcast at less than 200 feet.

Around ten o'clock the weather was still not improving so they decided to cancel the first wave. For so far our planning of taking pictures of two waves of aircraft. After our lunch, weather slightly got better, so finally around two o'clock around 30 aircraft departed for their last Frisian Flag mission. Unfortunately the Swedish Gripens didn't fly because they thought the weather was still not good enough. As you can see on the pictures below, it was still a bit hazy during take off.

Since Remco has some friends with air traffic control we were able to take some pictures of the taxing aircraft from the control tower. Unfortunately only the Jaguars and some Dutch F-16's came along the tower because the Gripens didn't fly. And the Hornets were parked at the beginning of the flightline. The weather however was getting better and better, so we were able to take some awesome shots from this position. Thanks guys!!

After the Jaguars and most of the F-16's were past the tower we walked towards the flightline to take some pictures of the Finnish Hornets. From here we walked along the line and took some pictures of the Jaguars and the Gripens which were still in covers unfortunately. 

The highlights of this years Frisian Flag exercise were the Finnish Hornets and the Swedish Gripens. But in some way, even the Jaguars were an highlight, because this may well be their last appearance at an exercise in the Netherlands.                                                       (Click here for a full log of the day)